Schauspielhaus Zürich aims to bring back regular audiences
Published: Friday, Dec 8th 2023, 14:10
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The new co-directors of the Schauspielhaus Zurich also want to appeal to regular audiences. The productions are intended for a variety of audiences, as Pinar Karabulut and Rafael Sanchez said at a media conference on Friday.
Karabulut and Sanchez will take over the management of the Schauspielhaus from 2025. Their predecessors were criticized for poor attendance figures in some cases. The allegedly too strong focus on diversity and identity politics was also criticized.
Karabulut told the media that diversity is already part of their biographies. The post of Diversity Officer will be retained. Her predecessors had done a good job here.
However, Sanchez also said that he sometimes imagines "how my grandmother would see a play". In a rather small city like Zurich, "you need productions for a diverse audience". This is how the house can be filled.
Two dozen applications
It was clear that they were aiming for a co-directorship, said Sanchez. They want to focus on spoken theater and a strong ensemble. Young people should be supported.
For cost reasons, there will be no dance ensemble as under the predecessors, a requirement of the Board of Directors. Karabulut and Sanchez met in Zurich when Sanchez was still co-director of Theater Neumarkt.
In the application process, Karabulut and Sanchez prevailed against two dozen other applications. Half of them were examined more closely by the selection committee made up of theater makers and the board of directors.
The contracts of the previous artistic directors Benjamin von Blomberg and Nicolas Stemann have not been extended. Ulrich Khuon will take over as artistic director in the 2024/2025 season.
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