Bert Neumann, born 1960 in Magdeburg, studied stage and costume design at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee from 1980 to 1985. He then spent three years at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam. From 1988 he worked as a freelance artist. In the same year he began his collaboration with Frank Castorf at the Volksbühne in Berlin. In 1990 Neumann founded the autonomous graphic agency LSD together with Lenore Blievernicht and Susanne Schuboth. This subsequently designed the Volksbühne's marketing - from the programme leaflet (instead of the booklet) to the landmark of the laufendes Rad. Since 1992 he has been chief stage designer at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Neumann subsequently worked with directors such as Thomas Langhoff, Peter Konwitschny, Christoph Schlingensief and Leander Haußmann, for whose film Sonnenallee he also designed the costumes. Next to Castorf, Neumann has worked continuously with the author and director René Pollesch since 2000 and with Johan Simons since 2003. Neumann, who until 2010 was co-director of the Berliner Volksbühne alongside Castorf, also worked as a stage designer at theatres such as the Opéra National de Paris and the De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. In 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2016 he was voted Stage Designer of the Year by the Theater heute magazine's critics' survey. In 2009 Neumann was appointed a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts. Bert Neumann died unexpectedly on 30 July 2015 at the age of 54. In the 2018/19 season, his stage design can be seen at the Schauspielhaus Bochum in Johan Simon's production of Unterwerfung, which was originally created at the Münchner Kammerspiele. The stage design for Plattform was also created in collaboration between Johan Simons and Bert Neumann.

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