News

An applicant in a wheelchair, with physical and speech impairments, wishes to study acting. Doubts among the teaching staff, uncertainty about how to interact with him, organisational hurdles – and yet the commitment not to judge too hastily, but to look more closely: at his enthusiasm for acting, his spontaneity, his ability to work in a group, and his sense of humour.

The Applied Theatre students are showing try-outs of their work in the module "On Representation - Who cares, who speaks?". Together with co-researchers, accomplices and so-called experts of everyday life, they try to find out which untold stories should be given a stage.

This winter semester, directing students at the Thomas Bernhard Institute are working together with acting students from three different years and in cooperation with scenography students to develop productions based on an examination of theatre texts from antiquity.

Establishing and developing the profile of an ensemble is one of the most demanding and, at the same time, most appealing challenges in artistic development. Many globally successful ensembles were formed during their studies, laying the foundation for an international chamber music career. However, existing study programmes alone can only provide limited incentives and framework conditions for this. The ensemble scholarship is the answer to this: convincing project proposals receive financial support for a period of one year to realise specific artistic projects.

The Boy Gobert Prize for young actors in the Hamburg theatre scene, worth €10,000, has been awarded to Payam Yazdani, a 2025 graduate of the Mozarteum University’s Thomas Bernhard Institute. We congratulate him on his success!

Cristina Giurgea, alumna of the Master's programme in Applied Theatre at the Mozarteum University’s Thomas Bernhard Institute, has received a €12,000 grant – awarded annually by the State of Salzburg in the field of Performing Arts – to support her work at the intersection of research theatre and performance art in Salzburg. Congratulations!

How long is a minute? A fleeting moment or rather an eternity? In fact, each of us perceives time differently. For some, a minute at the bus stop drags on endlessly, for others it races by like a world record attempt.

From 22 to 28 June 2025, around 200 drama students from 18 universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will gather at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg for the national competition for German-speaking drama students. The event is being hosted by the Thomas Bernhard Institute – sending a clear message: ‘Get out of the bubble’.

Mariia Tkachenko lived in Kyiv until March 2022, where she received singing and violin lessons as a child and has already appeared in several TV productions. Her acting studies at the I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television were interrupted by the war in Ukraine.

How does an acting class work? And what does the end result look like on stage? Find out at the #summercampspecial! Because at the national competition for German-speaking drama students, 19 drama schools from all over the German-speaking world will be presenting their theatre works at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Anastasiia Larina receives scholarship from the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA). She comes from Kherson/Ukraine and has been studying the MA Applied Theater - Critical Theater Practice and Community at the Thomas Bernhard Institute of the Mozarteum University since 2023.