The creation of new texts for the stage has been the focus of the WIENER WORTSTAETTEN’s work since the beginning, as well as the artistic exploration of socially relevant themes and networking between playwrights.
This year we received a total of 124 texts, that were looked into by our jury consisting of Veronika Steinböck (director Kosmos Theater Wien), Claudia Tondl (author) und Bernhard Studlar (art director WIENER WORTSTAETTEN). After long and intensive discussions a selection was made and four promising drafts were chosen, that will be developed into finished plays by the authors in the coming year. We are very much looking forward to working withRenate Aichinger, Eva Bormann, Judith Humer and Xaver Schumacher!
Their text drafts are full of feminist, poetic, political and humorous ideas. They are filled with characters that we want to see on stage and span a temporal arc from antiquity to the future.
This model of cooperation with authors includes a contract for work amounting to € 3,000 as well as dramaturgical support for the period of one year. Furthermore, regular working meetings of all selected authors as well as individual and group readings. Any travel expenses will be covered by the WIENER WORTSTAETTEN or its cooperation partners.
In addition, the Kosmos Theater will accompany the creation of the texts as a ”Patentheater” and premiere one play in the 2025/26 season.
All the texts created will be presented in staged readings in Vienna as part of the “Wortstattnächte” in autumn 2025.
About the writers
Renate Aichinger lives in Vienna with her family and is a lover of texts, theatre and her daughter. She has published numerous works for bookshelves and stages, including four books as well as plays for the Offene Burg and Junge Burg at the Burgtheater and the Junges Schauspielhaus Zürich. Most recently, her play #dieteilzeitlosen premiered at Theater Kosmos in Bregenz. She has invented various participatory formats for the Offene Burg at the Burgtheater Vienna, which she founded and directed, as well as the Bürgertheater at the Landestheater Niederösterreich. She has also won a few prizes, including the Rauriser Förderungspreis, Nestroy-Spezialpreis, Schwazer Stadtschreiberin, Jubiläumsfondsstipendium der Literar Mechana, Projektstipendium Stadt Wien. Residencies have taken her to Krakow, Venice, Paliano and Trieste, among other places. She is a VERSOPOLIS poet (Lviv/Ukraine, Antwerp/Ghent, Bratislava, Belgrade), where some of her poems have been translated into English, Ukrainian, Spanish, Dutch & Slovenian – most recently also published in the anthology versópolis nueva poesía europea in Mexico. luisa & der himbärrotglitzermond is her first play for the little big ones. And most recently: HerzMuschelKlappen (both published by Bühnenverlag Weitendorf, Hamburg).
Eva Bormann, born in Weimar in 1982, studied theatre, literature and sociology at the University of Leipzig. She has been working on readings of her own texts with various artists since 2005, including in Leipzig, Hamburg, Marburg and Heilbronn. Her first publication and an artist-in-residence at the “maumau art residency” in Istanbul took place in 2014. In 2015, she was a scholarship holder of the 19th literary class of the “Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur” in Klagenfurt. She worked as a dramaturge at the Hessisches Landestheater Marburg (2010-2015), the Hamburg Kaltstart Festival (2014), Theater Heilbronn (2015-2016) and Schauspielhaus Bochum (2016-2018). Her world premiere with Fanny Brunner at Werk X/Eldorado, “HI. ELLIOT RODGER HERE.” was honored by the Austrian Federal Chancellery/Section for Art and Culture in 2016. Since 2018, she has been employed as a dramaturge at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar. She has taught at the Institute for German Literature at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Drama in Leipzig.
Judith Humer, born in Linz in 1986, studied Romance studies with a focus on literature at the University of Vienna and worked as an assistant director and dramaturg at numerous German-speaking theaters, including the Berliner Ensemble and the Schaubühne Berlin, during and after her studies. Since then she has worked as a freelance director and dramaturge, as well as artistic production manager for the Ruhrtriennale, among others. Her theatre works have been shown in Austria, Germany and Norway.
She has been awarded several scholarships and received the 2024 sponsorship award at the Berlin Radio Play Festival.
Xaver Schumacher, born in Tyrol, lives in Vienna and writes, performs, directs and presents plays, cabaret programs, show and video formats. He is prart of the entertainment ensemble POSTMODERN TALKING as well as an expert in wrestling and Greek mythology. Performances of his have been shown at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, Schauspiel Köln, TAK Berlin, Werk X and Drachengasse Vienna, among others. He is regularly talking on Radio FM4 and was on television last month (Seitenblicke). Long-term collaborations link him with the Kulturlabor Stromboli Hall, the filmmaker and comedian Lia Sudermann (DJane Sündemann), the director Meera Theunert and the Radieschenprinzessin Martin Fritz. 2024 he played “Das Orakel von Selfie” at Kabarett Niedermair Vienna and “What The Franz?” at The Loft Vienna.
About the Drama Lab
The WIENER WORTSTAETTEN Drama Lab, being put into practice since 2022, is a long-term funding model for playwrights developed by Bernhard Studlar. In recent years, it has produced a number of successful plays that have been invited to festivals such as Hin & Weg or the Heidelberger Stückemarkt and premiered at theaters in Austria and Germany. These include “DRUCK!” by Arad Dabiri, “no shame in hope” by Svealena Kutschke, “Wald” by Miriam Lesch, “Is Maidele (Vaterzunge)” by Miriam Unterthiner and, most recently, “aufstiegskörper” by Lena Riemer.
The steadily growing number of applications, as well as the interest of publishers and theaters in the plays, prove the necessity of such a funding model for the German-speaking theater scene.
The WIENER WORTSTAETTEN represent an independent, creative research laboratory and text workshop and function as a mediator between authors and the theatre business.
A production of the WIENER WORSTAETTEN in cooperation with the Kosmos Theater.
