Elizabeth LeCompte Receives Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Biennale Teatro

The Venice Biennale Teatro has awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement to American director Elizabeth LeCompte, founder of the Wooster Group. The announcement was made by Willem Dafoe, the newly appointed director of the theater section, who also revealed the Silver Lion for actress Ursina Landi. The awards set the tone for the 2025 festival, scheduled from May 31 to June 15, emphasizing theater as a tool for political intervention and social debate. LeCompte, born in New Jersey in 1944, co-founded the Wooster Group in the mid-1970s with actor Spalding Gray, emerging from the same avant-garde milieu as the Living Theatre. She has created over fifty works spanning theater, dance, film, and video. Dafoe, a former Wooster Group member, praised her integration of music, painting, dance, and media, and her influence on avant-garde theater since the 1970s and 1980s. LeCompte will receive the Golden Lion on June 1 and will stage Symphony of Rats, a revival of a Richard Foreman text. Ursina Landi, a Swiss actress born in 1970, trained in Berlin and has worked with directors including Thomas Ostermeier, Katie Mitchell, and Milo Rau. She will receive the Silver Lion on June 12 during the Venice presentation of her new production Die seherin (La veggente). Dafoe described Landi as an actress of intense commitment and political presence.