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Kay Voges: From 2025 at Schauspiel Köln
Photo: Oliver Berg / picture alliance / dpa
Kay Voges becomes the new artistic director of Schauspiel Köln. He was "overjoyed" about his appointment, Voges said at a joint press conference with Mayor Henriette Reker (independent). On Monday evening, the main committee of the Cologne City Council had approved his appointment. The Düsseldorf-born actor, currently head of the Vienna Volkstheater, succeeds Stefan Bachmann, who will move to Vienna's Burgtheater for the 2024/25 season.
Voges wants to secure national and international attention for the Kölner Schauspiel as the future artistic director. "Schauspiel Köln will have a unique selling point within the German-speaking theatre landscape due to its content and aesthetic orientations," said the theatre maker. On the one hand, Cologne's very own local stories were to be told, but at the same time the Schauspielhaus was to be a "place for Europe, a theatre that is committed to the fundamental values of the European Union and seeks a progressive European narrative".
After Bachmann's move to Vienna, there is initially an interim solution with in-house director Rafael Sanchez. Voges will then join the 2025/26 season. By then, after more than a decade in transitional quarters, the Kölner Schauspiel will have moved to the renovated headquarters in the city centre. "This is one of the top stages in Europe that is currently being built," said Voges, who had recently visited the construction site of the post-war house.
hpi/dpa