Ulla Willis
Set designer and, since the 2023/24 season, head of design for the Studio at the Schaubühne. Born near Nuremberg. She studied philosophy and literature in Würzburg as well as interior architecture with a focus on scenography at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle. From 2020 to 2023, she was a permanent assistant designer at the Schaubühne, collaborating with Jan Pappelbaum, Stéphane Laimé, Magda Willi, and Natasha Jenkins, among others.
In 2023, she worked as a guest assistant for the production Die Dreigroschenoper« (director: Thomas Ostermeier, set design: Magda Willi) at the Comédie Française in Paris and at the Festival »International d´Art Lyrique«in Aix-en-Provence.
Her first independent stage designs were created for the theatre education project »stolpern« (invited to the 31st National Meeting of Youth Theatre Clubs 2022 and the Theatertreffen der Jugend of the Berliner Festspiele 2023), for the production »Undine geht« (director: Christina Deinsberger; invited to the Summer Up Festival 2023), and for »Berliner Affären« (director: İlknur Bahadır).
In the 2022/23 season, she also designed for Dyke Dogs Salon (by and with Lynn Takeo Musiol and Evan Tepest), and since the 2023/24 season, for the event series »BUCCI × ꒰(·‿·)꒱« (by and with Lynn Takeo Musiol).
All productions
stolpern, a theatre-educational project, Direction: Matthias Heine and Mai-An Nguyen (2022)
Undine geht after Ingeborg Bachmann, Director: Christina Deinsberger (2022)
Die Möwe (The Seagull) by Anton Tschechow, Director: Thomas Ostermeier (2023)
Ulster American by David Ireland, Director: Rikki Henry (German World Premiere, 2024)
Glaube, Geld, Krieg, Liebe by Robert Lepage, Director: Robert Lepage (World Premiere, 2024)
Paradiesische Zustände by Henri Maximilian Jakobs, Staged Reading, arranged by Thomas Ostermeier and Elisa Leroy (2025)