André Bücker (born 1969) is a German

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

and régisseur.

Life

Bücker was born in Harderberg,

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. While studying theatre, film and television studies, history and philosophy in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

, Bücker worked as an assistant director and realised his own productions in the independent theatre scene in Bochum,

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

and

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

. From 1994 to 1998, he was assistant director among others with Michael Simon, Hans Peter Cloos, , John Dew and director at

Theater Dortmund Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and o ...

. This was followed from 1998 to 2000 by a period as in-house director, senior dramaturge and deputy artistic director at the in

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

. Bücker worked for the and directed among others in Dortmund, Hanover, Graz, Nuremberg, Bremerhaven, Göttingen, Senftenberg, Mannheim and for the

Handel Festival, Halle The Handel Festival (in German: Händel-Festspiele) in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, is an international music festival concentrating on the music of George Frideric Handel in the composer's birthplace. It was founded in 1922 and it grew into ...

Life

While studying theatre, film and television studies, history and philosophy in

, Bücker worked as an assistant director and realised his own productions in the independent theatre scene in Bochum,

and

. From 1994 to 1998, he was an assistant director with Michael Simon, Hans Peter Cloos, Sewan Latchinian, John Dew and others, and a director at the

. This was followed from 1998 to 2000 by a period as in-house director, senior dramaturge and deputy to the artistic director at the in

. Bücker worked for the and staged among others in Dortmund, Hanover, Graz, Nuremberg, Bremerhaven, Göttingen, Senftenberg, Mannheim and for the

. He has also realised numerous cross-disciplinary projects and theatre in public space, such as ''kein.schöner.land. -fragment schleef'' (2004), ''Dem Gleich fehlt die Traue'' (2005) Kurt Weill's '' The Eternal Road'' (2006) and the large city project ''Auf die Plätze'' in September 2007. In the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm he staged the Shakespeare project "Landscape - Critique of Love" (Luisium Palace Park, 2011]) as well as Goethe's '' Iphigenia in Tauris (Goethe), Iphigenia on Tauris'' (Amphitheatre on the rocky island of Stein, 2013). Many of these works have been realised as collaborations, for example with the

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

of the , the

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

Academy, the ''Standing Conference on Central German Baroque Music'' and the '' Lautten Compagney'' Berlin (Wolfgang Katschner). Bücker has been repeatedly invited to festivals and numerous guest performances with his drama and musical theatre productions. From 2005 to 2008, Bücker was artistic director of the Halberstadt/Quedlinburg, one of the founding spokespersons of the Halberstadt Cultural Council and from the 2009/10 season he was

General Director A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...

at the

Anhaltisches Theater Anhaltisches Theater Dessau is a theatre in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which was called Landestheater Dessau until 1984. It is offering drama, musical theatre (operas, operettas, musicals), ballets, concerts of the orchestra, and pup ...

in Dessau. Here, in addition to other major projects such as "The Beggar's Opera/Polly" (after Gay/Pepusch, 2014) and ''Götz von Berlichingen'' (2015), he staged Richard Wagner's opera tetralogy ''

The Ring of the Nibelung (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'' as a "Ring of Classical Modernism" (2013-2015) with clear references to the aesthetics of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

. This production was shown as a cycle in May 2015 for the International Richard Wagner Congress in Dessau. His contract was not renewed by the city and his position was advertised for August 2015. He has refrained from applying again. Bücker is a harsh critic of the cuts in the cultural sector in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. On 17 November 2015, the ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'' reported that Bücker would succeed outgoing artistic director

Juliane Votteler Juliane Votteler (born 1960) is a German dramaturge and theatre director. Life Born in Stuttgart, Votteler, daughter of the industrial designer , studied old and New German Literary Studies, Theatre, Film and Television Studies and philosophy ...

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

of the

Theater Augsburg The Staatstheater Augsburg is a theatre of Augsburg, Germany. Until 1999 it was called Städtische Bühnen Augsburg, from then until the end of August 2018 it was called ''Theater Augsburg''. It offers on four stages musical theatre, plays and bal ...

for the 2017/18 season.André Bücker wird neuer Intendant
In ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'', article dated 17 November 2015, retrieved 18 November 2015 His directorship officially began on 1 September 2017. Bücker is a member of the board of the Eastern Regional Association of the

Deutscher Bühnenverein The Deutscher Bühnenverein is an organization representing 430 theatres, opera houses, drama, ballet and opera companies and orchestras in Germany. It is involved in artistic, legal, organisational and political questions relevant to its members a ...

and a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. He is patron and sponsor of several projects and was

of the international music festival "Himmel auf Erden - Die Kulturen der Welt zu Gast in Luthers Wittenberg" (Heaven on Earth - The Cultures of the World as Guests in Luther's Wittenberg) until 2013, which was funded by the under the patronage of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Bernd Neumann Bernd Otto Neumann (born 6 January 1942) is a former German politician and since 2014 president of the German Federal Film Board (FFA). Biography Neumann was born in Elbing, East Prussia, now Elbląg, Poland. Following the flight and expu ...

from 2010 to 2013.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bucker, Andre German theatre directors 1969 births Living people People from Georgsmarienhütte German opera directors