Interview with Dominik Schiefner

Interview with Dominik Schiefner, Professor of Acting and Song Interpretation at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences and Head of the Acting Department // Dean of the Performing Arts Department.

In a short introductory series, we would like to present our lecturers from the Acting Department, who now also teach in the new degree programs perfomART and Business & Acting. Applications for these unique degree programs, the only ones of their kind in Germany, are possible at any time. Secure your place in the degree program now!

Interview with Dominik Schiefner, Professor of Acting and Song Interpretation at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences and Head of the Acting Department // Dean of the Performing Arts Department.

How has your artistic career developed so far? 

From 2000 to 2004, I studied acting at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and graduated with a diploma in 2004. In the same year, I was selected as one of 16 acting graduates from German-speaking countries for the master class “actors class,” where I received camera-specific training, including with M.K. Lewis. From 2004 to 2007, I worked at Schauspiel Zittau as an actor and musical director.

Since then, I have worked freelance and have been involved in more than 50 productions, including at Schauspiel Leipzig, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Theater Bonn and Opera Bonn, Volkstheater Rostock, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, Schaubühne Berlin, Semperoper Dresden and Staatsschauspiel Dresden. I also work continuously in film and television as well as on various radio and audio drama productions.

Through numerous further training courses, I have acquired broad methodological expertise and therefore also work regularly as a coach, trainer and mediator. I am also co-founder and artistic director of the “Academy for Applied Acting Arts Bonn”. Since 2021, I have been a juror for the Handelsblatt Rhetoric Check DAX30.

Since 2010, I have also worked regularly as a director. My productions include “Aschgrau Schillernd” (a devised piece / Theater Bonn), “Peepshow” (invited to the KALTSTART PRO 2014 festival), the open-air music theatre production “Der Verrat,” and a dramatization of the book “Irgendwie Anders” with 100 citizens of the city of Greiz.

Since when have you been teaching at Alanus University, and what do you teach?

I first came to Alanus University in 2011. In 2015, I was appointed professor by the rector at the time. I teach acting and song interpretation with great enthusiasm and have specialized primarily in foundational instruction.

In doing so, I do not want to train “acting machines” who can do this or that particularly well. My concern is to question things and to see independent artists mature, to whom I extend a hand when they fall, but whom I do not lift over the obstacle.
I enjoy these encounters in classes, rehearsals and role work very much. So far, it has never been boring.

What has been your favorite project you have been involved in so far, and why?

There have been very many, and every new project is a new challenge and discovery. I particularly enjoy working on socio-cultural projects. They lead to results that were previously unimaginable. The work on the inclusive feature film “Von komischen Vögeln” was also especially memorable and rewarding.

Photo: Oliver Betke

Photo: Oliver Betke