Thom Luz was born in Zurich in 1982. From 2000 to 2005 he studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich. His debut as a director was «Patience Camp», which premiered at the «Treibstoff Theater Festival» at Kaserne Basel in 2007, followed by an invitation to the festival «Theaterformen» Hannover in 2009. Since then Luz has been working in the freelance theater scene as well as upon invitation at different official play houses. 

In her review in the «Süddeutsche Zeitung», Cornelia Fiedler wrote of Luz’s collaboration with Swiss playwright Laura de Weck on «Archive of the Incomplete»: ‘The practically freed-from-the-senses atmosphere reminds us of Christoph Marthaler, the doyen of directing, but the young team has created something new of its very own. This precisely composed, provocative «speech and music evening, which rests in itself, provides a moment of uncommon theater bliss.» 

Luz’s «Archive of the Incomplete» was invited to the «Mülheimer Theatertagen», to the «Autorentheatertagen» of the Theater Berlin and to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt in 2014. The «Ghost Music Evening» WHEN I DIE, created in Luz’s parent company Gessnerallee Zurich, has been touring around the world since it premiered at Spielart Festival in Munich in 2013. It also visited the cities of Berlin, Jerusalem, Lausanne, Mainz, Marseille, Montpellier, Nanterre, Paris, Reykjavik, Rotterdam, Strasbourg, Tampere and Zurich. 

Both productions tipped the scales in favor of Thom Luz’s being awarded Newcoming Director of the Year 2014, according to a poll among theater critics conducted by the trade journal «Theater Heute». 

With his adaptation and staging of Judith Schalansky’s «Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln» (Atlas of the remote Islands) at Staatstheater Hannover, Thom Luz was invited to the «Berliner Theatertreffen» in 2015.  

Since the 2015/16 Season Thom Luz has been in-house director at Theater Basel. It was there where the production «LSD – mein Sorgenkind» (LSD – My Problem Child) was mounted, followed by an invitation by the Heidelberger Stückemarkt and the Autorentheatertage Berlin. 

After his free production UNUSUAL WEATHER PHENOMENA PROJECT Thom Luz staged the play «Traurige Zauberer» (Sad Magicians) for the Staatstheater Mainz, resulting in his second invitation to the Theatertreffen Berlin. 

In 2018 Thom Luz created GIRL FROM THE FOG MACHINE FACTORY, another free production, at Gessnerallee Zurich. 

During the season 2018/19 he continues to collaborate with the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, staging Thomas Bernhard’s «Alte Meister» (Old Masters). There he had already staged «Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän» (Man Appeared in the Holocene Period) by Max Frisch in 2016.

2019/2020 he worked for the first time at Residenztheater München and Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.

2021 Thom Luz creates SONGS WITHOUT WORDS, another free production in Zurich and Basel.

www.thomluz.ch

www.schaefersphilippen.de

PRODUCTIONS

TEAM

SWISS THEATRE AWARD 2019

«A single searchlight and an old mirror reflecting the cone of light into the darkness: that’s all it takes for Thom Luz to dazzle his audience. His is a theatre of ephemeral phenomena and, as such, one that enables us to experience time itself. It is inhabited by spirits, mists, flickering candles and recurrent, mesmerising music. This is a theatre that conjures nimble-footed magic from the cumbersome stage machinery and old-fashioned piano. In these productions, humans are invariably seeking something to cling on to amid the transitoriness of life. Luz succeeds in transforming this fundamentally troubling state into one of breezy nonchalance. For that we are grateful to him.»
Mathias Balzer, jury member

UPCOMING EVENTS