Dušan David Pařízek
(c) Lukáš Horký
Dušan David Pařízek studied acting and directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The Prague Chamber Theatre, which he founded in 1998 and directed until 2012, has become the most prestigious theatre in the country. It was voted Czech Theatre of the Year by critics on several occasions, and its ensemble has been invited to various international guest performances. Pařízek has received numerous awards for his work, causing an international stir with world- and Czech premieres of texts by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Heiner Müller, Werner Schwab, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke and Thomas Bernhard. Pařízek has adapted works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil and Jaroslav Hašek for the stage. His focus on flux in the coexistence of European nation states culminated in "Projekt Mitteleuropa" (Central Europe Project). Running between 2008 to 2011, it featured one Czech, one German and one Austrian season respectively. In the Czech Republic, Pařízek has received the prestigious Alfréd Radok Prize (now the Theatre Critics' Award) four times for his work as a director and theatre manager (2007, 2009 and 2011). Among other accolades, he has also won the MAX Prize of the Allianz Cultural Foundation (2007 and 2008) and the "Divadelní noviny" theatre newspaper prize (2012, 2013 and 2016).
Since 2002 Pařízek has regularly directed plays in German-speaking countries. His plays have been staged at Schauspiel Köln, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, Vienna Burgtheater, Schauspiel Hanover and Schauspielhaus Bochum, among others. Pařízek usually designs his own stage sets. Faust 1-3 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus (Goethe's tragedies plus the "secondary drama" FaustIn and out (by Elfriede Jelinek) was invited to the Berliner Autorentheatertage in 2012 and to the Mülheimer Theatertage in 2013. His world premiere production of Wolfram Lotz's The Farcical Darkness at the Burgtheater Vienna received several awards in 2015: it received an invitation to the Berlin Theatertreffen, won the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best German-Language Performance, and was named Production of the Year and Stage Design of the Year by the German theatre critics' journal Theater heute. In 2018 Pařízek was awarded with the Nestroy Best Director Prize for Before Sunrise (by Ewald Palmetshofer and based on Gerhart Hauptmann's drama), which was staged at the Burgtheater Vienna. Iphigénie, which ran in the 2018/2019 season, was his first production at Schauspielhaus Bochum. Annette: An Epic Heroine was his directorial debut at Schauspiel Stuttgart.
Since 2002 Pařízek has regularly directed plays in German-speaking countries. His plays have been staged at Schauspiel Köln, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, Vienna Burgtheater, Schauspiel Hanover and Schauspielhaus Bochum, among others. Pařízek usually designs his own stage sets. Faust 1-3 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus (Goethe's tragedies plus the "secondary drama" FaustIn and out (by Elfriede Jelinek) was invited to the Berliner Autorentheatertage in 2012 and to the Mülheimer Theatertage in 2013. His world premiere production of Wolfram Lotz's The Farcical Darkness at the Burgtheater Vienna received several awards in 2015: it received an invitation to the Berlin Theatertreffen, won the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best German-Language Performance, and was named Production of the Year and Stage Design of the Year by the German theatre critics' journal Theater heute. In 2018 Pařízek was awarded with the Nestroy Best Director Prize for Before Sunrise (by Ewald Palmetshofer and based on Gerhart Hauptmann's drama), which was staged at the Burgtheater Vienna. Iphigénie, which ran in the 2018/2019 season, was his first production at Schauspielhaus Bochum. Annette: An Epic Heroine was his directorial debut at Schauspiel Stuttgart.
Archive
Staging and Stage Design