OVERVIEW // Until 1938, Austria had an active Jewish theater scene. Through theater, Jewish culture, in all its diversity, was portrayed and critically examined, but also the problems of the day, including the rapid rise in antisemitism, were thematically treated on stage. Of this history, but a faint memory now remains. The artistic aim of the Jewish Theater of Austria is a contemporary renaissance of this important aspect of Austrian culture.



TODAY // Founded in 1999 by Warren Rosenzweig, the Jewish Theater of Austria is the first company of its kind in Austria since 1938 and is among the only such initiatives in Europe. The company develops and produces new works for the stage on themes relevant to contemporary intercultural experience, especially in a European context. It has performed at numerous locations in Vienna and other cities in Austria and abroad.

Productions, festivals, and other significant events in Vienna have included, among many others, Weisman und Rotgesicht, ein jüdischer Western by George Tabori, ohne Begleitung – Ein Solofestival des Jüdischen Theaters Austria, Der Flüchtling by Fritz Hochwälder, Pessach Ramadan by David Mamet and Huda Al-Hilali, Nicht mehr hier by Abisch Meisels (et al.), Tikun Olam - Festival of International Jewish Theater, dorfplatz neubau(en) 08 (with others), and the AJT (Association for Jewish Theater) World Congress of International Jewish Theater, opened under the Honorary Auspices of Austrian Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer.

The company has also campaigned, since 2001, for the reestablishment of an international Jewish theater that was seized by the Nazis in 1938 and that has remained, ever since, in the possession of the same family that obtained the building through Aryanization.

Programming includes festivals, resident productions, traveling theater, the "improvisation and dramaturgy" series, shtick!, staged readings, music events, workshops, and more. With creative, provocative work that often raises questions seldom asked on stage in Vienna, the company seeks to promote intercultural dialog through the performing arts, and to provide an antidote against intolerance and resistance to the lessons of the past.



Neither the current production of der Garten im Schrank, nor the work of the Jewish Theater of Austria in general, is supported by centralized subsidy from the Vienna Department of Culture. It is a bitter irony of Viennese “culture politics” that 70 years after the start of WWII, the survival of the first theater company since 1938 to dedicate its creative efforts to the interpretation of Jewish experience and Viennese heritage is still threatened, after ten years, by government neglect.

The Jewish Theater of Austria has received grants and awards from prestigious Austrian institutions and community enterprises, as well as the European Association for Jewish Culture. For der Garten im Schrank, it has been awarded the 2008 Interkulturpreis by the Gesellschaft für Kulturpolitik, the SPÖ of Upper Austria and the Volkshilfe Flüchtlings und MigrantInnenbetreuung of Upper Austria. Nominal support has included many prominent individuals in Viennese society, arts, and politics, as well as distinguished international artists and scholars.

Over the years, the company has established a firm reputation for professional, independent theater. It has created a new niche in the cultural landscape, inspired by Viennese cultural heritage, and looks positively towards the future.