Hamburger Theaterfestival

The Hamburg Theatre Festival is a theater festival founded in 2009 in Hamburg, funded without public money. The festival is held annually in the fall, the performances will be shown including the Thalia Theater and the Schauspielhaus.

History and Organization

The festival was initiated by Nicholas Besch early 2009. Besch had previously ten years headed the theater house in the park at the community center of the Körber Foundation in Hamburg- Bergedorf. The festival is funded entirely by donations. Chairman of the Board of Trustees is the Hamburg businessman Ian Karan.

Festival 2009

The first time the festival was held, with a budget of 300,000 EUR in October 2009. Venues were Thalia Theatre, Playhouse and St. Pauli Theatre. Were shown at the festival five productions:

• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. A production of Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater, among others with Fritzi Haberlandt, directed by Jan Bosse.
• Storm of Shakespeare. A production of the Vienna Burgtheater, inter alia, with Maria Happel and Joachim Meyerhoff, directed by Barbara Frey.
• Amphitryon von Kleist. A production of the Schauspielhaus Zurich, directed by Matthias Hartmann.
• The Broken Jug von Kleist. A production of the Berliner Ensemble, among others, with Klaus Maria Brandauer directed by Peter Stein.
• Ritter, Dene, Voss by Thomas Bernhard. A production of the Berlin Deutsches Theater, among others with Ulrich Matthes and Constanze Becker, directed by Oliver Reese.