Gerhard Meister

Gerhard Meister, born in 1967, grew up in Emmental, Switzerland, and now lives in Zurich. He writes theatre and radio plays as well as spoken-word-texts which he performs himself. After graduating in History and Sociology in 1995, he wrote and performed in his first play. In collaboration with Andreas Lutz he founded the stage project Geholten Stühle which quickly gained national attention and won the Salzburger Stier (prestigious German cabaret award) in 2000. Meister has been commissioned to write plays for theatres in Zurich and Stuttgart amongst others. His plays have been performed in Bern, Vienna as well many other theatres in Switzerland and abroad. He received the literature prizes of the city and the canton of Berne as well as residency scholarships to New York, Berlin and Elba. Since 2004, he has been a member of the spoken-word ensemble Bern ist überall. In 2011 his collected spoken-word texts were published (Viicher & Vegetarier)

Awards:

1998 New York Scholarship of the Canton of Bern
2003 Scholarship of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg
2003 2nd Prize of the Authors’ competition of the State Theatre of Saarbrücken for Mieschers Traum
2004 Book Prize of the City of Bern for Mieschers Traum
2004 Prize of Swiss Authors’ Association (SSA) for Der Entenfreund
2005 Berlin Scholarhip of the Canton of Zurich
2009 Literature Prize of the Canton of Bern