Dominique Caillat Short Biography

Dominique Caillat is a Swiss playwright and writer, born in the U.S. and residing in Berlin, Germany. She works in three languages: English, French and German. She has written and directed over ten plays, including: Leb wohl, Schmetterling (Goodbye Butterfly), about the Theresienstadt ghetto (Youth Cultural Prize of Rhineland-Palatinate 1998; international tour; performance in the German Parliament); Brundibár – Prologue, Scene and Epilogue (Vienna Chamber Opera 1999); Eine Nachkriegsballade (“Forum Artis Plaudit” Cultural Prize 2000); Niemandsland (about youth violence, sold out run at the Kulturfabrik in Koblenz 2003); Kidnapping (about the Middle East conflict, premiere at the State Theatre of Mainz, followed by a national German tour 2004-2005); État de piège (new version of Kidnapping for the Théâtre de Carouge, Geneva, sold out 4-week run in 2007). Her book about her research in the Middle East, La Paix ou la mort – Dans les coulisses du drame israélo-palestinien (2007), was highly praised. Her latest play, Darwin’s Confession, commissioned by the Swiss Academy of Natural Science for Darwin’s bicentennial, was premiered in November 2009 simultaneously in Basel (German version) and Geneva (French version), before touring Switzerland. From 2000 until 2007 she was the artistic advisor of the chamber music series “Konzerte Burg Namedy” in Andernach (Germany), with over 20 concerts annually.

Dominique Caillat’s libretto concept and synopsis The Children’s Crusade received an award from the Swiss National Cultural Foundation ‘Pro Helvetia’.

Work-in-Progress: several libretti and research for a novel dealing with apes, humans, the Russian revolution, Abkhazia and futuristic biology.