Sina Heiss is a director, writer, and musician. She primarily works in the fields of theater and performance. She teaches and conducts research.
Sina Heiss in the stage design of "The Unnecessary Ones," 2022 TAG Vienna, motif © Anna Stöcher.
Sina Heiss
Sina Heiss was born in 1981 in Reutte/Tirol, right in the heart of the mountains and Alpine culture. In 1999, she moved to Innsbruck for a year and discovered her love for performance and experimental, improvisational stage art. In 2000, she left the mountains behind and lived in Linz for several years, where she studied Graphic Design at the University of Art and Jazz Singing at the Bruckner University, graduating from both. After her studies, she worked in the independent theater scene in Linz, teaching, conceptualizing pieces, and conducting interdisciplinary research on the Viewpoints technique. In 2011, she left Austria for a Master's program in Directing at Columbia University in NYC, studying under Anne Bogart and Tina Landau. After graduating and completing an Optional Practical Training in NYC, she returned to Austria in 2015. She currently lives in Vienna, working as a freelance director and writer.
During her three-year assistantship at Big Dance Theatre with Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, and through her mentor Anne Bogart (SITI Company), her sense and interest in dance theater were awakened. Sina's productions are strongly influenced by dance, body, poetry, and rhythm. Her pieces function like drawn texts, giving space to sound and noise.
Credits: Wiener Wortstätten, 600 Highway Men, Las Gafas, Shakespeare Exchange, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, and No.11 Productions.
Today, Sina believes more than ever in the analog power of theater and its potential for the future of a healthy society. Theater is a place of seeing and being seen. A place of encounter, exchange, friction, and growth. A political place. A place for ideas. A place for people, emotions, and actions.
Education:
MFA Theatre Directing - Columbia University New York 2014
BA Jazz Singing and Improvised Music - Anton Bruckner Private University 2008
Mag. art. Visual Media Design (Graphic Design & Photography) - UFG Linz 2005
Scholarships/Awards:
City of Vienna's Literature Working Grant 2024
Dramatists' Scholarship from the Austrian Federal Government 2023
VORBRENNER Project B**oomB! 2023
Art Scholarship from the State of Tyrol for drama divers 2022
Golden Wire Media Award, winning project: Erdbeerwoche 2018
Best Women Filmmaker Merits Award for Blank, La Jolla Shorts, USA 2012
Stage Credits:
As an actress and director in Austria at Theater Phönix Linz, Kosmos Theater Wien, BRUX Innsbruck, Kleines Theater Salzburg, Akzent Wien, Posthof Linz, Brucknerhaus Linz, etc.
In Germany at Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte, Ingolstädter Frauentage, Künstlerhaus München, and PATHOS München.
Downtown New York at Connelly Theatre, Treehouse Theatre, and La Mama Theatre.
As a singer, Sina Heiss has performed on stage at the Rubin Museum of Art, Queens Museum, Folk Festival Koprivtschitsa in Bulgaria, Musikverein Wien, and A Capella Festival Budapest.
