24. 10. 2010.

A Golden Laurel Wreath Awarded to Frank Castorf on a Saturday Midnight Reception

A Golden Laurel Wreath Award for Contributions to Theatre was awarded on Saturday, 23 October, to German director Frank Castorf at a midnight reception at Sarajevo's National Theatre. MESS' greatest recognition was presented to Frank Castorf by the Festival's Director Dino Mustafić, immediately after the performance of his play “Kean”, performed by Berlin's Volksbuhne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Theatre.

Mustafić reminded those gathered at the event that Frank Castorf had already received two Golden Laurel Wreath Awards for Direction from the MESS International Theatre Festival, for his plays Trainspotting (1997) and Endstation America (2002). “After Peter Schumann, Susan Sontag, Bibi Andersson, and other renowned theatre artists, this year's recipient of the Festival's highest recognition is without a doubt one of the greatest theatre directors in Europe, who is also respected around the world.” said Mustafić at the award ceremony. 

Frank Castorf thanked the MESS in his name, and in the name of his colleagues from the Volksbuhne Theatre, with whom he has worked for many years. Comparing his visit to Sarajevo today and in 1997, Castorf pointed out that he was especially impressed by the optimism and strength of the people who, after the war ended, restored the MESS International Theatre Festival. In recounting some of the details of his first trip to Sarajevo in 1997, Castorf explained that the visit was one of those experiences that makes one realize that theatre can change one’s view of the world.

At the ceremony, the MESS Festival Office also decided to present the Goethe Institut in BiH with a special recognition in honour of the partnership they have cultivated and their contribution to the development of theatre over the years. Expressing her gratitude for this special recognition, Petra Raimond, the directress of the Goethe Institut in BiH expressed her hope that the Institut and the MESS Festival would continue their successful cooperation, and thus offer the best theatre to all theatre-lovers.

During his stay in Sarajevo, Frank Castorf also held a Master Class on Sunday, 24 October 2010 on the National Theatre Small Stage, aimed at students from Bosnia’s dramatic arts academies, theatre critics, journalists and publicists. Those gathered at this event had a chance to get a closer look at Frank Castorf’s opus, and discuss “Kean”, Castorf’s play performed the evening before.

Biography

Frank Castorf was born in Berlin in 1951. He studied at the University of Humboldt in Berlin. He has worked at the Anklam and Deutsches Schauspelhaus Theatres in Hamburg, the Residenztheater in Munich, the Volksbühne in Berlin, the Stadsteatern in Stockholm, the Burgtheater in Vienna... Since 1990, he has worked at the Deutsches Theater, where he has staged plays such as Paris, Paris, Sojas Wohnung, John Gabriel Borkmann (in co-production with the Kammerspiele Theatre), as well as Hermes in der Stadt. His first project with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Theatre was the production of the performance Trunkenes Schiff. In 1992, he became the theatrical manager of the Volksbühne. He has received numerous critics' awards presented by Berliner Zeitung. Since 1989, Castorf was proclaimed Director of the Year at five editions of the “Theater Heute” Annual Critics’ Review. He has also received two Golden Laurel Wreath Awards for Best Direction at the MESS International Theatre Festival, for the plays Trainspotting (1998) and Endstation America (2002).