Thomas Perle, born in socialist Romania in 1987, grew up in Germany after his family emigrated. He gained his first experience as a trainee in directing, dramaturgy, communication and theater pedagogy at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. He studied theater, film and media studies at the University of Vienna, graduating in 2015. Alongside his studies, he was an assistant director at the Schauspielhaus Wien. In 2013 he received the exil literature prize and in 2015 the Startstipendium für Literatur. Since then he has also been a member of the Wiener Wortstaetten. In 2018, his prose debut “wir gingen weil alle gingen” was published by edition exil. In 2019 he received the Retzhofer Dramapreis for his drama “karpatenflecken”, which premiered at the Deutsches Theater Berlin in 2021, followed by the Austrian premiere at the Burgtheater Vienna in 2023 and the Italian premiere at Hangar Teatri Trieste in 2024. From 2020 to 2024, he was part of the FORUM Text playwriting course at uniT Graz. In addition to his writing, he leads writing workshops, including the exil.Literaturhauswerkstatt at the Literaturhaus Wien in cooperation with edition exil.
He works as an author and playwright in Austria, Germany and Romania.
His artistic work is characterized by fluid transitions between genres. The main themes of his works are origin, multilingualism and pluralism.
He wrote the play “mutterseele. dieses leben wollt ich nicht” in the framework of the WIENER WORTSTAETTEN, which premiered in 2017 at Werk-X Eldorado Vienna.
Reading sample
Thomas Perle took part in Fabulamundi – Playwriting Europe. Beyond Borders?, where he worked as an author and cultural facilitator.
Within the project Entgegnungen he wrote the play “rechts am rand die mitte fault”.
2023 he participated in the Tour des Textes. His play developed within the Tour named Stück “Protestanten. Vertreibung aus der Heimat.” premiered in August 2023 at Griessner Stadl.
2025 he wrote a part for the 20 years of WIENER WORTSTAETTEN anniversary production House of Words.
Fotocredit: Volker Schmidt