Katharina Schmitt is a director, playwright, and librettist in the fields of theatre, contemporary opera, and radio. Her work has been presented internationally at theatres, opera houses, and festivals, including Studio Hrdinů in Prague, Oper Köln, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the Munich Biennale, Gare du Nord Basel, Festival Musica Strasbourg, and the National Theatre in Prague. Schmitt studied theatre directing at the Academy of Arts in Prague, where she also completed a PhD.
A central focus of Schmitt's practice is the creation of new operatic works as a director and libretist. She has collaborated closely with a range of composers, including Ondřej Adámek, Juliana Hodkinson, Eugene Birman, Michal Rataj, and Jiří Kadeřábek, developing new operas and their stagings. Recent works include ARCHE, an intermedial opera project developed with composer Eugene Birman between Berlin and Hong Kong, presented as an installation at the Munich Biennale in 2026; INES, a new opera with composer Ondřej Adámek, which premiered at Oper Köln in June 2024 in a production directed by Schmitt; and HAUCH (2020), a sonic horror show created with composer Juliana Hodkinson and set designer Marsha Ginsberg for Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin. Earlier projects include Everything Goes to Plan, a chamber opera by Ondřej Adámek for which Schmitt wrote the libretto and directed the premiere at the Munich Biennale (2018); Molyneux’s Problem, with music by Michal Rataj, presented as a radio play for ORF and Czech Radio, a performance at Berlin’s EIGEN+ART Lab, and a theatre production at Studio Hrdinů Prague (2018); and Jiří Kadeřábek’s No Man, which she directed at the National Theatre in Prague (2017).
Schmitt has received awards and fellowships, 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 numerous languages, including 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 nominated for Prix Europa, Prix Marulić, and Grand Prix Nova.