Christine Umpfenbach
Documentary Theater Director

Christine Umpfenbach lives in Munich and works as theater director. Her documentary theater projects deal with urban and social realities in the city, her thematic focuses are on migration and belonging. Each project is based on intensive research. In Umpfenbach’s plays, the performers are mostly “real people”: non-actors, people engaged in other professions, old people, children, refugees. Often, Umpfenbach uses site-specific locations to turn the city itself into a stage. Her piece Gleis 11 (Platform 11) took place in a bunker in Munich´s central train station. Urteile (Judgments) gave voice to the victims of the  National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi cell, in Munich. Umpfenbach has worked in many theaters, including the Volksbühne Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele, Theater Freiburg, and Residenztheater. In 2014 she was awarded the prestigious Förderpreis Theater Award by the city of Munich.