Katharina Birch, born in Berlin in 1979, began studying theatre and musicology at the Free University of Berlin in 1998, but then worked mainly as an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater Berlin (artistic director Thomas Langhoff/ Bernd Wilms) and the Theater Freiburg (artistic director Amélie Niermeyer), among others. During the directorship of Tom Stromberg and Friedrich Schirmer, she was a permanent assistant director at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Her first own directing work at the Schauspielhaus (High Fidelity by Nick Hornby) was invited to the Ruhrfestspiele in Recklinghausen. At the Schauspielhaus she created various sound installations, staged Pünktchen und Anton by Erich Kästner and worked on the co-production of Harper Regan at the Salzburg Festival. In search of new theatre impulses, Katharina Birch moved abroad - to London. She lived in Great Britain for eight years and worked for several theatres and opera companies in London (Royal Court Theatre/ Choreographer Hofesh Schechter, Sadlers Wells and Red Room Company). For the Garden Opera Company she staged Der Barbier von Sevilla.
Katharina Birch moved back to Germany with her family shortly before and because of the Brexit referendum and under her artistic direction the Kulturwerkstatt Leer in East Frisia was founded in 2019. She regularly leads courses and cross-disciplinary projects there herself. In 2021, for example, she developed the exhibition Ich packe meine Koffer - Lebenserinnerungen von Auguste Moses-Nussbaum for the former Jewish school Leer. An exhibition with photographs by Benyamin Reich and (sound) installations by Shorty Gerriets. The city of Marburg engaged her as director for the Marburg800 anniversary gala in 2022 with presenter Thomas Koschwitz (live stream format). Katharina Birch has been working as a freelance director again since 2018 for various theatres in Germany such as Staatstheater Hannover, Theater Osnabrück, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater and Schauspielhaus Bochum.
Current roles:
- Director in Der Struwwelpeter
Past roles:
- Director in Die Fledermaus
- Director in Die Schöne und das Biest