TheatreTheatre

The Oprecht Prize of the Fondation ZHdK was presented during the Department of Performing Arts and Film graduation ceremony in June 2025.

Freedom as a search for belonging
In her Bachelor performance Freiheit? Ich weiß nicht. (“Freedom? I don’t know.”), Annabelle Fabienne Matthies explores the meaning of freedom and national identity in contemporary Germany. Three voices speak of the longing for belonging, the loss of a country, and the uncertainty of identity in a reunified nation. More than three decades later, the work poses an uncomfortable question: 35 years after reunification, does Germany feel more divided than ever – or did it never truly grow together?
 

With great sensitivity and nuance, Annabelle Matthies brings multiple characters to life. Their experiences and emotions make the complexities, ruptures and tensions of German reunification perceptible as a vivid collage. – from the jury report

Identity in the digital age
In her performance Casting: [Name] Regina R., Regina Raimjanova examines the construction of identity in a posthumanist world. Her character transforms from human to android, from feeling subject to programmable function. Raimjanova investigates how language, algorithms and market mechanisms shape and influence the concept of self.
 

With exuberant playfulness, courage and virtuosity, Regina Raimjanova creates a casting scenario in which she explores the embodiment of human and machine – conveying, with wit, intensity and versatility, both the joys and struggles of her android character. – from the jury report
 

Recognising outstanding achievements in acting
The Oprecht Prize is awarded annually to recognise exceptional artistic achievements by graduating acting students and carries a prize of CHF 3,500 per recipient. The award is named after Zurich publishers Emil and Emmie Oprecht, who supported persecuted artists during the Second World War – a legacy that continues to inspire today.

From more than 700 productions from the German-speaking region, the seven-member jury selected the shortlist of the most remarkable productions of the season. Ten of the 36 shortlisted works will be invited to the Theatertreffen in May 2026 and shown, among other venues, at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The programme will be announced on 2 April 2026.

In the 2025 / 2026 season, the successful partnerships between ZHdK and various theatres will continue. This close collaboration allows Acting students to gain valuable experience in a professional theatre environment while still completing their studies. A total of twelve BA students are involved in six productions at three German-speaking theatres in Switzerland – with great success.

Schauspielhaus Zürich

• Alice Shchutska in Are you ready to die?
• Jaël Saier and Louis Rüeggerin Graf Öderland
• Lea Grünbichler in Stützliwösch Supertrans Due
• Agnes Stecher, Sarah Bahmou und Valentino Penassa in (What you’ll find) on the way to becoming

New partnership with Theater Basel

For the first time this season, a collaboration with Theater Basel has been established. Four students (Alina Trippl, Esther Gaspart Michels, Phaea Korycik und Sebastian Baumgarten) are part of the production Biedermann und die Brandstifter and are gaining their first experience on a major stage outside Zurich.

Renewal of the partnership with TOBS

The collaboration with Theatre Orchestra Biel Solothurn (TOBS) is also being resumed under the new artistic direction. Phaea Korycik can also be seen in the production Home.

Further projects in a professional context

In addition to theatre productions, students will be involved in further projects during the autumn semester 2025 – including work at Junges Schauspielhaus Hamburg, a series for Apple+, a Swiss feature film, and Faust at the Goetheanum.  

Acting students and alumni of the ZHdK were involved in three of the productions nominated for the Berliner Theatertreffen 2026. These nominations recognise their artistic achievements and highlight the quality of the acting programme at the ZHdK. 

Productions on the shortlist of the Theatertreffen 2026 

Also sprach Zarathustra
after Friedrich Nietzsche
Direction and set design: Sebastian Hartmann 
Premiere: 3 May 2025
Schauspielhaus Zürich 
With: Lola Dockhorn (Alumna, graduating class of 2025) 

Are You Ready to Die?
Liminal States before Execution
by Marie Schleef and ensemble
based on a gap in Friedrich Schiller’s The Maid of Orleans
Director: Marie Schleef
World premiere: 19 September 2025
Schauspielhaus Zürich in collaboration with Amnesty International Switzerland 
With: Alice Shchutska 

Romeo & Juliet
An Italo-Disco Opera 
by Bonn Park and Ben Roessler after William Shakespeare 
Director and text: Bonn Park 
World premiere: 22 February 2025 
Schauspielhaus Zürich in cooperation with the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), BA Theatre, Acting 
With: Anita Somogyi (Alumna, graduating class of 2024), Martha Benedict (Alumna, graduating class of 2025), Hanna Donald (Alumna, graduating class of 2025), Ayhan Eranil, Clemens von Gagern, Florian Gamillscheg, Malin Lais, Agnes Stecher und Alice Shchutska

The Theatre course of study at ZHdK welcomes a new internationally profiled figure: Lola Arias will take up the artistic professorship “Embodiment in Theatre and Performance” from the coming semester. The Argentinian theatre-maker, author and filmmaker impressed with her outstanding artistic achievements, international standing and innovative approach to embodiment in theatre and performance. Her appointment marks a forward-looking step for the department and the university as a whole.
 
Interdisciplinary and research-based teaching
This arstistic professorship is embedded in the interdisciplinary Master Major of Theatre, which focuses on co-creative, artistic-research processes and experimental theatre and performance practice. As a core team member, Lola Arias will shape the curriculum of the MA Theatre (MATch) and help develop the profile of the programme. She will also design innovative teaching formats in the BA and MA and drive forward interdisciplinary collaborations.
 
