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Mirjam Neidhart

Theatre Director and Author

How would you explain to a child what your job involves?

A great deal. I am doing what drew me to drama school back then: reflecting on society through writing, developing and directing plays.
In doing so, I am still searching for the right form, and I am now returning to ideas I had even before I started drama school – and bringing them to life, thirty years later.

What do you write under ‘Occupation’ when you have to fill in a form at the doctor’s or on a plane?

Theatre director and author.

Does your career path have anything to do with specific gender roles?

Yes, unfortunately. It was bitter to realise that my gender has always been the wrong one. Sometimes, it also was the right one. I would have preferred it if it had not mattered at all.

Is there a key moment in your studies that you still draw on today?

Many.
Lilo Elias: What she taught did not have a label. It was “Lilo”. From her, we learned to listen, to see, to think with our body, and much more.

Improvisation with Paul Weibel. He was so formative for me that I suggested to my first artistic director not to direct an existing play as my first direction work, but to develop one. The artistic director agreed... The premiere was a success.

Directing with Urs Schaub: I directed a scene from Anouilhs “Antigone” and found my current vocation.

Role-study with Peter Danzeisen: Eve from “Der Zerbrochne Krug”. Kleist’s verse (almost) acted on their own.

Music with Jürg Kienberger: Among instruments that we were not allowed to touch, I lost my patience and learned to listen, to really listen, and have been profiting from this ever since.

Gabriel Hürlimann: Commitment, participation, knowledge about communication and group processes before, on and off stage.

What is on your mind most at the moment?

That we are not what we are, that we cannot even be that and only pretend to be – on stage and in life.