Matthias Fontheim

Matthias Fontheim (born November 30, 1956 in Krefeld ) is a German theater director and theater manager .

Life

Fontheim was born as the son of theater manager Joachim Fontheim and his wife Marianne on the Lower Rhine and grew up there.

In 1972 he moved with his mother to Pforzheim , where he joined a theater group next to the school and played in a rock band. After graduating from high school, Fontheim went to directing and acting training at what was then the Zurich Drama Academy . In 1981 there was a seven-month project-related collaboration in Zurich with the director Andrea Breth on the occasion of the world premiere of the theater text "Proper Operation" by Jürg Laederach .

In 1982 Fontheim was hired by the then Düsseldorf artistic director Günther Beelitz as an actor at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus , where he worked with directors BK Tragelehn , Johannes Schaaf , Peter Palitzsch and Felix Prader , among others . From 1984 he staged as a freelance director at the Freiburg Theater , at the State Theaters in Darmstadt and Kassel , at the Tübingen State Theater and at the Kiel Theater . In 1989, artistic director Eberhard Witt appointed him to his newly formed management team at the Lower Saxony State Theater in Hanover , initially together with directors Thomas Reichert , Klaus Emmerich and Dimiter Gotscheff , later Matthias Hartmann joined them.

In Hanover , in addition to a number of successful musical productions a. a. a highly acclaimed performance of the Eugene O'Neill classic Gier unter Ulmen , as well as the German premiere of the Peter Handke play The game of questions . This performance was shown at the Mülheimer Theatertage festival in 1991 . In 1992 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus , he directed Über allen Gipfel (Ruh by Thomas Bernhard with Maria Becker and Peter Arens in the leading roles).

In 1993, the team around Artistic Director Witt and Matthias Fontheim moved to the Residenztheater / Bayerische Staatsschauspiel in Munich . His production there of Mr. Paul , a play by the playwright couple Tankred Dorst / Ursula Ehler , was recorded in 1994 for the TV broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk . In 1996 he worked in Munich together with Hanna Schygulla on the Elfriede Jelinek project Desire and Driving Permit , which was later shown with Hanna Schygulla at various festivals in Europe, including in French in Paris.

From 2000 to 2006 he was director of the Schauspielhaus Graz . In Graz staged Fontheim 2003 Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss and his first opera , the conductor was Philippe Jordan . In 2005 he was a member of the jury at the Heidelberger Stückemarkt Festival .

From 2006 to 2014 he was artistic director at the State Theater in Mainz . Since the 2014/15 season he has been working as a freelance director again.

In 2008 he was accepted into the German Academy of Performing Arts . In addition to classical works, he also stages plays by contemporary authors Simon Stephens and Bruce Norris , whose main discoverer and promoter of the German-speaking theater area he was during the years of his artistic directorships in Graz and Mainz.

Nominations

In 2003 he was nominated as a director for the Nestroy Theater Prize for his staging of the tragic comedy Das weite Land . He is also a member of the award jury.

Web links

• Matthias Fontheim portrait in the FAZ
• Matthias Fontheim on the website of the Theater Augsburg

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fontheim Prize Winner Anne Spaeter ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )