
Gretchen fan Weber
范冬妮
Gretchen fan Weber is a director, stage/video designer, and researcher in the field of psychological aesthetics. Originally from Beijing, she is currently based in Hamburg. Following her early work in video design, her artistic focus now lies in directing and holistic spatial design for intermedial theater.
As a director, she is particularly interested in experimental music theater. In her productions, she merges performing arts with insights from her scientific research. Her doctoral research is about autobiographical memory, music, and aesthetic experiences. She utilizes these psychological findings as tools for the stage: designing abstract elements that deliberately shape the audience's aesthetic experience.
She began her theater career as a video artist at venues such as Opera Bonn – including works for Faust (Goethe), Leonore 40/45 (Liebermann), Arabische Nachtmusik (Mozart), and Rigoletto (Verdi) – as well as Theater Erfurt for Das Rheingold (Wagner). In recent years, she has increasingly taken on directorial and overarching spatial roles. In 2024, she designed the set, costumes, and video for the premiere of Die Reise nach Westen (Chen) in Rostock. In 2025, she created the visual design for Elias (Mendelssohn Bartholdy) at Theater Erfurt, as well as interactive animation projections for the premiere of the opera Die Blaue Sau (Schreier) that react to the singers in real-time. A formative experience was her collaboration on Robert Wilson's production of Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) in 2026.
Currently, she is involved in two productions at Chinese theater festivals: as a visual artist for Wen Cheng (Aranya Theater Festival) and as director and dramaturg for Fluss / River (Wuzhen Theatre Festival). She brings these diverse disciplines together in her upcoming project: for the new production of the operetta Boccaccio (von Suppè) in Rostock, she is responsible for the holistic execution as co-director and stage, costume, and video designer.

