Markus Kupferblum
Senior Lecturer for Drama, Drama Ensemble
kupferblum@mdw.ac.at

Was born in Vienna in 1964 and received his education at the University of Music and Performing Arts there (acting) and at the University of Vienna (philosophy, sociology and law). He received further training at the clown school École Philippe Gaulier/Monika Pagneux (Jacques Lecoq) in Paris, at New York University (film) and at the STSI School Bali (mask acting). He worked as assistant to Antoine Vitez, Achim Freyer and Verena Weiss at the Vienna State Opera, Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Opèra de la Bastille in Paris.

Since 1987 he has directed the "Totale Theater" Vienna-Paris, which he founded, and is co-founder of the festival "Scattola Sonora" in Turin and the clown group "Out of Sync" in London. In 2013 he founded the music theater group "Schlüterwerke" in Vienna.

Since 1988 he has been internationally active as a director of spoken theater, musical theater, mask theater, performances, actions, street theater and all mixed forms of theater, for which he is often also responsible as an author, arranger or translator. In addition to the theater centers of his native Austria, Israel, Russia, Iran, Peru, New York and London are regularly on his agenda. Among his most successful productions are "I Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (Salle de Bal, Vienna 1993); "Peer Gynt" (Paris, Festival d'Avignon 1992) "Les Moustaches de la Reine", (Tenerife, Paris, Brussels, Vienna; 1. Prix de l'Humour at the Festival of Avignon 1993, over 200 performances in 6 different countries), "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi (Totales Theater Vienna 1994), world premieres by Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek (Berlin, 1997), "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti and the German premiere of the Kurt Weill musical "One Touch of Venus" at the Freiburg Opera (1997/98), "Das Weisse Rössl" at the Dortmund Opera (2008), "Sigmund's Dream" (Satyri Theater, St. Petersburg 2003), "Before the Law" (2009) at the Vienna Palace of Justice and "Answer to an Unwritten Letter" Akko Festival, Israel, and Vienna (2010).

Again and again he successfully appears on stage as a clown. For his play "Die verlassene Dido" at the Theater im Nestroyhof in Vienna he was awarded the "Nestroy Prize" for the best off-production in 2007.

Markus Kupferblum has taught at the Université de la Sorbonne (Paris), the Hebrew University and the Jerusalem Film School (Jerusalem), the University of London (England), South Eastern Louisiana University (USA), University of Michigan (USA), the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding, the University of Vienna as well as in master classes in Vienna, Linz, Lithuania, Korea and Canada. Since 2007 he has held a teaching position for directing and physical role design at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, Vienna and teaches at the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding, the State University in Stuttgart and in Frankfurt/Main.