Armin Petras

Armin Petras (* 1964 in Meschede , Sauerland ) is a German director , theater director and author who writes plays and adaptations under his name as well as under the pseudonym Fritz Kater .

Life

Armin Petras moved with his parents to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in November 1968 after his father, the West German warfare agent researcher Dr. Ehrenfried Petras (1930–1980), as an armaments spy in the GDR, threatened to be exposed. Armin Petras then grew up in East Berlin, where he studied directing from 1985 to 1987 at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin . In April 1988 Petras moved from the GDR to West Berlin.

He started his theater career as an assistant director at the Frankfurt TAT and the Münchner Kammerspiele . He became a director in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1992 , moved to Chemnitz in 1994 , where he worked with Rio Reiser , among others , and was a permanent director at Schauspiel Leipzig from 1996 . In 1999 Christoph Nix , with whom Petras had already worked at the Nordhausen Theater , brought him to the Kassel State Theater as acting director . In 2002, Petras went to the Schauspiel Frankfurt as permanent in-house director and curator of Schmidtstrasse12 , but always staged at other theaters (including the Volksbühne Berlin , the Nationaltheater Mannheim , the Schauspiel Hannover and the Bavarian State Theater in Munich). The premieres of his own pieces were of central importance. a. at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and the Schauspiel Leipzig.

In 2003 and 2004 Armin Petras (Fritz Kater) was named "Author of the Year" by the trade journal Theater heute for his plays zeit zu liebe zeit zu die and we are camera / Jasonmaterial . The premieres of both pieces under his direction were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen , as was Petras' production of Gertrud based on Einar Schleef .

From 2006 to 2013 Armin Petras was the artistic director of the Berlin Maxim Gorki Theater . In 2007 he opened the free “Joseph Beuys Stage” in Moscow with a guest performance by his ensemble, showing Juri Klawdiev's “Let's go, the car is waiting”. Petras adapted at the Gorki Theater a. a. Fatih Akıns feature film Against the Wall as a play and in cooperation with the Leipzig Theater Clemens Meyer's successful novel As Wir Träumten and the science fiction novel I will be here in the sunshine and in the shadow by Christian Kracht . Armin Petras made the Maxim Gorki Theater a place of contentious political debate. In the seven years of its directorship, the theater brought out over 200 new productions. From 2013 to 2018 Armin Petras was acting director of the State Theater Stuttgart ; In 2014 he became a member of the German Academy of Performing Arts . Despite an already negotiated extension of his contract until 2021, Petras decided in November 2016 to end his directorship at the Schauspiel Stuttgart in 2018 - “for personal and family reasons”. He has been in-house author and in-house director at Theater Bremen since 2018 .

Petras lives in Berlin.

Works

Plays under the author's name Armin Petras (selection)

• Alkestis, mon amour (after Euripides ). First performance on September 18, 2004, Schauspiel Leipzig
• The Promise (based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt), stage version by Armin Petras, world premiere on September 17, 2005, Thalia Theater, Hamburg
• The Prince of Homburg (based on Heinrich von Kleist), stage version by Armin Petras, world premiere on January 28, 2007, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
• Der Schimmelreiter (based on Theodor Storm ), premiere on October 13, 2007, Maxim Gorki Theater , Berlin
• Anna Karenina (based on Lew Tolstoy ), first performance: Ruhrfestspiele / Maxim Gorki Theater, May 2008
• Herakles trilogy (after Euripides and Sophocles ): Herakles Tod , Alkestis, mon amour , Herakles children . World premiere on April 15, 2010 Theater Basel
• The Tin Drum (based on Günter Grass ), world premiere on September 8, 2010, Ruhrtriennale Bochum
• The Well-Minded (based on Jonathan Littell ), world premiere on September 24, 2011, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
• when we screamed or the gladow gang gangsters live truthfully told by mr diamanten sohni papke, world premiere on March 15, 2013, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin

Plays under the author's name Fritz Kater (selection)

