Nora Abdel-Maksoud

Nora Abdel-Maksoud was born in Munich and began to study acting in 2005 at the Academy of Film and Television Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Since 2009 Abdel-Maksoud has been a freelance actress in film and TV productions. She performed at venues including the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam and at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, in addition to current appearances at the Maxin Gorki Theatre. In 2012 she presented her first work as director and author, Hunting von Trier, which was broadcast in a radio play version by Deutschlandradio Kultur. In 2014, she wrote and directed KINGS, a play located in a surreal, pumped-up culture industry bubble, which premiered at the Ballhaus Naunynstraße and was invited to the radikal jung festival at Munich's Volksstheater. In 2015-16 her production Die Geschichte von Buffalo Jim (The Story of Buffalo Jim) premiered at the Gorki's Studio Я, while Mad Madams premiered at Halle's Neues Theater and Sie nannten ihn Tico (UA, They called him Tico) at Munich's Volkstheater. Her play THE MAKING-OF (world premiere in Studio Я on 13.1.2017) was invited to Radikal jung in 2017. In 2017's end-of-year review from Theater heute magazine, she was honoured as best young director of the year for that production. She also received the 2017 Kurt-Hübner-Regiepreis award for direction for The Making-Of. As part of the jury's statement on its decision, juror Peter Kümmel said: »The staging virtually bursts with artificiality, it deals with abysses at their most extreme surfaces, commedia dell'arte comes to mind – ›The Making-of‹ is a commedia dell’arte for the age of series, bursting with affect, vain, hypocritical, narcissistic, full of self-pity, bashful, sheepish, childish. But probably true. And then, in a way, cocky and emboldening, which is very rare in German theatre. Perhaps Nora Abdel-Maksoud wrote and directed this comedy to endure this habitat.«
In the 2018/2019 season, THE SEQUEL, the continuation of Abdel-Maksoud's award-winning directorial debut, celebrated its world premiere at the Gorki. The production was nominated for the 2018 Friedrich-Luft-Preis. At the Gorki she also staged Rabatt in season 2021/22 and Café Populaire Royal in season 2024/25.


Photo: Esra Rotthoff