Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – Dorothea Hartmann and Beate Heine will take over the management of the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. They replace director Uwe-Eric Laufenberg, who has not extended his contract until the summer of 2024. As the state capital announced on Tuesday, Hartmann and Heine are to run the house as artistic dual directors for an initial period of five years. Hesse’s Minister of Art Angela Dorn (Greens) spoke of a good solution “for the restart and future of the State Theater”.
There had been a lot of quarrels at the house in recent years. Among other things, General Music Director Patrick Lange gave up his post early last fall. His predecessor Zsolt Hamar also left the State Theater before his contract expired. In autumn 2020, a dispute escalated between Laufenberg, the Wiesbaden health department and the ministry about the corona hygiene concept at the time. As a result, the Staatstheater had to stop playing at short notice and cancel a premiere.
Hartmann has been a member of the management team at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2012. Heine is currently deputy director at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. According to the information, the two prevailed against around 40 competitors. 15 teams had applied accordingly. Laufenberg has been artistic director in Wiesbaden since the 2014/2015 season.