• Ejaculate made of barbed wire II, world premiere at the Kleist-Theater Frankfurt / Oder, rehearsal stage, co-production Kleist-Theater / Medea Company, Berlin, October 31, 1993
• War, evil III (Sarajevo), world premiere at the Kleist Theater Frankfurt / Oder, rehearsal stage, October 28, 1994
• Just because some typography covered you with sperm and then rejected you or Meine kleine Wolokolamsker Chaussee, first performance on December 7th, 1996, Theater Nordhausen
• Nobody remembers 2 or Martin Kippenberger is not dead, first performance on January 16, 1998, Theater Nordhausen
• Fight City. Vineta, world premiere at the Freie Kammerspiele Magdeburg / Schauspiel Leipzig, May 18, 2001, invited to the 27th Mühlheimer Theatertage 2002 and the Heidelberg Stückemarkt 2002
• time to love time to die, world premiere on September 19, 2002, Thalia Theater , Hamburg. Invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2003
• Stars over Mansfeld, world premiere on February 15, 2003, Schauspiel Leipzig
• We are camera / jasonmaterial, world premiere on December 6, 2003, Thalia Theater, Hamburg. Invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2004
• 3 out of 5 million, (based on Leonhard Frank ), world premiere on January 15, 2005, Deutsches Theater Berlin ,
• Abalon. One nite in Bangkok, world premiere on January 8, 2006, Schauspiel Frankfurt
• Tanzen !, world premiere on September 22, 2006, steirischer herbst, Graz
• Heaven (to tristan), world premiere on September 12, 2007, Schauspiel Frankfurt.
• We are blood world premiere on May 5, 2010, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin.
• Book [5 ingredientes de la vida] . World premiere on April 10, 2015, Münchner Kammerspiele
• I'm searching for I: N: R: I (a war fugue) . World premiere on March 11, 2016, drama, Staatstheater Stuttgart .
• Love you, Dragonfly. Six attempts at the language of faith. World premiere on October 7, 2016, Theater Bonn
• heiner 1 - 4 (angel flying, eavesdropping) . World premiere on January 26, 2019, Berliner Ensemble

Productions, theater (selection)

• Die Gange , (world premiere) based on the story of the same name by Einar Schleef , Schauspiel Leipzig 2001
• Cigarettes , (world premiere) based on the story of the same name by Einar Schleef, arranged for the stage by Armin Petras, Nationaltheater Mannheim 2003
• 3 out of 5 million by Fritz Kater, world premiere on January 15, 2005, Deutsches Theater, Berlin
• In his early childhood a garden by Christoph Hein , set up for the stage by Jens Gross, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, 2007
• Gertrud based on the novel of the same name by Einar Schleef, arranged for the stage by Jens Groß, schauspielfrankfurt 2007, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2008
• Two poor Polish-speaking Romanians by Dorota Masłowska, premiere: June 6, 2008, Wiener Festwochen
• Fairground by Werner Bräunig , arranged for the stage by Armin Petras, world premiere on January 2, 2009 at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
• The visit of the old lady by Friedrich Dürrenmatt in an arrangement by Armin Petras, coproduction between the Staatsschauspiel Dresden and the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, premiere on December 12, 2009 in Dresden
• A moon for the laden by Eugene O'Neill , premiere on June 2, 2010 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum
• we are blood by Fritz Kater, world premiere on May 5, 2010, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
• Fruits of Zorns by John Steinbeck , world premiere on December 18, 2010, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
• Drug Faust based on Einar Schleef's Drug Faust Parsifal and Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Faust , premiere on March 31, 2011, coproduction by Centraltheater Leipzig and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
• Bahnwärter Thiel (based on a novella by Gerhart Hauptmann ), premiere on November 17, 2012, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
• The cold heart, Wilhelm Hauff , premiere: February 22, 2014, Schauspiel Stuttgart
• Pfister's mill based on the novel by Wilhelm Raabe , theater version by Armin Petras, premiere on November 15, 2014, Schauspiel Stuttgart
• The divided sky by Christa Wolf , stage version by Armin Petras, premiere on January 13, 2015, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz , Berlin
• One long day's journey into the night by Eugene O'Neill , premiere on February 18, 2017, at Schauspiel Stuttgart
• 1984 based on the novel by George Orwell , stage version by Armin Petras, premiere on May 12, 2018, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
• Mother Courage and her children by Bertolt Brecht, premiere on September 27th, Staatsschauspiel Dresden

