Austria – Salzburg

Thomas-Bernhard-Institut

About
The THOMAS-BERNHARD-INSTITUT is the Theatre Department of the internationally-
renowned Mozarteum University in the heart of Salzburg/Austria. It has been in existence
for more than 70 years and is one of the most prestigious training institutions for theatre
making in the German-speaking region. Its alumni include numerous leading theatre artists.
The department offers study programmes in Acting and Directing (both Diploma) and
Applied Theater. Artistic practice and society (Master). All courses have close links with
contemporary theatre practice and cultivate at the same time the self-understanding of a
laboratory for a theatre of the future. Most of the Institute’s teaching faculty are themselves
active theatre practitioners. Numerous collaborations with theatres and festivals offer
students opportunities extending beyond their own dedicated theatre, the Theater im
Kunstquartier. The courses cultivate an open, pluralistic, transdisciplinary, internationally-
orientated concept of theatre, which is viewed as a public forum for social debate,
integrating diversity and inclusion strategies. Here prospective theatre artists are provided
with a framework within which they are encouraged individually on their respective paths to
becoming active, critical and independent creators of their own work on stage, while
fostering the awareness of the fundamental collaborative character of theatre works.

Exchange
International cocreation, multilingual work and transcultural encounter are fundamental for
our notion of contemporary theatre formation. Therefore the THOMAS-BERNHARD-
INSTITUT of the Mozarteum university offers a number of student exchange possibilities
with numerous partner academies in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. There is a
constant movement of incoming and outgoing students and we welcome students with
limited German language skills as well, as long as they are able to communicate in English.
Furthermore the department offers and develops numerous possibilities for international
encounter and co-creation, especially within the networks of PLETA (Platform European
Theater Academies), E:UTSA and Mitos21 (a European network of theatre
institutions). Additionally the TBI works with several Non-European
partners on the basis of bilateral agreements and has developed several close cooperations,
f.i. with the University Tel Aviv and the Hongkong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA).

Exchange Opportunities

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