Volker Schmidt, born 1976 in Klosterneuburg, is an author, director and actor. He trained as an actor at the Vienna City Conservatory, followed by acting engagements in Vienna, Berlin, Graz and several feature films.
As a director, he has worked on productions at the Wiener Festwochen, Staatstheater Hannover, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Theater St. Gallen, Theater Magdeburg, Neuköllner Oper Berlin, Schauspielhaus Wien, Latvian National Theatre Riga, German State Theatre Timisoara as well as in Copenhagen, Moscow, Skopje and Bhutan.
Since 2002 he has been working as a playwright on premieres and first performances at the Heidelberg Theatre, Hanover State Theatre, Leipzig Theatre, Ingolstadt City Theatre, Vienna Schauspielhaus, Vienna Volkstheater and Graz Schauspielhaus, among others.
He has won several prizes, including the jury and audience prize at the Heidelberg Stückemarkt with “Die Mountainbiker”, the Berlin Children’s Theatre Prize, invitations to the Stückemarkt at the Berlin Theatertreffen, the Santiago de Chile Festival of Dramaturgy and the NET Festival in Moscow. His plays have been translated into eleven languages and performed from Utrecht to Novosibirsk.
In Vienna, he works regularly with his independent group new space company, with which he received the Nestroy Prize for the best off-stage production for “komA”.
Volker Schmidt took part in the EU Project Fabulamundi – Playwriting Europe. Beyond Borders?.