Regina Fritsch

Regina Fritsch was born in Lower Austria in 1964 and attended the Krauss Drama School in Vienna. At the age of 20, she joined the ensemble of the Burgtheater and continues to be a member to this day. She made her debut in 1985 as Cäcilie in Nestroy’s Freiheit in Krähwinkel directed by Horst Zankl. Her work with Achim Benning, who hired her as director of the Burgtheater, became her most formative artistic encounter. She appeared in several of his productions, including as Salome Pockerl in Nestroy’s Der Talisman, Genia in Schnitzler’s Das weite Land and Sonya in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. In 1992 she was awarded the O. E. Hasse Prize for best young actress.

Her work at the Burgtheater successfully continued with Claus Peymann. Under his direction, she appeared as Solveig in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and Anna in Hilde Spiel’s Anna und Anna. She most recently worked with Peymann in 2016 as the lead in Die Unschuldigen, ich und die Unbekannte am Rand der Landstraße, a work commissioned from Peter Handke by the Burgtheater.

Under the Burgtheater director Klaus Bachler, she met Stefan Bachmann, with whom she brought Wajdi Mouawad’s Verbrennungen to the stage and was awarded the 2008 Nestroy Prize for best leading actress for her portrayal of Nawal. The previous year, she was awarded a Nestroy Prize for her appearance in Karin Beier’s production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Karin Beier also cast her as Muffy in Biljana Srbljanović’s God Save America in 2005, for which she was named best actress at the Serbian Theatre Festival in Novi Sad. In 2011 she starred in Thomas Vinterberg’s production of his own Die Kommune, for which she was nominated as best actress at the Nestroy Prize.

She also appeared in Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s productions of Reigen and Leonce und Lena. In 2019, Bechtolf and Fritsch created the concert reading Reigen with Musicbanda Franui, which they last performed in July 2021 at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl. Under Bechtolf’s direction, Regina Fritsch also appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 2012 as Ottonie and Dorine in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.

Between 2007 and 2019 she enjoyed important collaborations with David Bösch (Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald, Die Präsidentinnen, The Glass Menagerie), Michael Thalheimer, Stephan Kimmig, Christian Stückl and Roland Schimmelpfennig. In 2009 she was awarded the Vienna Actor Ring, named Kammerschauspielerin in 2014 and awarded the Alma Seidler Ring in 2015.

In addition to her work at the Burgtheater, Regina Fritsch appears regularly at the Reichenau Festival, where her appearances include Salome Pockerl, Zweig’s Rausch der Verwandlung and Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau, Masha in Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Irene Herms in Schnitzler’s Der einsame Weg and Cäcilie Adams in Zwischenspiel, as well as Gunhild in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. Regina Fritsch made her directorial debut in Reichenau in 2014 with Fontane’s Effi Briest, followed by Schnitzler’s Liebelei in 2016.

In addition to her stage work, Regina Fritsch appears regularly on film and television. Her film include Drei Herren (directed by Nikolaus Leytner, with Karl Merkatz, Karl Markovics and Ottfried Fischer), Robert Schneider’s Schlafes Bruder directed by Joseph Vilsmaier (Fernando Rey Prize for best European actress in 1995), and Robert Seethaler’s Der Trafikant (directed by Nikolaus Leytner), for which she was nominated for the 2018 Austrian Film Award. On television, Regina Fritsch has recently appeared in the comedy Die Notlüge (with Josef Hader) and in 2020 as the Police Commissioner in the Lower Austrian crime thriller Vier (with Manuel Rubey), as well as recently in the Upper Austrian crime thriller Zu neuen Ufern.

Regina Fritsch has been a lecturer at the Max Reinhardt Seminar since 2010, becoming a professor in 2019.