Video project Regiehochvier (2023-2025)

The inventorying and digitisation project aims to preserve the works - or, specifically, their audiovisual witnesses in the form of performance recordings - of four women directors who entered the (independent) theatre scene in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, each leaving a distinctive mark, and who, as pioneers, led the way for women’s creative work on stage.

The project comprises video holdings from four lifetime gifts:

• Ruth Oswalt, Vorstadttheater Basel: Founded in 1974 under the name “Spilkischte”, Ruth Oswalt and Gerd Imbsweiler (1941–2013) ran Switzerland’s first professional children’s theatre, which they led until 2007.
• Yvonne Vogel, Bumper to Bumper: The independent theatre group was founded by Yvonne Vogel and Knopp Ferro in 1979; its artistic orientation, shaped by contemporary dance and visual art, became a model for the Zurich youth movement.
• Liliane Hodel: In 1986, together with Dominique Meyer and Philippe Jeanloz, Liliane Hodel founded Théâtre A, one of the first independent theatre companies in Lausanne. From 1993 she continued it alone as Cie. LH.
• Jolanda Meier: Born in Buenos Aires in 1949, Jolanda Meier received her first dance instruction in her home city of Basel. After professional training at the Academy of Artistic Dance in Vienna, her international career included a four-year engagement with Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater in Wuppertal. Back in Switzerland, she developed her work as a choreographer in the 1980s and, in 1985, founded her own group, with which she created music-oriented dance theatre.

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Thanks to the generous support from Memoriav this project was successfully realised.