Henry Mason (director)

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Henry Mason (* 1974 in London , Great Britain ) is a playwright, actor and director of spoken and musical theater who lives in Austria and has been a freelance playwright since 1996.

Origin and education

Mason was born in London in 1974. His parents Jean and William Mason are opera singers and let him and his younger brother Orlando grow up bilingual. Mason's father is English and his mother is New Zealander. Mason grew up in London, Heidelberg, Würzburg and Linz. His working language - and his second mother tongue - is German.

Mason studied theater practice and German studies from 1993 to 1997 at the University of Exeter (Great Britain), which he graduated with honors.

The tension between Austrian / German and Anglo-Saxon cultures is one of his main sources of inspiration.

Professional background

The main focuses of Mason's theatrical work are: Shakespeare; Theater for young audiences; Music theater and musical. In addition to his own pieces, Mason also translates and adapts the work of other authors. His productions and engagements led him to a. to the Salzburg Festival , the Vienna Volksoper , the Vienna State Opera, the Linz Theater Phönix , the Theater der Jugend , the theaterspectacel Wilhering, the Klosterneuburg Summer Games, the Landestheater Linz , the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Dortmund Opera , where he performed Rossini's Der Barbier in 2006 staged by Seville .

From 1996 to 2005 he was the director of the free baroque opera ensemble Opera da Camera Linz (“Agrippina”, “Acis and Galatea” and “Ariodante”, Rameau's “Platée”, Monteverdi's “Odysseus” in his own libretto versions) and Shakespeare's “ Lost Love Labor ” as a baroque singspiel ). From 1997 to 2006 he taught a. a. in Exeter, at the Anton Bruckner University Linz (drama and opera schools), at the Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow. From 1999 to 2001, Mason was co-director of the independent theater company TheaterUnser and directed and acted a. a. the in-house productions Wer die Krone kriegt based on the royal dramas by William Shakespeare and Der Monddiamant , an adaptation of Mason's novel by Wilkie Collins .

The Shakespeare project "His Majesty's Players" was founded in 2005 by him. The productions of the project include the world premiere of Down with Love (based on Venus and Adonis ) at the Phönix Theater , as well as his new production of Die Komödie der Irrungen in 2007 and a successful traveling theater performance of As You Like It in the context of the Helfenberger Theater in the Kulturfabrik in 2008 followed.
In the summer of 2006, his social comedy “Heiße Eisen”, based on the film The Full Monty, was staged very successfully by theater @ work in the Linz Chamber of Labor and was resumed in 2007 in the festival hall of the New Town Hall in Linz.

From 2007 to 2009 Mason was artistic director of u \ hof:, the theater for young audiences at the Landestheater Linz . In the 2007/2008 season at the Linzer Landestheater u. a. Henry Masons rock-pop comic Candide or Optimism , staged by him as a journey through world history as a road movie based on the satirical short novel by Voltaire . In March 2009 his play Orestie: Die Brut premiered in the Linzer Kammerspiele, in which he is also directing. The text was freely written by Mason after the Oresty of Aeschylus . His last production at the Landestheater Linz was the successful revue Wir sind Linz , based on interviews with young people from Linz.

In 2008 Mason began to engage in systemic group and constellation work. His teacher was Marlis Grzymek-Laule.

From September 2009 to August 2012 Mason was senior director at the Theater der Jugend in Vienna, the largest theater for young audiences in Europe, under the direction of Thomas Birkmeir . In the 2009/10 season, Mason directed Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations and a new musical version by Carlo Collodis Pinocchio . In 2010/11 three works followed, for which Mason was nominated for the Nestroy Theater Prize in the Special Prize category: the musical “Just so” by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, Patrick Barlow's comedy The 39 Steps based on the film by Alfred Hitchcock and Mason's own Translation of William Shakespeare's Cymbeline .

In 2011/2012 Mason staged his own musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland at the Theater der Jugend , which he wrote together with the German musical composer Thomas Zaufke . In the summer of 2012 Mason staged another late work by Shakespeare, " The Winter's Tale ", as part of the theater in the Kulturfabrik Helfenberg (whose artistic direction he was responsible for from 2011 to 2018 together with the directors John F. Kutil and Brigitta Waschnig) . The management team of this production was awarded the stage art award of the state of Upper Austria 2012.

Since autumn 2012 Mason has been working as a freelance director and author again, although he continued to work closely with the Theater der Jugend; In the 2012/13 season he directed Phil Porter's adaptation of Tim Bowler's novel Starseeker and Stuart Paterson's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book .

In summer 2013 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival and staged Shakespeare's Midsummer Night 's Dream in his own translation in the Residenzhof . The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg played the incidental music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy under the direction of Ivor Bolton . In 2015, again as part of the Salzburg Festival and also in his own translation, he staged a new production of the comedy of errors on the Perner Island in Hallein. 2016 followed u. a. Mason's debut at the Vienna State Opera with Johanna Doderer's children's opera Fatima or by the courageous children .

During a break from directing in the 2016/2017 season, Mason devoted himself more to his work as a writer as well as to his work as a translator. a. New translations of the musicals Gypsy and Carousel into German and Stella by Wolfgang Böhm and Peter Lund into English.

Mason has dedicated himself to musicals as a writer and director for several years. In 2018 he staged Carousel at the Vienna Volksoper , where he had already achieved success in 2014 with The Wizard of Oz ; In 2019, the world premiere of the musical The Hare with the Amber Eyes, based on the book of the same name by Edmund de Waal , a work commissioned by the Landestheater Linz and written with composer Thomas Zaufke , was acclaimed by both critics and the audience. The piece won the German Musical Theater Prize 2019 in the "Best Musical" category, as well as in three other categories: Best Composition - Thomas Zaufke, Best Arrangement - Markus Syperek and Best Lyrics - Henry Mason.

Mason's musicals, musical translations and children's plays are available from the Felix Bloch Erben publishing house .

Publications (selection)

  • Tell for your life, essays on Shakespeare, storytelling and (children's) theater . edition philosophical-literary series, 2002, ISBN 3-85483-027-0 .
  • Jäzz & Jäzzica, a Jäzzical for people from 6 . Play publisher.
  • The island . harlekin verlag (children's play after William Shakespeare's Sturm )
  • Oresty: the brood . Drama for everyone aged 16 and over based on Aeschylus. Kaiser Verlag.
  • Alice in Wonderland . Musical based on Lewis Carroll, music by Thomas Zaufke. Publisher Felix Bloch Erben
  • The summer night dreamers . Drama for children. Publisher Felix Bloch Erben
  • The automatic princess . Drama for children. Publisher Felix Bloch Erben
  • How to dawn gods . Acting / in-house production. UA theater in the Kulturfabrik Helfenberg
  • Kuno can do everything . Drama for children. Publisher Felix Bloch Erben
  • Jannik and the sun thief . Drama for children. Piece order for the Klagenfurt City Theater
  • The hare with the amber eyes . Musical based on the book of the same name by Edmund de Waal , music by Thomas Zaufke. Play order for the State Theater Linz. Theater publisher Felix Bloch Erben.

Awards

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Today, January 21, 2009 Atreus or Fritzl, Antike or now

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mason, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British stage actor, writer and director
DATE OF BIRTH 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK