Germany
Chief director of the Deutsches Theater (Berlin).
Michael Thalheimer was born in Frankfurt-on-Maine. He began his theater career as an actor. He made his directorial debut in 1997 at the Chemnitz Theater, followed by productions at theaters in Basel (Switzerland), Leipzig and Freiburg (Germany).
He gained wide theatrical fame in 2000 with productions of F. Molnar's Liliom at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and Celebration at the Dresden Drama Theater. In 2001, both productions were invited to Berlin's "Theatertreffen", a festival featuring the best plays in German. Thalheimer's productions of Arthur Schnitzler's Flirt, Franz Wedekind's Lulu (both at the Thalia Theater) and Aeschylus' Oresteia at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin were also invited to the Theatertreffen in 2003, 2005 and 2007, respectively.
Thalheimer's productions are performed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he is currently Chief Director and a member of the Artistic Council. He made his debut at the Deutsches Theater in 2001 with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Emilia Galotti, followed by Chekhov's Three Sisters, Gerhart Hauptmann's The Lonely Ones, Goethe's Faust (Parts 1 and 2), Aeschylus' Oresteia, Jon Fosse's The Dream and Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
Michael Thalheimer's productions have won numerous awards, such as the Innovation Prize of Public Television 3 for Liliom, the Friedrich Luft Prize (awarded for the most outstanding production of the year in Berlin), the Nestroy (Vienna's most prestigious theater award) and the Golden Mask in 2005 for Emilia Galotti (best foreign production). His opera debut was Leoš Janáček's Katja Kabanová at the Staatsoper Berlin in 2005, after which he became a frequent guest director at the Salzburg Festival, Festwochen in Vienna and other international festivals. He has staged productions in New York, Tokyo, Moscow, Rome, Kiev, Budapest, Belgrade, Prague, Madrid, Mexico City and Bogota.
Two productions were presented at the Third International Alexandrinsky Festival: "The Rats" G. Hauptmann (20.09, 21.09. 2008) and "FAUST. Part I" by Goethe (17.09, 18.09.2008).