Luc Joosten

Gegenwartsdramaturgie, Gegenwartsregie

Luc Joosten (Hasselt/Belgium, 1965) studied philosophy at KU Leuven. Following his studies, he worked in various fields in the theatre world, from youth theatre to opera. He was a theatre dramaturge in Antwerp and Ghent, and Head Dramaturge with Toneelhuis (Antwerp), where he also worked as a production dramaturge, on Luk Perceval’s Ten Oorlog, for example.
Since 2018, he is Head of Dramaturgy and member of the Artistic Staff at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.

He has been working in the opera world since 1993 as a freelance production dramaturge for the Flemish Opera (Antwerp/Ghent), De Munt (Brussels), KlangBogen / Theater an der Wien and Neue Oper Wien. His work as a dramaturge has also taken him to Dutch National Opera and the opera houses of Essen, Leipzig, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Hamburg, ENO London and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Besides working with Guy Joosten for many years, he has also collaborated with directors like Peter Konwitschny, Michael Thalheimer, Tatjana Gürbaca, Luk Perceval, David Hermann, David Bösch, Jan Fabre, Daniel Kramer, Mariame Clement and Kornel Mundruczo, etc.
From 2010 to 2018, Luc Joosten was Head of Dramaturgy with Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent.

Luc Joosten was a lecturer in Poetics at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and a lecturer in Dramaturgy at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He has taught Philosophy of Art, Cultural Trends, and Music and Literature at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. At the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, he taught dramaturgy and theatre history (in the theatre design department). He was a guest professor of Dramaturgy in Music Theatre at the International Opera Academy (Operastudio Vlaanderen) and at the famous Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Luc Joosten regularly publishes works on opera and culture and gives lectures on opera in both a broad and a professional context. Several of the productions for which he was production dramaturge have received awards, including La Juive (Director: Peter Konwitschny), which received the German theatre award Faust 2016, and Infinite Now (Chaya Czernowin; directed by: Luk Perceval), which was voted Creation of the Year 2017 by Opernwelt. The creation Les Bienveillantes (Hèctor Parra / Händl Klaus / Calixto Bieito) was nominated for the Fedora-Generali Prize 2018.