Anja
Dirks Stage direction & dramaturgy

Anja Dirks, born in 1970, grew up in Germany and France. From 1989 to 1995, she worked as an assistant in Berlin, including at the Schiller Theatre, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and in the independent theatre scene. From 1995 to 1999, she studied directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, but already began to work increasingly as a dramaturg and curator during her studies. From 2000 to 2002, she was Matthias Lilienthal's assistant for the Theatre of the World Festival in Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Duisburg. She then moved to the Forum Freies Theater (FFT) in Düsseldorf as a programme dramaturge. From 2004 to 2007, she was responsible for the theatre programme at the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich. In 2008, she curated the forum festwochen programme for the Wiener Festwochen.

From 2009 to 2014, she directed the Theaterformen festival, one of the largest festivals for international theatre in Germany. It takes place alternately every year as an event of the local state theatres in Braunschweig and Hanover and presents numerous guest performances from all over the world as well as co-productions and in-house productions.

She moved to Basel with her family in 2013 and was appointed director of the Belluard Bollwerk International Festival in Fribourg in 2014. She realised five editions of the traditional, interdisciplinary art festival in the medieval bulwark of the bilingual city until 2019.

Anja Dirks has been Co-Director of Drama at Theater Basel since the 20/21 season. As a dramaturge, she is responsible for ‹Cosmic Drama›, ‹Das Narrenschiff›, ‹Molière - der eingebildete Tote›, ‹Little Ice Age› and ‹Chroniken vom Mars›, among others. In the 24/25 season, she was honoured by the French Ministry of Culture with the prestigious ‹Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres› for her commitment to francophone culture.