Thomas Ostermeier

© David Baltzer

Born in Soltau on 3 September 1968. Grew up in Landshut/Lower Bavaria. After university entrance examination and alternative civil service, in 1990/91 he started as an actor in Einar Schleef’s “Faust” project at the University of the Arts in Berlin. 1992-1996 studied direction at Ernst Busch University for Dramatic Arts in Berlin, in these years he assisted and acted under his teacher Manfred Karge. First own directorial work; his graduation production “Research Faust/Artaud” (1996) attracted attention.

From 1996 to 1999 he was director and artistic manager of the “Baracke”, the secondary stage of the Deutsches Theater Berlin (in 1998 it was voted theatre of the year in the critics’ survey of “Theater heute”). Invitations to produce guest plays and first awards: 1998 Friedrich Luft Prize, 1999 “Best Young Director” at the MESS Festival in Sarajevo.

Since 1999 he has been part of the artistic managerial team at the Berlin Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. In 2000 he was awarded the European Theatre Prize (“New Theatrical Realities”) in Taormina, in 2002 the Herald Angel Award for “The Girl on the Sofa” in Edinburgh. For 2004 he has been appointed “artiste associé” in the management of the Festival d’Avignon.