Biography Anton Rey

AR's credits for European drama include work for the Berliner Ensemble and the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele and Bayerisches Staatstheater in Munich, Paris Théâtre de L'Odéon, Vienna Burgtheater, Edinburgh International Festival, and Schauspielhaus Zürich in Switzerland. Anton Rey has delivered lectures and talks at several European drama schools, including Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich. His work as a consultant, assistant director, and producer includes collaborations with theatre directors Peter Zadek, Peter Stein, Luc Bondy, Robert Wilson, Dieter Dorn, Heiner Müller and Klaus Michael Grüber, and with film directors Peter Keglevic, Michel Deville, Herbert Achternbusch and Wim Wenders. Anton Rey holds an MA Film and Theatre Studies from Freie Universität Berlin, and a BA German Literature and Philosophy. Since 2002, he has been teaching theatre history and dramaturgy at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He was appointed professor in 2006, and in 2007 head of the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film (IPF), a leading Swiss research institute for film, dance and theatre.
Teaching interests My undergraduate teaching is quite diverse. Some of my time is spent teaching the history of European drama from Aeschylus to contemporary postdramatic issues, with a particular interest in literature and the development of twentieth-century German drama. I am currently responsible for modules on post-1980s German theatre. Themes and issues include performance, social acting, dramaturgy, directors and actors in Germany from Peter Stein to Christoph Marthaler. I also teach an undergraduate module on Dramatic Structures in social behaviourism and, in the final year, a module on Methods of Artistic Research in Theatre and a module entitled States of Mind: Fake or Real Emotions. I have also taught modules on the plays of Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, and Peter Zadek, and on how to organize an international theatre and music festival such as the Edinburgh International Festival. I contribute to theoretical focuses in the final year of MA studies and have initiated various collaborations, among others with A.C.T., San Francisco, where we produced a play for young American actors (also published by Smith and Kraus), or with Morita Office, Tokyo, with whom we convened several workshop-exchanges between Japan and Switzerland.

Research interests

My research interests are oriented toward the key research areas of the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film (ipf - see: http://ipf.zhdk.ch). They include: - theatre: social acting / acting self / presence / theatre pedagogy / authenticity of emotions - film: film as research / oral history on film / art film - dance: techniques / embodiment / streaming systems My research activities are also closely related to my teaching. Over the past years, I have worked mainly on modern, experimental dramatic structures. I am particularly interested in the relationship between dramatic texts and performance theory, modern staging, and acting, as well as social and political issues.

Publications

I have recently published four books, one on Antonin Artaud, which deals with Artaud's influential engagement with ghosts and séances; another explores authenticity in film; the third focuses on artistic research, in order to sharpen the conceptual idiom for critical debate on the subject, and recently one on contemporary acting (see below).
-    Attention Artaud. subTexte 01. Mit Beiträgen von Elisabeth Bronfen, Stephan Müller, Gerald Siegmund und Benno Wirz. Zürich 2008. ISBN 978-3-906437-23-1
-    Wirklich? - Strategien der Authentizität im aktuellen Dokumentarfilm. subTexte 02. Mit Beiträgen von Franz Reichle, Christian Iseli, Daniel Sponsel, Jan Sebening, Lucie Bader Egloff. Zürich 09
-    Künstlerische Forschung - Positionen und Perspektiven. subTexte 03. Mit Beiträgen von Dirk Baecker, Henk Borgdorff, Sonke Gau/Katharina Schlieben und Alfred Nordmann. Zürich 2009
-    Wirkungsmaschine Schauspieler ␣ Vom Menschendarsteller zum multifunktionalen Spielemacher. subTexte 06. Mit Beiträgen von Jens Roselt, Heiner Goebbels, Herbert Fritsch, Hajo Kurzenberger, Joachim Meyerhoff, Bernd Stegemann, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Franz Wille uva. Zürich 2011
Possible topics, recent and current ipf research ventures for talks, teaching or presentations: - "Attention Artaud" an artistic-practice approach to a specific phenomenon of Artaud - "theatertheorie.net", a web tool for performers unused to reading thick books about contemporary theatre theories
- "Avenida Asia" a practice-based research project and exchange with Japanese stage traditions - "Focal Point: Non-Professional Actors", a major research project on cultural policies, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2007-09) - "Authenticity of Emotions", a collaboration with the Swiss Epilepsy Centre (2005-2012)
ar, Zurich in July 2011