He was born in
Vienna to Felix and Edmunda (von) Kurz - she was known as "die Felixin" while Felix (known as 'Comicus Felix') was a traveling theatre director and actor, originally from
Kempten (Allgäu). Johann's godparents were
Josef Anton Stranitzky, inventor of
Hanswurst (a stock character type) and impresario of the
Kärntnertortheater, and
Johann Baptist Hilverding, another comedian. Felix left Vienna in 1720, acted in
Königsberg and from 1724 onwards was in Breslau (now
Wrocław). He founded his own travelling theatre troupe in 1725, which from then until 1730 performed as the "Brünn Comedians" in
Brno in the winter and travelled for the rest of the year to
Moravia, Munich and Vienna, along with
Olomouc in 1726, Breslau in 1731 and Prague in 1734 and 1735. Johann played child roles in his father's company until 1737. In 1737, Kurz returned to Vienna and became an actor at the Kärntnertor Theatre, where he performed alongside
Gottfried Prehauser, Stranitzky's successor as the new Viennese Hanswurst, and
Franz Anton Nuth, as
Harlequin, and was kept on until 1740. Initially, he played the latter comic role, but during this period he also developed his recurring role of Bernardon, which later became the focus of his comedies and whose name became Kurz's stage name. The
Holy Roman Emperor died in 1740 and theatres were banned. The following year Kurz and the Nuth couple went to Frankfurt and became part of
Gerwaldi von Wallerotty's theatre troupe. Through his work with Wallerotty and simultaneously touring with a troupe under French director
Jean Baptiste Gherardi, Kurz received important inspiration for the scenarios and plays he wrote later in life. The latter brought him into contact with the French variants of comic traveling theatre, which were more strongly oriented towards the
Commedia dell'arte, whilst the latter made him familiar with Wallerotty's theatrical compositions. Wallerotty arranged his performances based on scenarios adapted from existing models, combined with interludes, dance, song, machinery, and fireworks, leaving ample room for improvisation. Kurz's first original plays also date from this period. In 1742 Kurz left Frankfurt and the following year he performed in Dresden with his father. There he met Franziska Toscani, whom he married on 29 August 1743. She began performing with her husband in 1744. The couple had eight children, who appeared in children's roles in their father's plays. The three eldest, Anna Eleonora Theresia Franziska (born 1745), Bartholomäus Chrystophorus Josephus (born 1746), and Susanna Franziska Antonia (born 1747), were listed by name in the theatre's scripts and payroll. From 1744 until the end of the 1752–53 season Kurz again performed in Vienna at the Kärntnertor Theatre, primarily staging his own plays. In 1752, Empress Maria Theresa issued the "Norma" edict as part of her reform policies. As early as 1747 efforts towards reforming Viennese theatre were underway in response to
Johann Christoph Gottsched's reforms — his banishment of the Hanswurst (a traditional Austrian clown character) in favour of "regular" drama (i.e. scripted not improvised and without comic characters and their crude jokes). The decree was issued on 17 February 1752 and explicitly targeted improvisational comedy as developed by Kurz - its addendum even stated that "all compositions by the so-called Bernardon [...] were banned for all time". Kurz 'fled' after this "ban", performing in Prague in 1753 and in Regensburg during the winter of 1753/1754. He returned to the Kärntnertor Theatre in 1754. Maria Theresa's decree had initially had little impact on theatres. The "Bernardoniads" were too popular even in aristocratic circles and Maria Theresa's husband
Franz Stephan of Lorraine, remained a patron of improvisational theatre. The peak of the popularity of Kurz's "Bernardoniads" and 'machine-comedies' at the Kärntnertortheater came between 1754 and 1760 Most of his surviving plays are from this period, considered his artistic heyday. He collaborated with
Joseph Haydn in 1751 and again in 1758 – that composer produced music for
Der krumme Teufel, though the score for it is now lost. Kurz's wife Franziska died on 14 July 1755 and on 15 April 1758 he married
Theresina Morelli, an actress and dancer – she later played Rosalba, a role specifically written for her, alongside her husband as Bernardon. From 1760 to 1764 Kurz was director of Prague's
Theater an der Kotzen. In winter 1763-64 he made a guest appearance in Venice, before sporadically appearing in Prague, then in
Pressburg and Nürnberg. He was then invited to Munich in 1765 and for a year directed the
Residenztheater. In summer and autumn 1766 he made a guest appearance in Nürnberg before spending the following years appearing in Mainz, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Cologne. He separated from his wife in 1768 and she took over direction of her own theatre troupe. They reconciled and then tried to re-establish themselves in Vienna, with Kurz briefly serving as the director of the Kärntnertortheater. From the 1760s onwards the decades-long 'Hanswurst dispute' was mainly waged in the press, but it also led to gradual reform of 'folk comedy'. Over the course of the dispute the theatrical ecosystem in Vienna had changed and improvisational comedy had become obsolete after the deaths of the great extemporisers, particularly Gottfried Prehauser and
Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern (1710–1768). Thanks to
Joseph von Sonnenfels's 1770 reorganisation of theatre censorship theatre came under state control - not only did scripts for 'regular' dramas have to be passed by the censor before being performed, but censors also came to the performances themselves to ensure the actors complied with the ban on improvisation. Kurz left Vienna in 1771 to act in Breslau and
Danzig and the following year he moved to
Warsaw, where he directed acting troupes. Few details survive on his last years, though after his retirement from the stage he is known to have managed the Warsaw Theatre and run a paper mill. He died alone in Vienna in 1784. == Works==