Volker Schmidt, author, director and actor, was born in 1976 in Klosterneuburg (Austria). He graduated from the Vienna Conservatory. He played at theaters in Vienna, Berlin, Graz and others and was an actor in several films.
As a director he staged plays at the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, the Staatstheater in Hanover, the Staatstheater in Braunschweig, the Theatre of St. Gallen, the Theatre in Magdeburg, the Neukölln Opera in Berlin, the Schauspielhaus in Vienna, the Latvian National Theatre in Riga, the German State Theater in Temeswar as well as at theatres in Copenha- gen, Moscow, Skopje, and Bhutan.

Since 2002 he has been working as a playwright with premieres at the Theatre Heidel- berg, the Staatstheater in Hanover, the Schauspiel Leipzig, the Stadttheater Ingolstadt, the Schauspielhaus and the Volkstheater in Vienna.
Volker Schmidt has received many awards, among others the jury and audience prize of
the Heidelberger Stückemarkt for Die Mountainbiker (The Mountainbikers), and the Berlin Children’s Theatre Prize. He was invited to the Theatertreffen’s Stückemarkt Berlin, the Festival for Dramaturgy in Santiago de Chile as well as to the NET Festival Moscow. His plays have so far been translated into eleven languages and have been staged from Utrecht to Novosibirsk. In Vienna he regularly performs with his independent company the new space company, which got awarded the Nestroy Prize for the best off-production.

JIHAD

Suddenly they behave strangely. They go to the mosque, have new friends, pray. Women no longer shake hands with each other. They do not eat pork anymore, alcohol is strictly for- bidden. They break off all previous social contacts. They seem unattainable even for their parents and teachers. Hundreds of young people from Germany, as many as from no other European country, are going for jihad. Even girls. They get recruited from all social classes and join the IS.

Why would someone who lives and grows up in our western world suddenly become reli- gious? And why do they feel drawn to Islam? Why do they submit themselves to the strict religious rules? Why do they suddenly condemn unbelievers? For what reason do young peo- ple go for jihad? What does attract them to terror and war? To martyrdom? Who are the jihadists who seduce these adolescents? Which happiness and which life is the right one?

In his play, Volker Schmidt engages in a debate which is becoming ever more urgent. jihad was commissioned by the Stadttheater Ingolstadt (premiere 26.11.2016, Stadttheater Ingol- stadt).