Yana Eva Thönnes (GER)
Directors / Theater
studied theater directing at the HfMT Hamburg and co-founded and directed the performance group THE AGENCY together with Magdalena Emmerig, Rahel Spöhrer and Belle Santos.
The group disbanded in 2022 and since then Yana Thönnes has been working as a playwright and director: her production of “Spitzenreiterinnen”, based on the novel of the same name by Jovana Reisinger, is in repertoire at the Residenztheater in Munich. Her play “In Memory Of Doris Bither” opened the 2023/24 season at the Schaubühne Berlin, was shortlisted for the Theatertreffen 2024 and was invited to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt 2024. In 2024, she and her team discovered the story “Dunkler Frühling” by surrealist Unica Zürn for the stage and staged their own version of the story at Theater Neumarkt Zürich.
Her extensive artistic research has taken her to Tokyo several times as a scholarship holder of the Saison Foundation, to Bangalore as a Goethe resident and on research trips to the USA and Los Angeles. Since 2018, Yana Thönnes has taught at various art academies such as the HfG Offenbach, the UdK Berlin, the ZHdK, the AdBK Nuremberg, the AdBK Munich and the HfMT Hamburg.
Werke
DER ZERBROCHNE KRUG (THE BROKEN JUG) by Heinrich von Kleist
October 2025
Premiere: Theater Freiburg
CALL ME PARIS
June/ October 2025
Biennale di Venezia/ Schaubühne Berlin
DUNKLER FRÜHLING (DARK SPRING) based on the story by Unica Zürn
2024
Neumarkt Theater Zürich
IN MEMORY OF DORIS BITHER
2023
Schaubühne Berlin
IN MEMORY OF DORIS BITHER
Written and directed by Yana Eva Thönnes
The production was shortlisted for the Theatertreffen and invited to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt 2024.
Los Angeles in 1974: Doris Bither, a single mother of four, reports to the police that she was raped at night by an “invisible entity” in her home. The officers actually encounter inexplicable phenomena at Bither’s home, such as objects moving without external influence and cold spots, and classify the case as “paranormal activity.” A months-long investigation begins, but the case remains unsolved. An author takes up the story, resulting in a bestseller and the screenplay for the horror film “The Entity,” which premieres in 1983. As a result, Bither loses the copyright to her own story. Decades later, in “In Memory of Doris Bither,” her son, her former neighbor, and the actress from “The Entity” attempt to reconstruct the events: a collage of memories, media and fictional representations, witness statements, the novel, and the film.
In her production, Yana Thönnes wants to conjure up the spirit of Doris Bither in order to uncover what really haunted her.
SPITZENREITERINNEN, based on the novel by Jovana Reisinger
2023
Bayerisches Staatschauspiel
SPITZENREITERINNEN
Stage adaptation: Yana Eva Thönnes and Jovana Reisinger
Director: Yana Eva Thönnes