Dušan David Parízek

Source: Schauspielhaus Bochum

Dušan David Pařízek studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The Prague Chamber Theatre, which he founded in 1998 and led until 2012, has become the most prestigious stage in the country, has been voted Czech Theatre of the Year by critics on several occasions and has been invited to numerous international guest performances. Pařízek has soon attracted attention beyond the borders of the country with Czech and World premieres of texts by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Heiner Müller, Werner Schwab, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke and Thomas Bernhard. He repeatedly adapted works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil or Jaroslav Hašek for the stage. His special focus of reflecting the changing coexistence of nation states in the heart of Europe in his work, culminated in the years 2008 to 2011 in the Central Europe project: one Czech, one German and one Austrian season. For his work as a director and owner of the theatre directorship, Pařízek has been awarded with the renowned Alfréd Radok Prize four times (twice 2007, then in 2009 and 2011 – now the Prize of Czech Theatre Critics), the MAX Prize of the Allianz Cultural Foundation (2007 and 2008) and the Prize of the Prague theatre newspaper Divadelní noviny (2012, 2013, 2016 and 2024).

Since 2002 Pařízek has regularly directed plays in German-speaking countries in theatres such as Schauspiel Köln, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Burgtheater Wien, Schauspiel Hannover and Schauspielhaus Bochum. Usually, he is also responsible for his stage designs. His Faust 1-3 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Goethe’s tragedies together with the secondary drama FaustIn and out by Elfriede Jelinek) was invited to the Berliner Autorentheatertage in 2012 and to the Mülheimer Theatertage in 2013. His world premiere production of Wolfram Lotz’s The Ridiculous Darkness at the Burgtheater Wien has received several awards in 2015: Invitation to the Berliner Theatertreffen, Nestroy Theatre Prize as best production in German-speaking countries, Production of the Year and Stage Design of the Year in the german theatre critics journal Theater heute. In 2018 Pařízek was awarded with the Nestroy Theatre Prize for best director (Before Sunrise by Ewald Palmetshofer, Burgtheater Wien). He was again nominated for Nestroy Awards in 2019 (for best director, King Ottokar, His Rise and Fall, Volkstheater Vienna) and 2021 (for best production in German-speaking countries, Peer Gynt, Schauspielhaus Bochum).

In 2021 Pařízek renewed his collaboration with actors of the former ensemble of the Prague Chamber Theatre. Their association with the independent X10 Theatre earned the institution a number of awards, including the Czech Theatre of the Year Award 2023. With Pařízek’s adaptation and production of Yuri Andrukhovych’s novel The Moscoviade, the theatre already toured the Berliner Ensemble and Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, and for his subsequent project The Front (the Czech premiere of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front in conjunction with the drama Green Corridors by Ukrainian author Natalia Vorozhbyt) Pařízek won another Divadelní noviny Award. In 2024 Pařízek adapted and directed Pavel Vilikovský’s novel Hound Dog at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. The work received two Cena dosky 2024 awards in the categories of Best director and Best production of the theatrical season 2023/2024.