Katharina Schmitt is a director and playwright working in theatre, opera, and radio. Her stagings, opera libretti, and plays have been presented internationally at theatres, opera houses, and festivals, including Studio Hrdinů Prague, Oper Köln, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Residenztheater Munich/Munich Biennale, Gare du Nord Basel, Festival Musica Strasbourg, and the Prague National Theatre.
A central focus of Schmitt’s artistic practice is her work as a librettist and director in the field of contemporary opera. She has collaborated closely with a range of composers, including Ondřej Adámek, Juliana Hodkinson, Michal Rataj, and Jiří Kadeřábek, developing new operas and their stagings. In 2017, she directed Kadeřábek’s opera No Man at the National Theatre in Prague. In 2018, she wrote the libretto and directed Everything Goes to Plan, a chamber opera by Ondřej Adámek, at the Munich Biennale. Also in 2018, she wrote and staged Molyneux’s Problem, with a composition by Michal Rataj. The work was realized as a radio play for ORF and Czech Radio, as a performance at the Berlin gallery EIGEN+ART Lab, and as a theatre production at Studio Hrdinů in Prague. In 2020, together with composer Juliana Hodkinson and set designer Marsha Ginsberg, Schmitt created HAUCH, a sonic horror show for Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. INES, a new opera developed with composer Ondřej Adámek, premiered in June 2024 at Oper Köln, directed by Schmitt.
Schmitt has received numerous accolades, including the Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Prize for Playwrights, the Martha Saalfeld Prize for Literature, an EHF 2010 Fellowship, and an Alfred Döblin Scholarship from the Berlin Academy of Arts. Her plays have been translated into English, French, Polish, Finnish, and Czech, and are represented by Rowohlt Theaterverlag. Her radio plays have been produced and broadcast by Deutschlandradio, ORF, Český Rozhlas, and WDR, and have been nominated for Prix Europa, Prix Marulić, and the Grand Prix Nova.
Katharina Schmitt studied theatre directing at the Prague Academy of Arts, where she also completed a PhD. Since 2012, she has been an associate director at Studio Hrdinů in Prague.