Generalintendant, Staatstheater Karlsruhe
Peter Spuhler was born in Berlin in 1965. He studied stage direction and dramaturgy at Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna, and for his diploma production he received a diploma with honours as well as an award sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Science. Following various commitments as guest and assistant stage director at a number of Viennese theatres he worked as dramaturge at the Schauspielhaus Wien in 1990/91.
From 1993, for three years, he took charge of the Children’s and Youth’s Theatre, and was also active there as stage director and dramaturge, at the Theater der Altmark/Landestheater Sachsen Anhalt-Nord at Stendal. Later he moved to Volkstheater Rostock, where he filled various leading positions, such as chief and executive dramaturge and Drama Director. Subsequently Peter Spuhler was elected Intendant of Landestheater Württemberg-Hohenzollern at Tübingen/Reutlingen. When taking his leave there, he received the city’s Hölderlin Medal in recognition of his achievements.
From the season 2005/06 Peter Spuhler was Intendant of Theater and Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg. His adventurous repertoire, jointly realized with Germany’s youngest Chief Musical Director, Cornelius Meister, Opera Director Bernd Feuchtner, and Drama Director Axel Preuß, received transregional attention and esteem. In 1996 Spuhler was co-founder of the Forum junge Dramaturgie within the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft, whose long-term board member and chairman since 2007 he has been.
He is also member of the Intendantengruppe of Deutscher Bühnenverein, of that association’s Publishers and Broadcasting Board, as well as deputy member of the association’s Administrative Board, and of the Administrative Board of the German Stages’ Pension Institution. Time and again he works as a guest lecturer, e. g., at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich in conjunction with the Theatre Academy there, and the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg. Since July 2006, Peter Spuhler, who as part of his being Intendant at Heidelberg is also responsible for the festivals „Heidelberger Stückemarkt“, „Heidelberger Schlossfestspiele“, and „Winter in Schwetzingen“, has been Speaker of the Festivalgruppe der Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, which is concerned with the profiling of the metropolitan region as a festival region. Furthermore, Theater Heidelberg has recently become a member of „Opera Europa“ und „European Theatre Convention (ETC)“, the two most important European theatre organizations.
With the season 2011/12 he became Generalintendant of Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where he founded two new sections, the “Junges Staatstheater” and the public participation section “Volkstheater” as well as a new rehearsal center. Subsequently the Staatstheater became a member of ETC and was nominated for awards such as the International Opera Award 2014 (Category: Accessibility) or for the Federal Prize for “Kultur” and won several Critics’ Choice Awards.
Photo (c) Florian Merdes