Nicolas Stemann (1968, Hamburg) is one of the major directors of contemporary German theatre. He played in various bands before starting his studies in philosophy, after which he studied theatre direction in Hamburg and Vienna. He has a special working relationship with Nobel prize winner Elfriede Jelinek and has staged several texts she wrote. Pieces of his that were previously staged at the Holland Festival include Babel (2007) and Die Schutzbefohlenen (2014). Jelinek wrote the text for both. He has also made daring adaptations of a range of classical texts, with an eye for the many political upheavals of our time. The magazine Theater Heute chose Stemann as director of the year for Faust I + II (2012). His constant motivation is to connect contradictory and irreconcilable movements in the world. He likes to open the theatre to music and other art forms in order to experiment with different disciplines. At present, Stemann is artistic director of the Schauspielhaus Zurich, together with Benjamin von Blomberg. When they took office, they brought along seven house directors to help shape the artistic profile of the house: Alexander Giesche, Suna Gürler, Trajal Harrell, Yana Ross, Christopher Rüping, Leonie Böhm and Wu Tsang. 

Together with Angelique Kidjo, Nicolas Stemann was Holland Festival associate artist in 2022. Commenting on his role as associate artist: 'I feel honoured and enormously happy about this great opportunity: presenting my work and choice works by makers associated with our theatre in Zurich is something that is very dear to me! I am also curious to see to what extent this collaboration will resonate with important debates in the Netherlands, such as that about the fight for a more just climate policy. It is our duty as artists to reflect on how we can contribute to this burning issue.'