About

Lulu Obermayer works at the intersection of performance, opera, theater, and choreography. She intertwines facts and anecdotes from theater history to pose fundamental questions about agency and representability on stage. The European canon serves as her starting point to uncover hidden potentials, transform dominant narratives, and bring overlooked perspectives to light. After training in acting at the Professional Performing Arts School, the Lee Strasberg Institute, and the Stella Adler Studio in New York City, she completed an Erasmus stay in dramaturgy at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2017, she completed her Master's in Solo Dance and Authorship at the Inter-University Centre for Dance (HZT) in Berlin. Obermayer was nominated for the Caroline-Neuber Prize, is a laureate of the Forecast Platform, and is a mentor for the 10th edition of the Forecast Platform in 2025–2026.
Her works have been presented internationally, including at the Steirischer Herbst (Graz), Theater Neumarkt (Zurich), O.Festival (Rotterdam), Buzzcut Festival (Glasgow), DeSingel (Antwerp), Sophiensaele and HAU2 (Berlin), the Münchner Kammerspiele, HochX (Munich), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), and Batard Festival (Brussels).

Among her key works is the trilogy based on Puccini operas: Tosca (2016), Manon Lescaut (2017), and The Girl(s) of the Golden West (2018). With L’Opra Fatale (2020), a performance about female murderers that premiered at the Graz Opera, she continued her intense exploration of female figures. The eight-hour performance Frauenliebe und Leben (2022), based on Schumann's song cycle, was presented at DeSingel in Antwerp.
With Backstage (Theater am Neumarkt, Zurich 2023), a duet about the Cabaret Pfeffermühle and figures like Erika Mann, Therese Giehse, and Josephine Baker, she deepened her engagement with exile and theater history. This theme continued in her solo performance EXILE (2023, O.Festival Rotterdam).
Her recent works include the solo performance Lulu (2023), about her namesake, and Agoraphobia (2023), which opened the Steirischer Herbst on the Schlossberg in Graz and addresses masculinity in opera. The solo Death Valley Junction focuses on the artistic practice of dancer Marta Becket. It was developed in 2022 for the Tanztage (Sophiensaele, Berlin) and shown at the 10-Tage-Freischwimmen Festival (Stuttgart) and the Rodeo Festival (Munich).
The eight-hour performance (a kind of) Requiem (2023) for a 20-year-old singer is based on Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. It premiered at the Buzzcut Festival in Glasgow and was subsequently presented in Zurich and Genk.
With the performance Rachel und ich (2025), which focuses on female friendship and memory culture, she won the Audience Award at the the Festival for Young Directors radikal jung at the Münchner Volkstheater.

Presse