Theater Academy August Everding: Barbara Gronau is to become President

Created: 05/12/2022, 18:00

By: Markus Thiel

Barbara Gronau will probably move from Berlin to Munich.

© court photographers

The August Everding Theater Academy will probably have a female president: Barbara Gronau is to move from the Berlin University of the Arts to Munich.

Although taking office is planned for autumn, there is still no signed contract.

Two years would be normal.

Enough preparation and transition time to train the newcomer.

But there is still no signed contract for the top position at the August Everding Theater Academy.

It is certain that Hans-Jürgen Drescher, born in 1954, will give up his presidency and that a successor will be needed from autumn.

There will probably be a female president: It is considered agreed that Barbara Gronau, professor of theory and history of theater at the Berlin University of the Arts and dean of the performing arts department there, will move to Prinzregentenplatz.

As early as next week there will be a first round with the Munich course directors.

Barbara Gronau, born in 1972, was initially a research associate at the Free University of Berlin and a guest lecturer at the Universities of Mainz and Bern.

In 2012 and 2013 she taught as a junior professor at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

She was also engaged as a dramaturge for various theater productions.

The Ministry of Art is waiting an unusually long time before making decisions

The fact that Bavaria's Ministry of Art has waited so long with the decision causes internal frowns.

For some time now, one of the most renowned training institutes in the German-speaking world has been stumbling.

Responsible for this is, among other things, a personnel bloodletting.

The managing director, Stefan Schmaus, changes as chancellor to the Munich University for Theater and Music.

The application deadline for this academy position is not until the end of May – unusually late here, too, since the newcomer has to start this job on September 1st.

Other positions in the academy are also vacant, some have left the house “in a hurry”, as an insider puts it.

There is a general fear that the Theater Academy has slipped out of the focus of Bavaria's Ministry of Arts and Sciences - also due to Bernd Sibler's move to Markus Blume (both CSU).

There are currently too many "cultural construction sites" in Bavaria, so that this institute is considered to be of secondary importance - with fatal consequences in view of the delay in filling new positions.

So an omission?

Or is it a way to let the Academy starve at an outstretched arm?

"It could be one thing and become another," as one academician puts it.

However, the Ministry of Art pointed out that the academy should remain an independent institute.

Whether something is changed in the structures is left to the new management in cooperation with the ministry.

The ministry does not want to recognize that the new appointments will be made unusually late – after all, corresponding decisions by the cabinet, among others, are necessary.

The theater academy needs a structural reform

It has long been clear that the structure of the theater academy, founded by August Everding in 1993, is no longer up to date.

The institute is a hybrid, in the eight courses there is cooperation with the University of Music and Theater, the Ludwig Maximilian University, the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Television and Film.

The students of the academy are enrolled at these universities.

Everything is financed not only through state money, but above all through the rental of the Prince Regent Theater - a highly sought-after event space.

Reform proposals were already being developed under Klaus Zehelein, Academy President from 2006 to 2014.

The task that will probably go to the first woman at the top goes far beyond the apprenticeship and the day-to-day management business.

What is likely to be decisive is how the budget is doing.

The Free State has not yet planned any cuts for the current year.

What will happen from 2023, however, is written in the stars.