Dr. Thomas Oberender, who was born in Jena in 1966, was appointed managing director of the Berliner Festspiele in 2012. From 2006 to 2011, he was theatre director at the Salzburg Festival. In 2005-06, he was head dramaturg and co-director of the Schauspielhaus Zürich and, from 2000 to 2005, head dramaturge and member of the artistic direction at the Schauspielhaus Bochum under Matthias Hartmann.
From 1988 to 2000, Oberender lived in Berlin, where he earned a doctorate at Humboldt Universität in 1999. In 1997, he was a co-founder of the author’s Association Theater Neuen Typs (Theater of a New Kind), which is dedicated to the dissemination of theatre texts by German-speaking authors.
He has written and translated plays, essays, theatre and literature criticism, and has realized projects for Expo 2000, the Ruhrtriennale (2004 and 2005), and the European Cultural Capital project “Ruhr 2010.”
He has published numerous books, including Leben auf Probe. Wie die Bühne zur Welt wird (Life is a Rehearsal: How the Stage Becomes a World; 2009), and Das schöne Fräulein Unbekannt. Gespräche über Theater, Kunst und Lebenszeit (The Lovely Miss Unknown: Discussions of Theater, Art, and Life; 2011), „Nebeneingang oder Haupteingang. Gespräche über 50 Jahre Schreiben fürs Theater“ (2014).