Katharina Schmitt
area: Theater, Performance, Playwright
Key Facts
nationality
Germanyarea
Theater, Performance, Playwrightresidence
Prague (CZE)recommending institution
tranzit.org/ERSTE Stiftungtime period
September 2016 - September 2016Katharina Schmitt was born in Bremen in 1979. Between 2001 and 2006, she studied theatre directing at the Academy pf Performing Arts (DAMU) in Prague. Ever since, she has been writing texts for performances and directing playsat theatres in the Czech Republic and throughout the German-speaking parts of Europe. She is an Associate Director of the Studio Hrdinu Theatre in Prague, which focuses on the connection between visual arts and theatre. Her plays were so far staged in theatres in Jena, Stuttgart, Oldenburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Bielefeld, Krakow, Prague and New York. In 2012 she was invited to do a residency at the Watermill Center, where she staged her own text, SAM. Her plays have been translated into English, Czech, Finnish and Polish.
Professional Experience
Writer
Plays
2013 DER EINBEINIGE LÄUFER (THE ONELEGGED RUNNER)
2011 JUGENDBILDNIS (YOUTHPORTRAIT)
2010 SAM
2009 IM PELZ (IN FURS)
2008 PLATZ DER REPUBLIK (PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE)
2006 KNOCK OUT
All plays are published by Rowohlt Theaterverlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg.
Performances of plays by Katharina Schmitt
2013 SAM at Schauspiel Osnabrück, directed by Malte Lachmann
2012 JUGENDBILDNIS at Thalia Theater Hamburg, directed by Benedikt Haubrich
2012 SAM at Staatschauspiel Wiesbaden directed by Tillman Gersch, at Schauspiel
Bielefeld directed by Patrick Schimanski, at Divadlo Komedie Prague directed by
Kamila Polívková and at the Watermill Center New York directed by Katharina
Schmitt
2010 SAM at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Autorentheatertage, directed by Sebastian
Hartmann
2009 PLATZ DER REPUBLIK at Staatsschauspiel Oldenburg, directed by Susanne
Kennedy
2009 IM PELZ at Schauspiel Leipzig, directed by Johannes Schmit
2008 KNOCK OUT at Staatsschauspiel Stuttgart, directed by Clemens Kaiser
2007 KNOCK OUT at Theaterhaus Jena, directed by Heiko Kalmbach
Plays directed by Katharina Schmitt
2015 J.Němec/E.Krumbachová: THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS, Studio Hrdinů, Prague
2015 R.W. Fassbinder: THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT,
Šalda Theatre, Liberec
2014 Thomas Mann: BLOOD OF THE WÄLSUNGS, Studio Hrdinů, Prague
2014 Samuel Beckett: NOT I, Studio Hrdinů, Prague
2013 Arno Schmidt: BLACK MIRRORS, Studio Hrdinů, Prague
2012 Katharina Schmitt: SAM, Watermill Center, New York
2012 Roland Schimmelpfennig: THE GOLDEN DRAGON, Theatre Ustí nad Labem
2011 Elfriede Jelinek: HIM, NOT HIMSELF, Meetfactory Prague
2011 Karl Kraus: THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND, Divadlo Komedie, Prague
2010 Loyola: EXERCISES (Performance), Theaterdiscounter Berlin
2009 Tim Crouch: ENGLAND, Meetfactory Prague
2007 Händl Klaus: DUNKEL LOCKENDE WELT, Divadlo Komedie, Prague
2007 William Shakespeare: ROMEO AND JULIET, Mestske Divadlo Zlin
Radio plays
2015 Katharina Schmitt – Youthportrait, directed by: Katharina Schmitt, Český Rohlas
2014 Katharina Schmitt – In Furs, directed directed by: Katharina Schmitt,
Český Rohlas /Radiocustica,
2011 Katharina Schmitt – SAM, directed by: Martin Schulze, Deutschlandradio
2011 Katharina Schmitt - Knock Out, directed by: Katharina Schmitt, Deutschlandradio
2007 Katharina Schmitt – Knock Out, directed by: Katharina Schmitt, Český Rohlas
Awards and Grants
2014 Residency at Villa Decius, Kraków
2014 EHL-Trustee Fonds Scholarship, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Berlin
2012 Martha-Saalfeld Prize for Literature
2012 Residency at the Watermill Center New York
2010 Writers’ scholarship, Akademie der Künste Berlin
2009 Residency, Schriftstellerhaus Stuttgart
2008 Writers’ scholarship, Ministerium für Kultur Niedersachsen
2006 Lenz-Prize for playwrights
Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door (working title)
text for theatre/installation
Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door;
Or has it feathers like a bird,
Or billows like a shore?
(Emily Dickinson)
The project is an exploration of the dreams of blind people. I would like to conduct a series of interviews with people who are born blind about the form of their dreams. Do they imagine any kind of visuality at all? What do their dreams sound like? And how do the narratives in their dreams take shape, given that they are not based on visual imagery? I will conduct these interviews before and during the residency. The interviews will then serve as my core material for a play, which I will work on during the residency. I am especially interested in the functioning of narrative, which is not based on imagery, but relies on different forms of sensual memory. The other aspect I am interested in is the processing of historical events/trauma in the perception of the blind. The play will consist of a series of five monologues, which investigate these two questions. At the end of the residency, I would like to present the results of my work in a reading.