Anna Heesen

Anna Heesen, raised in Mülheim an der Ruhr, studied dramaturgy at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. At the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz she was Carl Hegemann's assistant, working with directors such as Andrij Zholdak and Christoph Schlingensief. In the 2008/2009 season she began a staff position as an assistant dramaturg at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, working on dramaturgy for directors including Sylvain Creuzevault, Sebastian Nübling, Martin Kušej, René Pollesch and Samuel Weiss at that theatre until the 2010/2011 season. In 2010/11 she received the Marie Zimmermann Fellowship for the support of young dramaturgs, which included a two-month residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude. Working as an independent dramaturg, she remained part of Christoph Schlingensief's team (on productions such as Der Zwischenstand der Dinge at the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin and Via Intolleranza II, a co-production from the Festspielhaus Afrika gGmbH with Kampnagel Hamburg, the Münchner Staatsoper and the Wiener Festwochen). Since 2007 she's pursued regular collaborations with Martin Wuttke (Gretchens Faust and Das Abenteuerliche Herz – Droge und Rausch at the Berliner Ensemble, and Nach der Oper – Würgengel at the Burgtheater Wien) and with René Pollesch at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Burgtheater Wien and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, where she was a member of the staff, working not only with Pollesch but also Wuttke, David Marton, Markus Öhrn and Krzysztof Garbaczewski.
At the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus she worked with Markus Heinzelmann, and at the Residenztheater München with Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner. After the leadership change at the Volksbühne in 2017, she returned to working as an independent dramaturg, with Karin Henkel at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Beute Frauen Krieg), with Marton at the Opéra National de Lyon (Don Giovanni), with Pollesch at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and at the Burgtheater Wien, with Sebastian Nübling at the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin and at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, and with Wuttke at the Berliner Ensemble. At the Gorki she's most recently worked together with Sebastian Nübling on his production of AUSSER SICH by Sasha Marianna Salzmann as well as DIE VERLOBUNG IN ST. DOMINGO – EIN WIDERSPRUCH by Necati Öziri gegen Heinrich von Kleist.