Kay Voges was born in Düsseldorf. He has directed theatre and opera since 1998, working at both the Schauspiel and Oper in Dortmund, Staatsoper Hannover, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Schauspiel Stuttgart, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Berliner Ensemble and the Volksbühne in Berlin. He is the Founding Director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund – because theatres are machines that always present people in relation to technology. Kay Voges is engaged in a search for the potential, possibilities and forms of performance that lie hidden in modern technology. And as a society it is up to us to master them – not the other way around. 

He was Artistic Director of Schauspiel Dortmund from 2010 to 2020, which was named several times in the professional journal Theater heute as the second-best theatre in German-speaking countries, as well as being voted best theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia in the annual critics’ poll by the Welt am Sonntag on three separate occasions.

As a director, Voges has won numerous awards: in 2014 “Das goldene Zeitalter” (co-authored with Alexander Kerlin) was invited to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt and in 2017 “Die Borderline Prozession” (co-authored with Dirk Baumann and Alexander Kerlin) was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. In 2012 the Ibsen double bill “A Doll’s House/Ghosts” was invited to the NRW-Theatertreffen, as was his production of Thomas Bernhard’s “Der Theatermacher” in 2019. “Einige Nachrichten an das All” won the main prize as Best Production at the NRW-Theatertreffen in 2013 and the film version subsequently won the Best Director award at the Artodocs International Film Festival in St. Petersburg and Second Prize in the Experimental Film category at the Sunset Film Festival Los Angeles.

From 2020 to 2025, Kay Voges was Artistic Director of the Volkstheater in Vienna, where his recent productions have included the world premiere of Alexander Kerlin’s “Bullet time – Die Geburt des Kinos aus dem Geiste eines Mörders” and Jon Fosse’s “Der Name”. This multi award-winning theatre maker now returns to North Rhine-Westphalia as Artistic Director of Schauspiel Köln from the 25|26 season. For him it is clear that democracy and theatre developed at the same time. They will also perish at the same time if they are not protected and encouraged.