The monograph on Kerstin Cmelka moves from her early experimental films through photographic reworkings of film stills, ad images and production shots to her performances, which have become known as »microdramas«. The Grazbased playwright and dramatist Wolfgang Bauer coined the term to describe plays that as dramatic miniatures / forms intended only as texts reject their actual performance on stage. Cmelka undermines this original intention with highly varied, muiltimedia re-stagings of historical stories taken from film, art and theater. In her micro-dramas, live performances and performance videos she recreates episodes from oft-performed plays (e. g., Ibsen’s »Nora« or Schnitzler’s »Liebelei«), from TV or movies, using lay actors from among her friends in the art world and the cultural scene. What she produces are reflexive commentaries on the poles of art and life because the line dividing staging from reality becomes ever more blurred.