Biography
Michael Simon is a german designer and director for ballet, drama and opera. His designs have been seen all over the world from Australia to Canada and the US, from Japan to China and throughout Europe. He has worked for many years with the choreographers Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe. The titles of some of the works are Isabel's Dance, Impressing the Czar, Limb's Theorem , Kaguyahime, Stepping Stones, Whereabouts Unknown, Wings of Wax, Arcimboldo, One of a kind, Doux Messonges and Zugvögel. His working relationship as stage designer with Pierre Audi, director of the Amsterdam Opera started in 1990 with Monteverdi's "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse" in Patria and continued until 2011 with the production of the two Iphigenie operas by Gluck. Amongst other designs the most important were "Writing to Vermeer", directed by Peter Greenaway and Saskia Boddecke in the Amsterdam opera, "Wozzeck" at the Brussels opera, directed by David Freemann, Claudel's drama "Tête d'or" directed by Anne Delbee at Comédie Française, Paris, "Lear and "Hamlet" directed by Li Liuyi at the National Center for Performing Arts Beijing, "Peony Pavilion" and "Dunhuang, the light of heart" by choreographer Fei Bo for National Ballet of China, Beijing.
Michael Simon developed and directed his own projects starting with "Elements of Crime", 1988 at the Nederlands Dans Theater, "Newtons Casino", 1990, "Roman Dogs", 1991, - together with composer Heiner Goebbels - for Theater am Turm in Frankfurt. Followed by two dance projects for the Bayrische Staatsoper Munich, "In the country of last things" 2006 and "Der Gelbe Klang" in 2014. Between 1993 and 2013 he directed and designed opera productions like "Fliegender Holländer" in Darmstadt, "Moses and Aron" in Bremen, "Orfeo" in Wuppertal, "Lohengrin" in Nuernberg, "Salome" in Braunschweig and "Freischütz" in Bern. But his attention was clearly drawn to contemporary music theater with productions like "Die Menschen" in Basel and five productions with living composers at the opera in Bonn. He staged the world premiere of "L espace dernier" by Matthias Pintscher 2004 at the Paris Opera Bastille.
Since his debut as drama director and designer with "Black Rider" 1994 in Dortmund he has been invited to theaters like Schaubühne Berlin, Volksbühne Berlin, Burgtheater Wien, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Residenztheater München and many more theaters in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
The question how to reach the audience with political issues became most virulent for Michael Simon in 2014 facing the drama of boat refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. His production of Elfriede Jelineks "Die Schutzbefohlenen" in Freiburg reflected the issue successfully. One year later "Das Schweigende Mädchen" by Jelinek documented the trial of Beate Schäpe, member of the NSU, a german neonazi terrorist group who killed nine immigrants and a german police officer. In 2018 "Kudlich" by Thomas Köck focused on the rightwing populist movement in Austria.
Since 2019 the climate change and political realty around the world led to the "New Green Land" project, which is ongoing in the californian desert two hours outside Los Angeles.
Michael Simon has been teaching stage and lighting design 1998 to 2004 as Professor at HfG Karlsruhe. From 2008 until summer 2021 he was the head of the stage design program at ZHdK Zurich. Since then he is lecturer at ZHDK and has appeared as guest lectures in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Singapore, Beijing, Växjö, Schweden, Taipeh.
VIDEOS AUF YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/user/MichaelSimonZHDK
Publication
Michael Simon – FERTIG gibt’s nicht/ Bühnenbild Prozesse/ Herausgegeben von Tilman Neuffer und Stephan Wetzel
Verlag THEATER DER ZEIT 2021
Klappenbroschur mit 264 Seiten, Format: 235 x 220 mm
ISBN 978-3-95749-365-1
Inklusive Augmented-Reality-App, die mehr als 35 Bilder dieses Buches lebendig werden lässt.
Vortrag:
https://www.theaterwissenschaft.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/szenographie/tagung_buehnenbild/szen_wissen_archiv_abst.pdf