Artistic Meeting with Playwright Jens Hillje

September 27, 2012

Center for Urban History, Lviv

Pavlo Arie moderated the meeting, which covered the dramatic methods and aesthetic strategies of new German drama on the background of contemporary political, cultural and most of all, economic struggles for the division of authority in Europe, shaken by the crisis.

Within the framework of the Festival the Lesia Ukrainka National Dramatic Theater of Russian Drama presented VerrücktesBlut [Crazy Blood], after the play by Hillje and Nurkan Erpulat. Hillje also led a master class on "If there is no more I, then who are We?: The struggle for identity in post-dramatic theatre and the crisis of the West."

Jens Hillje

well-known German theater playwright, director, and activist. Born in 1968 and studied applied cultural studies in Perugia, Hildesheim and Berlin. From 1990–1995 he was an actor, author, and director with independent theater groups in Hildesheim working on theater projects for children and youth. From 1996–1999 together with Thomas Ostermeier he was one of the directors and literary managers of the studio Baracke, under the aegis of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. From 1999 to 2009 he was a member of the artistic direction and the leading playwright of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. In 2011 Hillje received second place in the competition "Director of the Year." His play VerrücktesBlut, which Hillje wrote with Nurkan Erpulat, was honored last year at the festival BerlinerTheatertreffen, and also won the Audience Price at the festival MülheimerTheatertageу 2011. A survey of critics by the magazine Theater heute chose VerrücktesBlut as "Play of the Year."