Julia Wissert

Julia Wissert (* 1984 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German director and general manager who works in the fields of theater, music theater and film. She has been the artistic director of the Schauspiel Dortmund since the 2020/21 season .

Life

Julia Wissert was born in Freiburg im Breisgau and grew up in the Kaiserstuhl . She is the oldest of four daughters. After graduating from high school, Wissert lived longer in Sydney, London and Salzburg, where she worked both on and backstage. After completing her bachelor's degree in Media Arts and Drama at the University of Surrey in London , she founded the physical theater collective, Los Banditos Perditos .

The focus of her work in London was on performance and site-specific interventions.

job

Julia Wissert assisted at the Theater Freiburg , Basel Theater and the State Theater in Oldenburg . During her assistant director in Oldenburg, she brought first product developments such as Café D'Amour and Bagdad Burning, as well as her first productions ( Haram by Ad de Bont ) on stage.

Her performative approaches from London were combined through an increased interest in texts to create their own interdisciplinary form between sections and genres. Even in Oldenburg, her stage work was at the limit of musical theater, theater and audio installations.

In 2011 Julia Wissert studied directing at the Mozarteum Salzburg , with Amélie Niermeyer . During this time she directed Nora von Henrik Ibsen and won the audience award of the Körber Studio Junge Regie in Hamburg. She staged operas such as Kaiser von Atlantis and La voix humaine or the expert theater, Salzburg Dance of Death, an evening about living with dying. For this production she received the City of Salzburg Prize.

In 2014 she received the Kurt-Hübner-Director's Award for her production of Der Junge vor der Tür ( Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden ).

Wissert has been working as a freelance director since 2015. In addition to many other theaters , she staged at the Maxim Gorki Theater , the National Theater Brno , the State Theater Oldenburg and the Schauspielhaus Bochum . For her work at the Schauspielhaus Bochum in 2069 she was nominated for the youth theater prize of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt.

Julia Wissert's productions pose questions about autonomy and empowerment in a society that is perceived as a system. It uses the utopia idea of Jose Esteban Munoz , which describes that one acts as if the utopia already existed.

In 2019 she developed the play Vantablack by Nazareth Hassan as part of the Stückemarkt at the Berlin Theatertreffen . In addition, she developed the participatory series Die Universen (Cumberland) at the Staatstheater Hannover , in which she also directed as a director.

From the 2020/21 season she will be the artistic director of the Dortmund Theater.

Wissert wrote texts on the topics of structural racism in the theater, u. a. Her diploma thesis: S chwarz.Macht.Weiß: an artistic research on structural racism on German-speaking stages (2014) . Articles and lectures followed as a result of the critical examination of the working environment in which she moves as an artist. In 2017 the lawyer Sonja Laaser and Julia Wissert developed the anti-racism clause . The clause is a contractual addition to contracts for work and services through which the management of cultural institutions makes a binding commitment to seek quick clarification without punishment in the event of discriminatory behavior towards the artist.

In her art as well as her further work, Wissert pursues a power-critical, intersectional approach in order to deal with theater as well as the society in which it is rooted.

Works (selection)

• Nora (2012) - Mozarteum Salzburg
• Emperor of Atlantis / Mahagonny (2013) - Mozarteum Salzburg
• Salzburg Dance of Death (2013) - Mozarteum Salzburg
• no formation (2014) - ARGEkultur Salzburg
• Boy in the Door (2014) - Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
• Escape That Conditiones Me (2015) - Maxim Gorki Theater
• Nero (2016) - Theater Trier / City Museum Simeonstift Trier
• La voix humaine / Trouble in Tahiti - Staatstheater Oldenburg
• Owela (2017/19) - National Theater Windhoek / Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
• The Odyssey (2018) - Brno National Theater
• 2069 (2018/19) Schauspielhaus Bochum
• Zula Money (2019) - Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
• Vantablack (2019) Stückemarkt Theatertreffen
• The Universes (2019/20) State Theater Hanover

Radio plays (selection)

• 2014: Heinrich von Kleist : Women’s Stories: Radio Penthesilea. Based on motifs from Heinrich von Kleist's drama Penthesilea - production, arrangement and direction: Julia Wissert; Katrin Herm ; Peter Blum ; David Schnaegelberger ; Klaus Buhlert (radio play adaptation - SWR / Mozarteum Salzburg )

Awards

• 2012: Audience Award Körber Studio Junge Direction for Nora
• 2013: Prize of the City of Salzburg for the Salzburg Dance of Death
• 2014: Kurt-Huebner-Director's Award for The Boy in Front of the Door
• 2020: Nomination for the Heidelberger Stückemarkt youth piece prize (due to Corona, the prize was divided among the nominees)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Julia Wissert: Kurt Hübner Director's Award , Theater der Zeit (PDF file).
2. ↑ Esther Slevogt: Julia Wissert - An interview with the designated Dortmund drama director. Retrieved on May 27, 2020 (German). 
3. ↑ Diploma production “Schwarze Jungfrauen” wins the “Körber Studio Junge Regie” award 2012 - KulturPort.De ~ Magazin from Hamburg. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Simone Kaempf: Kurt-Hübner-Director's Award for Julia Wissert. Retrieved on May 27, 2020 (German). 
5. ↑ This year's selection for the youth piece price . Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Berliner Festspiele: Theatertreffen - VANTABLACK. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
7. ^ Sascha Westphal: Looking for a new city theater - Artistic Director Julia Wissert presents the program for her first season at the Dortmund Theater. Retrieved on May 27, 2020 (German).