The artistic director duo at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, Nicolas Stemann and Benjamin von Blomberg, has to stop. There have been debates about the orientation of the theater for months.
The two directors of the Zurich Schauspielhaus, Nicolas Stemann and Benjamin von Blomberg, will not have their contracts extended beyond the 2023/24 season. The reported Tages-Anzeiger and the NZZ on Sunday. Loud NZZ on Sunday the board of directors of the theater canceled the contract talks with the duo, the NZZ refers to “multiple sources”. Among other things, there are said to have been disagreements regarding the payment of theater employees. The director duo is said to have demanded fair wages for everyone, the board of directors, composed of representatives of the city of Zurich, which finances the theater, and of the canton, allegedly preferred to save. The annual budget of CHF 38 million should not be increased either, although the theater management had requested an additional CHF 1.8 million.
Stemann and von Blomberg took over the theater as a duo in autumn 2019. They brought directors such as Christopher Rüping, Trajal Harrell and Leonie Böhm to the house and showed sophisticated contemporary theater, several productions were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen, such as Christopher Rüping’s “Simply the End of the World” after Jean-Luc Lagarce and Alexander Giesche’s “Man Appears in the Holzän” after Max Frisch.
The accusation: They made theater past the audience
For months, however, there has been a serious crisis between the theater management and the city, audience numbers have been low, subscriptions have been canceled and too few tickets have been sold. The accusation, too NZZ and daily indicator rise, is that Stemann and von Blomberg would make theater that ignores the people, too progressive, too moral. A recently scheduled “audience summit” was intended to establish a dialogue between the theater and the audience, but in vain.
Nicolas Stemann and the Zurich Schauspielhaus commented on SZ-Inquiry not on the merits, a press release would be published on Monday.