The contract of Sibylle Broll-Pape, artistic director at the ETA Hoffmann Theater in Bamberg, will not be extended beyond 2025 as she had wished. This decision was made on Wednesday evening at a meeting of the Bamberg city council, as city spokesman Michael Memmel announced. “Regarding the extension of the contract with the director of the ETA Hoffmann Theater, the majority of the city council in the plenary session supported the decision of the cultural senate to extend the contract in 2018. At that time, it was decided by consensus to extend the contract with the director until 2025 and then to end,” it said.
Sibylle Broll-Pape was recently criticized for various allegations. Former and current employees of the theater have accused Broll-Pape of treating them and other employees in a “degrading” manner. The theater boss rejected these allegations and fought back. In response to a letter from a theater employee to the city’s culture officer, Ulrike Siebenhaar, which contained numerous allegations, Broll-Pape wrote to Bamberg’s mayor Andreas Starke (SPD). She was “deeply dismayed” and, in addition to the allegations about dealing with employees, also denied having embellished the utilization figures.
Broll-Pape has been director of the ETA Hoffmann Theater since 2015. At the beginning of March, under her leadership, the house received the German Theater Publishers’ Prize for the consistent performance of contemporary drama.
Broll-Pape only wanted to extend her work at the Bamberg Theater by two years and not the usual five years in order to be able to make up for the seasons that were only partially usable due to the corona pandemic. Now she will only continue her directorship and as planned until 2025.