Katja Paryla


Katharina "Katja" Paryla was a German actress, stage director and theatre director. She was known especially for her work on stage, including at the Deutsches Theater Berlin where she often played leading roles with her partner Alexander Lang directing, including the title roles of Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris and Medea by Euripides, and Alice in Strindberg's Totentanz.

Life and career

Paryla was born in Zürich on 25 January 1940, the daughter of the actor and stage director and his wife Selly, an actress. Her father adopted his mother's surname Stöhr to be not confused with his famous brother Karl Paryla. Her parents had emigrated from Germany under the Nazi regime to Switzerland in 1938. The family moved to Vienna in 1946. When the where her father was engaged closed in 1956 due to the Brecht boycott in Vienna, and he found no other jobs in Austria, they moved to East Berlin.
Paryla first studied fashion design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, graduating with an excellent diploma. She then studied acting at the Staatliche Schauspielschule Berlin (later: Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, in Berlin-Schöneweide from 1961 to 1963. She made her stage debut, alongside her father, at Deutsches Theater Berlin as Milena Andertschowa in Oldřich Daněk's Die Hochzeit des Heiratsschwindlers. Wolfgang Heinz won her in 1963 to the Volksbühne in Berlin, and in 1967 to the Maxim-Gorki-Theater.
From the late 1960s, Paryla also played in film and television. She was particularly successful in films for children, such as the 1978 ' and ' in 1981/82..
Paryla belonged to the ensemble of Deutsches Theater from 1978 to 1990, directed by Alexander Lang, who became her partner. She was described as "a beautiful, powerful and sensual presence with a great sense of comedy", not fixed to one type, but always searching for transformation with attention to detail; in collaboration with Lang, she portrayed especially tragic figures such as Goethe's Iphigenie and Medea by Euripides with psychological clarity.
She moved to the Schauspiel Zürich in 1990. After German reunification she then worked at the Schillertheater in Berlin until 1993, when the theatre was closed. She became stage director at the Nationaltheater Weimar from 1994 to 2001, and headed simultaneously the drama department of the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Paryla was a freelance actress until 2004 when she became director of the drama section of the Theater Chemnitz. She worked from 2008 at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.
Paryla was a member of the Akademie der Künste. She was awarded the Kunstpreis der DDR in 1983.

Personal life

Paryla lived in Wölsickendorf near Bad Freienwalde (Oder). She was first married to the actor. She and her partner Alexander Lang had a son,, born in 1969, who became a graphic designer and stage designer. She finally lived with the actor.
Paryla died on 25 August 2013 in Wölsickendorf, at the age of 73.

Theatre

Roles

Paryla's roles included:

Volksbühne Berlin

Maxim-Gorki-Theater

Deutsches Theater Berlin

Direction

Paryla directed plays including:

Films

Paryla's film and television roles included: