Alexander Kohlmann becomes the new acting director
Alexander Kohlmann will lead the Schauspiel division at the Staatstheater Darmstadt from the new season 2024/2025. The doctorate in media scientists and dramaturge (born 1978) was acting director at the Anhalt Theater in Dessau from 2019 to 2023, which was very national attention during this time and was invited to the Berlin Theater meeting for the first time in 2023.
Alexander Kohlmann succeeds Oliver Brunner, who has been the acting director at the Darmstadt State Theater since 2016 and will become director of the Ingolstadt City Theater from the 2024/2025 season.
“The first conversation with Alexander Kohlmann did not take an hour as planned, but four hours. Since then we have not stopped talking about the strength and future of the theater, ”says Karsten Wiegand, director of the Darmstadt State Theater. “From the beginning, we agreed that an extended team management with various perspectives can create exciting, wide horizons. I am very happy about working with Mizgîn Bilmen, Sabine Mäder, Alexander Kohlmann and the drama dramaturgy with Deborah Raulin and Marlon Tarnow. "
For Alexander Kohlmann, successful theater work has a lot to do with continuity:
“The theater legends, which are role models for many of us today, have not started as legends, but almost always benefited from the fact that they had the opportunity to work closely together in certain constellations for many years, to develop and to rub against each other in terms of content. Conflicts can also be productive, especially if the shared search continues. ” The fascinating thing about the German theater landscape is "that there is really a chance to think in long -term in artistic contexts and to develop common visions". And that this work will also be rewarded.
With Mizgîn Bilmen, a multi-award-winning artist (UA Götz-Friedrich-Prize) will work as a senior director regularly at the house, who has repeatedly drawn attention to herself with unusual productions. in Dessau. With Sabine Mäder as a senior stage designer, a special focus is on the importance of the room under the new line. Mäder designs stage rooms for drama, opera and dance and has been invited to the theater meeting several times in the collaboration with director Ulrich Rasche. Also new to the house comes the dramaturge Marlon Tarnow , who has already worked closely with Kohlmann in Dessau and together with the dramaturge Deborah Raulin , which has already realized several successful projects in Darmstadt, which will form the newly set up drama dramaturgy.
The work of young directorial teams and performers at the Darmstadt house, which has been a springboard for many successful theater cars in recent years, will continue to be a special focus. Because that is also very important for Alexander Kohlmann and the new show management, “to get to know new special and popular artists again and again and to give them the most important thing that a theater can give in this early phase”.
Alexander Kohlmann studied German, historical science and media science at the Humboldt University in Berlin, the Free University of Berlin and the University of Hamburg as well as the theater director at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg. During his doctorate, he worked as a cultural journalist, among other things for the magazine »Theater today. With the beginning of the 2017/18 season, he switched to the Staatstheater Braunschweig as a drama tram. Staging of young authors and artistic collectives. The Dessau drama received great national attention under his direction and was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen for the first time in his history in his history in 2023 with the "Hamlet" production by Philipp Preuss. Alexander Kohlmann regularly holds teaching orders and is an author of cultural science essays.
