Esther Bialas studied costume design at the Armgartstraße University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg under Prof. Dirk von Bodisco and Prof. Marianne Stromberg.
She began her career in 1996 in the off-theatre scene in Berlin and Hamburg, where socio-political themes and low-budget solutions defined her work as a set designer. Her numerous costume designs for director Nicolas Stemann helped shape the aesthetic of the Hamburger Schule theatre movement during the 2000s.
Her path to stage design was shaped in part by working as an assistant to Wilfried Minks, and by co-founding the independent theatre collective LaborLavache. The group’s productions ranged from adaptations of classic works to dramatizations of novels and earned several awards. Esther Bialas also worked as a set designer at Christoph Marthaler’s Schauspielhaus Zürich.
Numerous productions with Gruppe Stemann, including world premieres by Elfriede Jelinek, were invited to prestigious festivals such as the Berliner Theatertreffen, the Salzburger Festspiele, and the Ruhrtriennale. Her work has been presented at the Burgtheater, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Theater Basel, and many others.
Her career later expanded into musical theatre, including opera, musical, dance, and operetta. She has created visually striking costume and set designs for opera directors such as Barrie Kosky, Stefan Herheim, Martin G. Berger, Sigrid Strøm Reibo, Daniel Kramer, and Christian Räth. Notably, her production of Die Zauberflöte at the Komische Oper Berlin has toured internationally. Further engagements have taken her from Bregenz to Basel, from Oslo to Lyon, and from Los Angeles to New York.
In 2019, she developed Nico and The Navigators, an augmented reality performance staged in the Dessau Masters’ Houses to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus.
She received a PENTIMENT scholarship for fashion drawing under Prof. Sabine Tschierschki and has made several well-received forays into film and television. Her work has been repeatedly recognised as Best Costume Design by Theater heute. She has also taught costume design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg.
Esther Bialas lives in Berlin.