An internationally networked artist
Lola Arias has an impressive international career. Her theater work has been presented at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, Münchner Kammerspiele, Theatre Basel, the Vienna Festival, the Festival d’Avignon, the Zürcher Theaterspektakel, The Kyoto Experiment Festival, and in venues and festivals in Latin America and the US. Her films were shown at the Berlinale, the San Sebastian Film Festival, the MoMA New York, among others. She has received the Konex Award 2014 and 2024, the “Preis der Autoren 2018” and the prestigious International Ibsen Award 2024. She published several books of poetry, theater, fiction and non-fiction. 
 
For the cross-departmental professorship “Embodiment in Theatre and Performance”, Lola Arias represents a bold choice. Over recent decades she has developed a boundary-crossing form of documentary theatre that fuses reality and fiction and gives a stage to marginalised voices. Her work highlights the invisible, the excluded and the marginalised, and exposes the mechanisms of inequality. She approaches embodiment not in the classical sense of performers’ physical training but as a social body – making bodies perceptible and visible that are often denied space in theatre and society.
 
A gain for the university and its students
Lola Arias combines artistic excellence with many years of teaching at art universities, most recently as an Honorary Fellow at the Royal School for Speech and Drama in London and as a lecturer at the Bern University of the Arts. With her close ties to the Swiss theatre scene – she is currently preparing Die Schändung der Lucretia at Theatre Basel – she also brings valuable contacts and networks.

The selection committee emphasised that Lola Arias “has decisively shaped contemporary theatre over the past 25 years” and, with her international reputation, will fulfil the beacon role associated with this professorship. She is thus ideally placed for the interdisciplinary and international orientation of the MA Theatre and will enrich all programmes within the department.

With Lola Arias, the ZHdK is making a strong statement for interdisciplinarity, innovative teaching practice and socially relevant theatre work.

The musician, dramaturge, and author tells in her new piece "Heart of Polyester" about earthlings on an interplanetary escaping from a strange illness and civilization's collapse.

"Swiss author Sarah Calörtscher vividly describes the fear of stagnation, the hopes, and the greed of humanity for progress. With impressive linguistic power, she not only creates a vivid presence for an abstract algorithm but also shows [...] what possibilities and means of expression digital storytelling on stage can offer, without losing sight of the human aspect." (from the jury statement Kleist Sponsorship Award)

With the Kleist Sponsorship Award, she has now won one of the most important awards for young theater authors in the German-speaking theater world. In addition to a prize money of 7500 EUR, it also includes a world premiere of the award-winning play at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Calörtscher completed her Bachelor studies in dramaturgy in 2023 with the project r e f r a c t i o n s  in which she examined the auditory space of the Hardbrücke in Zurich.

World premiere of "Heart of Polyester" (Directed by Daniel Foerster) on September 27, 2024, in the Box at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

Award ceremony (Laudation by Thomas Köck) including performance of "Heart of Polyester" on October 9, 2024, as part of the Kleist-Festtage in Frankfurt (Oder).

ZHdK acting and directing lecturer, as well as directing alumnus, Philippe Heule, leads the production of “I want to belong (and sing a song)” for the “Jungen Marie” at the Theater Marie. This staging with five young individuals was and will be shown in February and November 2024 at the Alte Reithalle in Aarau and the Kurtheater Baden, respectively.

The Tankstelle Bühne is a Central Swiss platform for emerging performing artists, supporting artists at the beginning of their careers since 2013. Each year, three concepts from the fields of theatre, dance, and performance are selected and presented in collaboration with Kleintheater Luzern, Südpol Luzern, Chäslager Stans, Theater Uri, and Theater im Burgbachkeller. The platform enables young cultural creators to professionally develop a short piece and connect with local organizers and participating artists. Additionally, the winners receive workshops on production, social security, and technical aspects, as well as coaching from a person of their choice.

Leonie Lerch and Meret Feigenwinter have created a performance for Tankstelle Bühne centred around queer coming of age, blending fiction and biography, which will be showcased on the following dates:

• 19 and 21 April 2024 at Südpol Luzern
• 4 May 2024 at Theater im Burgbachkeller Zug
• 11 May 2024 at Chäslager Stans
• 17 May 2024 at Theater Uri Altdorf

More information about the performances and the Tankstelle Bühne platform can be found here.

Additionally, Meret Feigenwinter and Leonie Lerch will present their joint diploma project “We Have Become Younger Since Then” on February 28th and March 1st/2nd, 2024 at Zentralwäscherei in Zurich.

The Theater Marie in Aarau offers young people without acting training or professional experience the opportunity to try out and learn about the everyday life of an actor. Annually, "Junge Marie" produces a theater production with teenagers under professional guidance.

The director and playwright Philippe Heule often works with young people, collaborating with them to develop the texts of the plays. The projects of the ZHdK theater lecturer are showcased at various theaters and festivals. The production "I want to belong," a sparkling karaoke show in search of the voice of the new generation, was the first collaboration with Theater Marie.

ZHdK acting and directing lecturer, as well as directing alumnus, Philippe Heule, leads the production of “I want to belong (and sing a song)” for the “Jungen Marie” at the Theater Marie. This staging with five young individuals was and will be shown in February and November 2024 at the Alte Reithalle in Aarau and the Kurtheater Baden, respectively.

The Theater Marie in Aarau offers young people without acting training or professional experience the opportunity to try out and learn about the everyday life of an actor. Annually, "Junge Marie" produces a theater production with teenagers under professional guidance.

The director and playwright Philippe Heule often works with young people, collaborating with them to develop the texts of the plays. The projects of the ZHdK theater lecturer are showcased at various theaters and festivals. The production "I want to belong," a sparkling karaoke show in search of the voice of the new generation, was the first collaboration with Theater Marie.