Autor*innenwettbewerb / Writers’ Competition

The Writers’ Competition, the Autor*innenwettbewerb, is the heart of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt. Since 1996, the theatre festival has been organising the much-acclaimed competition with highly endowed prizes as a talent promotion for new authors.

In the Writers’ Competition, publishers, courses of study and formerly nominated writers are entitled to submit proposals. The festival team selects six plays from their submissions. In addition, there are new plays from the guest country.

During the festival, the nominated plays are presented in readings with the Heidelberg ensemble.

The nominees for the 2025 Autor*innenwettbewerb are

Lisa Danulat, Yannic Han Biao Federer, Svealena Kutschke, Sean Pfeiffer, Rebecca C. Schnyder and Zehra Sönmez

and from the guest country China 
Chan Ping Chiu, Chu Xia and Han Jing.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Im Autor*innenwettbewerb 2025 ausgezeichnet wurden Yannic Han Biao Federer, Han Jing und Svealena Kutschke. Hier finden Sie weitere Informationen sowie die Laudationes der Jury.

Autor*innenpreise

Autor*innenpreis

The jury awards the Autor*innenpreis of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt. This is donated by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation and is endowed with 10,000 euros. In addition, the premiere of one of the nominated plays will open the festival the following year.

Internationaler Autor*innenpreis

The international playwright prize, donated by the state of Baden-Württemberg, is endowed with 5,000 euros and is awarded by the Stückemarkt jury to one of the three nominated writers from the guest country.

All the plays in the writers' competition and the international writers' competition are up for election for the audience award. The audience has the opportunity to vote for a winner in a written ballot after each play reading.

The winner will receive prize money of 2,500 euros, donated by the Freudeskreis (friends association) of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg.

Jugendstückepreis / Youth drama award

In line with the KinderStückePreis of the Mülheimer Theatertage, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt awards the Jugendstückepreis (youth drama award) to one of the three invited youth theatre guest performances. The winner is chosen by the jury together with a group of experts from young people interested in theatre.

The prize is endowed with 6,000 euros, donated by the Heidelberg entrepreneur couple Bettina Schies and Klaus Korte, KORTE Bauteile GmbH. In addition, the winning production will be invited to the framework programme of the Mülheimer Theatertage. The other nominated authors will each receive 2,000 euros.

Nachspielpreis

With a view to the sustainable promotion of new drama, the Nachspielpreis was established in 2011. The Nachspielpreis is not endowed and comes with a guest performance invitation to the Autorentheatertage at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

The Heidelberger Stückemarkt sees the Nachspielpreis as an encouragement to those theatres to put plays on the repertoire that have been unjustly neglected. New plays are often in danger of being forgotten in the hype of their premiere - sometimes because the author is a little-known young playwright or because the premiere did not do them justice.

The Nachspielpreis therefore wants to honour theatres that take the risk of staging such plays again.

SWR Kultur Hörspielpreis

In 2021, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt is cooperating with SWR for the first time and offering a new prize: the SWR Kultur Hörspielpreis. It will go to one of the plays in the writers' competition, is endowed with 5,000 euros and will be produced by SWR as a radio play. The first broadcast will take place at the next Stückemarkt.

For the SWR Kultur Hörspielpreis, the Stückemarkt jury will be joined by SWR Kultur dramaturge Pia Frede.

FIDENA Stückepreis

In order to strengthen the connection between new drama and puppet theatre, the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg is cooperating with the German Forum for Puppet Theatre and Puppetry Art (dfp) and the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen to award the FIDENA Stückepreis in the 2025 playwriting competition. The prize is endowed with 5,000 euro and is linked to a premiere or second performance of the winning text in the puppet theatre section of the Musiktheater im Revier.

For the FIDENA Stückepreis, the jury will be joined by Gloria Iberl-Thieme, Head of Department at the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen.

Jury of Heidelberger Stückemarkt

The members of the Heidelberg Stückemarkt 2025 jury are dramaturge Lea Goebel, author Thomas Köck, Jürgen Popig, dramaturge and artistic director of the Stückemarkt, Bernadette Sonnenbichler, director and designated artistic director of the Heidelberg Theatre and Orchestra, and journalist Vanessa Vu.

The curatorial advisor for the guest country programme China is Ulrike Syha.