Vasco Boenisch, born in Berlin in 1980, graduated from the Deutsche Journalistenschule and studied Journalism, Politics, Theatre Studies and Sociology in Munich before completing a doctorate. He was a theatre critic for Bild, the Frankfurter Rundschau and for nine years for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. From 2009 to 2014 he worked for WDR television as a cultural correspondent and presenter and also as a consultant to the Head of Arts and Sciences. He was responsible for the cultural programme ‘Anke hat Zeit’ with Anke Engelke, which won the German Television Academy award in 2014. He was a member of the jury that awarded the Mülheim Playwriting Prize in 2010, served on the jury for the Berlin Theatertreffen from 2011 to 2013, and from 2014 to 2015 was a jury member at the Heidelberger Stückemarkt. He was Dramaturg for the Ruhrtriennale, the festival of the arts in the Ruhr area, from 2015 to 2017, and taught on the Directing course at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

At the start of the 2018/2019 season Vasco Boenisch then moved to Schauspielhaus Bochum together with Artistic Director Johan Simons, where he took up the role of Lead Dramaturg. In the years that followed the Schauspielhaus won numerous prizes and was named ‘Theatre of the Year’ in 2022. As a dramaturg, the directors he has collaborated with include Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Florian Fischer, Herbert Fritsch, Karin Henkel, Susanne Kennedy, Dušan David Pařízek, Lies Pauwels, Christopher Rüping and Johan Simons. For his text adaptation of Kleist’s Penthesilea for actors Sandra Hüller and Jens Harzer (directed by Johan Simons, Salzburg Festival/Schauspielhaus Bochum, 2018) he was nominated several times as Dramaturg of the Year. He was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2022 with Christopher Rüping’s production Das neue Leben.

In the 2023/2024 season, Vasco Boenisch was Artistic Director and Deputy Artistic Director of Schauspielhaus Bochum. He was also co-speaker of the RuhrBühnen theatre network from 2023 to 2024. He has published several non-fiction books, including on the topics of campaign journalism and theatre criticism, and has written the monthly theatre column Fragen Sie Vasco Boenisch in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung since 2020.

He is the designated artistic director of Schauspiel Hannover from the 2025/2026 season.

Current roles:

Past roles: