Schauspielhaus Wien is a theatre in Vienna, Austria, located at 19 Porzellangasse in the 9th District of Vienna. Tomas Schweigen has been the artistic director since 1 July 2015. The current ensemble is made up of three actresses and four actors from five European countries.
History
The history of the theatre extends back to the beginning of the 20th century, when there was a variety club located in the basement of 19 Porzellangasse. This was later adapted into one of Vienna's first cinemas and operated from 1913 to 1975 under the names Heimat-Kino and Citta 2000. In the last year of its existence, it held seating for 597 people. 1979-1986 The actual theatre opened on 4 May 1978 with Jean Genet's play Der Balkon following its renovation by Hans Gratzer, leader of the theatre group Werkstatt which operated out of the Neues Theater am Kärtnertor theatre. Hans Gratzer performed classic productions, contemporary drama and musical productions at the Schauspielhaus until 1986. 1987-1990 From 1987 until 1990, George Tabori installed his theatre group Der Kreis in the theatre. 1991-2001 Hans Gratzer returned to the Schauspielhaus between 1991 and 2001 for a second spell as director. He tried to position the theatre as a first-class contemporary German-language theatre by hosting premiers and first performances. One of his greatest successes was in discovering the playwright Werner Schwab. In his final season, Gratzer, working alongside Martin Haselböck, produced only musical theatre from the theatre, while a completely new form of theatre, Der Schaufenster, was staged in the alleyway pub next door. 2001-2007 Airan Berg und Barrie Kosky were installed as artistic directors of the theatre in 2001. Their intercultural approach opened the theatre up to diverse interpretations of the most varied cultures. The campaign Hunger auf Kunst und Kultur was initiated in 2003 with cooperation from the National Anti-Poverty Conference, with the aim of making the arts accessible to people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Kosky departed in 2005 following creative differences with his co-director; Airan Berg led it until 2007 as an international coproduction stage. Theater für Alle started in 2005 through cooperation between the Schauspielhaus and the University of Vienna ; this was a project aiming to open up theatre to the blind and partially-sighted through the use of trained cultural assistants. 2007-2015 Andreas Beck became artistic director of the Schauspielhaus from 2007 until 2015. Under his direction, the Schauspielhaus saw itself as a theatre of the contemporary, as an author's theatre in the "classical" sense. The focus was on young and recent drama. Andreas Beck was commended for the new start in the Schauspielhaus Vienna with the Nestroy Special Prize 2008. More Nestroy Theatre Awards followed; Kathrin Röggla won the Authors Prize 2010 for her writing on "worst case", produced by Lukas Bangerter. In 2011 Franziska Hackl was the winner of the Rising Star category for Flora in Grillenpark by Thomas Arzt. In the Best Actor category the same year, Max Mayer was commended for his role as the hunter/fisher in the same play, as well as different rolls in Bruno Schulz: Der Messias by Malgorzata Sikorska Miszuk. In 2014, the Authors Prize went to David Grieg for Die Ereignisse in its first German production by Ramin Gray. The Nestroy for the BestSet Design 2015 was awarded to Ivan Bazak for Johnny Breitwieser, while the lead actor Martin Vischer was nominated for Best Actor. Since 2015 Tomas Schweigen has been artistic director of since July 2015. Jan-Christoph Gockel was nominated for the Nestroy Theatre Award in the category Best Director in 2016, for his work on Imperium, adapted from Christian Kracht's novel of the same name. The 2016/17 season was the first time in the history of the theatre that two productions - Cellar Door and Imperium - had been nominate for the Berliner Theatertreffen. In the same year, the production Città del Vaticano from Falk Richter/Nir de Volff was invited to the Lessingtagentheatre festival at Hamburg's Thalia Theatre, while Diese Mauer fasst sich selbst zusammen und der Stern hat gesprochen, der Stern hat auch was gesagt by Miroslava Svolikova was invited to the Authors Theatre Festival at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.
Ensemble
Under the leadership of artistic director Tomas Schweigen, the current ensemble is made up of Simon Bauer, Vera von Gunten, Jesse Inman, Steffen Link, Sophia Löffler, Vassilissa Reznikoff and Sebastian Schindegger - three actresses and four actors from five European countries.
