Roberto Ciulli

© Robert Schatton

Born in Milan on 1 April 1934. Studied philosophy in Milan and Pavia, PhD with a thesis on Hegel. 1960-1962 founded and managed the tent theatre Il Globo in a Milan suburb. In 1965 he came to Germany, where he initially got by as a guest worker at Bosch and as a lorry driver.

1965-1975 assistant director then director at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen. 1972-1979 director of acting at Schauspiel Cologne. Here, he made a name for himself with interpretations of Goldoni, the discovery of Eduardo de Filippo for German-language theatre and a Sternheim cycle. Guest productions at the Freie Volksbühne and the Schiller Theatre in Berlin. 1979-1981 Director at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, where he produced “Alcestis” after Euripides and “The Decameron” after Boccaccio.

In 1980 he founded the Mülheim Theater an der Ruhr together with the literary manager Helmit Schäfer and the set designer Gralf-Edzard Habben. In 1991 the Pralipe Theatre in Rome was affiliated. Even when it was founded, the Theater an der Ruhr was committed to international cultural work. It seeks and promotes multicultural encounters, regularly guests abroad and brings foreign companies to Mülheim.

In 1987 close cooperation with the Turkish State Theatre in Ankara started, in 1999 cultural exchange with Iran. In 2002 Ciulli’s company guested in Iraq. Ciulli has been presented many awards for his political and intercultural commitment, including the Polish Order of Culture (1990), the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany (1996), the Special Prize for Theatre Arts and Outstanding Cultural Understanding in Tehran (1999) and the Prize of the Hiroshima Foundation Stockholm (2002).