Michael Hatzius

Michael Hatzius with the lizard and the little crocodile (Jan. 2012, Freiburg Cultural Exchange)

Michael Hatzius (born June 2, 1982 in Berlin ) is a German puppeteer and actor.

Life

Michael Hatzius studied at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Art in Berlin , where he graduated in 2006 with a diploma as a puppeteer / performing artist. As a teenager he had previously worked in the youth theater group "Helle Weiten" in the Weiten Theater for Puppets and People in Berlin. During his studies, he and his fellow student Dorothee Carls founded the independent group “Theater Urknall”, which performs its own productions at home and abroad.

Since the end of his studies, Hatzius has mainly played as a guest at various German theaters, including the State Theater Hanover , Theater an der Parkaue , Theater Waidspeicher Erfurt, German National Theater Weimar , Theater Oberhausen , State Theater Darmstadt and the Puppet Theater Magdeburg . In 2010 he made his directorial debut at the Young Generation Theater in Dresden with “Mr. Birnbaums Bürgschaft”, a ballad program .

Hatzius also worked as a puppeteer for various television and advertising productions. At the side of the Cologne comedian and puppeteer Martin Reinl , for example, he played the role of Peb in Peb and Pebber , which was broadcast on Super RTL , in the first two seasons . In addition, he continues to develop and act in theater plays and productions in changing free constellations.

With his larger than life doll Die Echse and other characters he has appeared in the comedy sector for several years and has received several awards for it. In May 2011 his first solo show "Die Echse und Freunde - The Full Program" premiered at the Quatsch Comedy Club Berlin, followed by a four-year tour through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The area of comedy and cabaret with puppets for stage and TV is now the center of Hatzius' artistic work.

In September 2015, the premiere of Michael Hatzius' second solo show took place in the cabaret theater Die Wühlmäuse in Berlin. The show is called "ECHSTASY". In addition to the lizard, other figures also appear here, e.g. For example, a shy chicken, a choleric tick or a carrot from the security service. He toured German-speaking countries with the program for three and a half years.

The premiere of the "ECHSOTERIK" program took place in January 2019. Since then he has been on tour all year round. The third solo show by Michael Hatzius focuses on the lizard as a guru who has come to heal people and give them orientation. The lizard, for example, offers to let her lay out the tarot cards for you. In collaboration with the Halle artist Robert Voss, Hatzius designed special tarot cards on which his puppet figures appear in ambiguous motifs. New in the ensemble of minor characters are u. a. the pigs Steffi and Torsten, who verbally dismantle themselves on stage. In his latest program, Hatzius not only deepens the psychological complexity of his characters, but also once again expands the improvisational part by frequently involving the audience in what is happening on the show.

Michael Hatzius developed his own TV show “Weltall.Echse.Mensch.” With the production company Endemol , which was broadcast on rbb television in 2014 and was nominated for the Grimme Prize . The second season was broadcast on ARD in 2015 . In the second season, "Weltall.Echse.Mensch.", The lizard invites herself and a celebrity into the apartment of private people who act as interview partners and audience at the same time. The program is rounded off with a play with the lizard in everyday situations or scenic clips. In the staged MAZs, some prominent TV actors, such as actress Meret Becker or comedian Olli Dittrich , play alongside Michael Hatzius.