Marie Helle, Stage Director|Actress|Singer
Senior Lecturer for Musically Dramatic Basic Training, Drama | Dramatic Ensemble
helle@mdw.ac.at
Mid-Level Spokesperson
Marie Helle worked as a director, playwright, actress and singer in the fields of musical theatre, musicals and spoken theatre, alongside her teaching activities, which she began shortly after graduating from the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts, where she worked in the field of stage production and with singers. She directed both contemporary and historical musical theatre (premiere of Four Saints in Three Acts, Thompson/Stein, Stuttgart, Rappresentatione, Cavalieri, Aachen, Le Retour de Printemps, Fiocco, as part of the Flanders Festival North Rhine-Westphalia), musicals (West Side Story, Trossingen), children's plays/puppet theatre (FITZ, Stuttgart), cabaret programmes, literary and musical solo programmes (including Semperoper Dresden).
As an actress and singer, she has performed at The Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Altes Schauspielhaus (Stuttgart), the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, the Theater im Westen (Stuttgart) and the Renitenztheater Stuttgart, among others. "Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart" engaged her as the lead actress for the world premiere of the opera Des Kaisers neues Kleid by Manuel Hidalgo, directed by Christian Kohlmann. Between 1989 and 2008, Marie Helle produced and directed her own plays and musical theatre programmes at the Forum Theater Stuttgart, for which she received a scholarship from the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation for performing arts as a singer, performer and author. The Cultural Office Music School Department of the State Capital Stuttgart commissioned her to write song lyrics and provide music dramaturgy consulting for the musical production Zeitshow.
Her production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice at the Goethe Gymnasium music school won first prize in the Ludwigsburg district school awards for its successful combination of didactic and artistic work. To celebrate the Schiller Year in 2009, she was entrusted with the concept and staging of the "Schiller Musical" in Marbach am Neckar.
For the supporting programme of the international Charlemagne Prize award ceremony in Aachen, she conceived and staged the project "Europa rennt, und wo bin ich?", combining experimental and improvisational theatre with classical song. Her specialisation in scenic work with singers led to various engagements in individual coaching of stage professionals in preparation for concerts, song cycles and opera roles. She was engaged to provide further training for EKD pastors in the areas of performance training, presentation and text work in group seminars and individual coaching. She offered voice training and bodywork during intensive rehearsal phases with camerata nova – Junger Süddeutscher Kammerchor and the Motet choir of Ludwigsburg City Church.
Marie Helle taught at three major universities for music and performing arts (Stuttgart since 1991, Cologne/Aachen 1998–2012, Frankfurt 2009–2012) and is active in the areas of scenic interpretation, musical-dramatic performance, song and aria design and presentation, body and voice work, as well as performance and audition training.
Since 1991, she has been developing the concept for the newly established scenic teaching programme at the interface between undergraduate studies and the opera school in Stuttgart on behalf of the opera school management and the singing department.
From body and breathing work and improvisation to traditional acting techniques in theory and practice to the interpretation and staging of opera scenes, Marie Helle teaches all the essential components of acting training. Her modification of these components to meet the specific needs of singer-actress is new and very successful.
In 1998, she was given the opportunity to teach at three professional training institutions – through additional teaching commitments at the Cologne University of Music and Dance (Cologne/Aachen) and, since 2009, at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts – and to develop special synergies through the inspiration provided by the different contexts.
The collaborative event "Opera Directing" organised by the Institute of Musicology at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, which created an essential link between theory and practical training for aspiring opera directors and dramaturgs, was initiated by her and supervised by her in terms of didactics and concept.
In 2012, she was entrusted with teaching music drama in the basic study programme in singing at the Department of Voice and Musical Theatre at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and has since been responsible for group and individual lessons.
Marie Helle gives courses and workshops throughout Europe (e. g. Academy of Music, University of Zagreb, Croatia; Landesakademie Ochsenhausen, Germany; Vocal Pedagogy Symposium, mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna).
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)-17.12.2025