Matthias Lilienthal Appointed Director of the Volksbühne Theater in Berlin

Matthias Lilienthal has been appointed director of the Volksbühne Theater in Berlin. According to the New York Times, Lilienthal has plans to expand the theater’s dance offering, and to feature a slate of works by international directors. This comes after a period of turmoil and scandal for the iconic institution, which has cycled through several directors since 2017. 

Read the original story on New York Times.

Matthias Lilienthal began his career at Theater Basel as a dramaturg with Frank Castorf and Christoph Marthaler. From there he moved to Berlin’s Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, where he worked as chief dramaturg and convinced Christoph Schlingensief and Johann Kresnik to join the theatre.

He was director of the festival Theater der Welt in 2002 (Rhine valley) and 2014 (Mannheim), and of the HAU Hebbel am Ufer theatre in Berlin in the 2000s, during which time the theatre was voted “Theatre of the Year” twice by the critics’ survey of the expert magazine Theater heute.

Between 2015 and 2020, he was artistic director of Münchner Kammerspiele and transformed the theatre into a hybrid between municipal theatre and production house. This theatre was also voted “Theatre of the Year” twice during his tenure. Since 2020, Lilienthal has been working as a festival maker, including the project “This is not Lebanon” at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, and as a dramaturg, lecturer and actor.