Productions, opera (selection)

• Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach , premiere on December 4, 2016, Staatstheater Stuttgart
• Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich , premiere on September 10, 2017, Theater Bremen
• Die tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold , musical direction: Yoel Gamzou , stage design: Martin Werthmann , premiere May 12, 2019, Theater Bremen

Awards

• 2003: Mülheim Dramatists Prize for time to love time to die
• 2004: Mülheim Dramatist Prize for we are camera / jasonmaterial
• 2005: Leipzig Theater Prize
• 2005: Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony
• 2007: Friedrich Luft Prize for Heaven (about tristan)
• 2008: Else Lasker Schüler Dramatist Prize for the complete work
• 2019: Ludwig Mülheims Theater Prize to Fritz Kater

literature

• Hans-Dieter Schütt : The sea behind the curtain. The city theater is dying? Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-00934-7 .
• Dagmar Borrmann : Heimat remixed or everything I can say lives in my pain. The playwright Fritz Kater. In: Yearbook of Theater heute magazine . Erhard Friedrich Verlag, Seelze 2003, ISBN 3-617-51984-9 .
• Jörg Buddenberg: Armin Petras. Deconstruction and home theater. In: work piece. Portraits of directors. Verlag Theater der Zeit , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-934344-28-3 .
• Claudia Nola, Arved Schultze (Hrsg.): Open accounts: Intendanz Armin Petras - Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin. Verlag Theater der Zeit, Berlin 2013, ISBN 3-943881-32-6 .
• Fritz Kater: 5 tomorrow. 5 pieces, Theater der Zeit , Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-943881-64-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Armin Petras in the catalog of the German National Library
• Brief portrait of Armin Petras (nachtkritik-stuecke08.de)
• Peter Laudenbach: "The GDR was a Truman show". Interview with Armin Petras.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stefan Kirschner / Stefan Johannsen: The Institute for Aerobiology of the Fraunhofer Society and Defense Research in the 1960s . Rauner, Augsburg 2006 ( biological-arms-control.org [PDF; accessed on July 11, 2020]).
2. ^ Andreas Wassermann: GDR emigrant Armin Petras: "I am a German-German hybrid" . In: Spiegel Online . August 27, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 22, 2019]).
3. ↑ http://archiv2.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/archiv/festivals2004/03_theatertreffen04/tt_04_programm/tt_04_programm_gastspiele/tt_04_gastspiele-ProgrammlisteUebersicht.php
4. ↑ http://archiv2.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/archiv/festivals2008/03_theatertreffen08/tt_08_wahl/tt_08_wahl.php
5. ↑ ornis-press.de: Human landscape . The Maxim Gorki Theater in Moscow , press release November 30, 2007
6. ↑ http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur/maxim-gorki-theater-intendant-armin-petras- geht, 10809150,23094938.html
7. ↑ http://www.nachtkritik.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6160&catid=126&Itemid=40
8. ↑ Armin Petras extends contract with Schauspiel Stuttgart. In: Ministry for Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg. 17th November 2015 . 
9. ↑ Armin Petras ends his contract with the Schauspiel Stuttgart until August 31, 2018. In: Ministry for Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg. November 14, 2016, archived from the original on May 30, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Jürgen Berger: Schauspielhaus in Stuttgart: Diffuse discord . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 28, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed May 29, 2018]).
11. ↑ Armin Petras in- house author and in-house director at Theater Bremen
12. ↑ So far, so smells in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of March 17, 2013, page 42.
13. ↑ Egbert Tholl: The hangover after. Strong scenes, crude mishmash: Armin Petras stages his own piece of book at the Münchner Kammerspiele. , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 13, 2015, p. 11.
14. ↑ Agent thriller with Asbach Uralt in FAZ from March 18, 2016, page 14
15. ↑ Laudation for Armin Petras on the occasion of the Leipzig Theater Prize 2005. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Freundeskreis-schauspiel-leipzig.de, p. 2 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 27, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
16. ↑ 2019 Fritz Kater , ludwig-muelheims-theaterpreis.de, accessed on April 14, 2020.