PRESS RELEASE
Programme Festival Theaterformen 2024
16 April 2024
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear representatives of press and media,
the international Festival Theaterformen 2024 will take place from 13 - 23 June in Braunschweig, Germany. You can expect 15 international theatre and dance productions and various Indigenous perspectives.
Festival director Anna Mülter just announced this year's programme at the Staatstheater Braunschweig. Please find the complete press release below.
Royalty-free photos of the programme can be found in the press section of our website.
Royalty-free photos of the press conference and trailer material are available here.
You can find all further information at www.theaterformen.de
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
With the request for notification and best regards
Frederieke Tambaur
Frederieke Tambaur
___________________________________
Frederieke Tambaur
(she/her)
Head of Press and Public Relations
Festival Theaterformen
Staatstheater Braunschweig
Am Theater
38100 Braunschweig
Phone +49 511 9999 2506
Mail presse@theaterformen.de
Festival Programme 2024
13th – 23rd June in Braunschweig
15 international productions and Indigenous perspectives in the Theaterpark
Festival director Anna Mülter announced the programme for this year’s festival at the Staatstheater Braunschweig. The international festival rotates every year between Hanover and Braunschweig – in 2024 it will once again be hosted by the city of Braunschweig, Germany.
For eleven days in June, theatre, dance and performances from all over the world will be presented on the Staatstheater’s stages. The fifteen productions invited to the festival all address the urgent questions of our times and seek to touch us with their own visions, shake us up and inspire us. This year there will also be a focus on Indigenous perspectives from various South American regions and from Sápmi. In a project entitled Ko’eyene (in English: today), these Indigenous artists will allow the public to experience the interconnections between time and nature in a new way. This will include festival installations and performance in the Theaterpark for the first time. The Festival Centre will also move to a green area this year and return to a familiar location: all around the Haeckel Garden House, a space will be created for concerts, silent discos, films, workshops and mutual discussion among the trees and hammocks.
Anna Mülter, Artistic Director of Festival Theaterformen:
"We are delighted to return to Braunschweig and to create encounters in a variety of ways. These are encounters with exciting forms of theatre, but also encounters as an artistic form of theatre. At the festival centre, we meet to dream together, to act collectively and, of course, to celebrate, with open-air concerts and silent discos. This year, we are performing in the Theaterpark for the first time with the Ko'eyene project. The Staatstheater's Großes Haus with its extraordinary location in the middle of the historic park is an opportunity for us to reflect on and re-experience our western relationship with nature. We invite you to discover artistic works created especially for this special place in Braunschweig under the green canopy of trees."
Falko Mohrs, Minister for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony:
“Anna Mülter brings the Theatre of the World to Brunswick, illustrating to us that its political significance is vital in numerous countries. She also introduces us to an expansive array of artistic styles. Through this, we come to understand that theatre remains an essential, vibrant force worldwide. The diverse forms of theatre become a significant source of encouragement and inspiration in these turbulent times, and with hope, they will infuse the entire city of Braunschweig with a sense of festival excitement.”
Prof. Dr. Anja Hesse, Head of Cultural Affairs for the City of Braunschweig:
“Every year since 1990, Theaterformen Festival – switching between the locations Braunschweig and Hanover – has showcased the diversity of contemporary theatre productions. The festival thus allows us to experience a wide range of international, contemporary theatre and makes new artistic positions at the highest level possible. This year, the focus is on the urgent questions of our times as well as indigenous perspectives. Once again, the city of Braunschweig will draw worldwide attention as host of the festival, because by now the festival counts as one of the biggest and most well-known theatre festivals in the world.”
Maria-Rosa Berghahn, Direcor of the Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz:
"The Festival Theaterformen is an important project for the SBK, as it showcases the possibilities of the art of theatre and dance as part of this annual international festival. Dance is an art form that is low-threshold and can be understood without the confines of language. We at the SBK are particularly pleased that such an important international festival takes place every two years in the Braunschweig region and can be held in cooperation with the State Theatre. The topic of forests and the way we deal with nature is an exciting one. I am very much looking forward to this highlight and wish all the artists a broad and enthusiastic audience."
Dagmar Schlingmann, General Director of Staatstheater Braunschweig:
"I am looking forward to so many perspectives, voices, formats that Anna Mülter's rich and, as always, internationally oriented festival programme will bring to our venues. With our joint initiative Wir verbünden uns! on 16 June in the main theatre, we want to set an example against right-wing extremism, and I am very grateful to Festival Theaterformen for creating this space in the festival."
Making an impact with a demystification of classical dance
The festival be opened on the evening of the 13th of June with HATCHED ENSEMBLE by Mamela Nyamza, who is one of South Africa's most important choreographers. Nine ballet dancers, one opera singer and one live musician demystify and deconstruct the history of classical dance to the famous melody of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan”. Ballet en pointe and contemporary dance, minor gestures and major sensitivity are combined in this performance to form a poetic and emotional universe of new dance history.
German Federal Cultural Foundation supports Indigenous perspectives on the interconnectedness of nature and time with Ko'eyene
In 2024, with Ko'eyene the Festival Theaterformen will bring together the perspectives of Indigenous artists from South American communities and regions on the interconnections between nature and time. A space for intercultural dialogue will be created in the heart of the Theaterpark, which will be designed by the artists themselves. Inspired by the idea of “Ko’eyene”, which means “today” in the Indigenous community of the Terena, this will be a space to think about time beyond chronology together. To do so the Indigenous artists Denilson Baniwa, Naine Terena, Gustavo Caboco and Jamille Pinheiro Dias are creating a diverse programme involving over fifteen artists, including Fran Baniwa, Francisco Baniwa, Lilly Baniwa, Roseane Cadete, Wihtner FaGo & Chana Dávila, Idjahure Kadiwel, Ziel Karapotó, Eskina Qom & Ema Cuañeri, Georgina Sarmento, Dhoze Terena Kali Sini, Irineu Nje'a Terena, Niara Terena. Along with installations, performances and different workshops that provide insights into the interdisciplinary artistic practices and practise knowledge together, there will be films and hip-hop concerts by Indigenous bands in the evening near the Haeckel Garden House in the Theaterpark.
The bar in the Festival Centre will open an hour before each event starts. Admission to all events as part of Ko'eyene is free.
Participatory projects with young people and Latin American communities from Braunschweig
This summer, two festival productions will be created right here in Braunschweig with some of its residents. The festival is still looking for participants for these projects.
In the performance Soliloquio (I woke up and hit my head against the wall), Tiziano Cruz will allow the challenges he faces in his life as an Indigenous artist in Brazil to blend with the voices of local Latin American communities. For the first part of the show, which will consist of a large public procession, Tiziano Cruz is looking for people from Latin American communities in Braunschweig who would like to take part. For further information, please send an e-mail to presse@theaterformen.de.
In Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex by Ásrún Magnúsdóttir & Alexander Roberts, it’s all about butterflies in your tummy, your first sexual experience, (self-)doubt and heartache. Twenty young people from Braunschweig and Reykjavík will sing self-written songs for “every virgin, every slut and every thirsty bitch”. The festival is also still looking for young people from Braunschweig between the ages of 16 and 20 who like singing and writing lyrics. Further information and registration are possible via welcome@theaterformen.de
Festival Theaterformen and Staatstheater Braunschweig are inviting to a table against the right
On Sunday, June 16, Festival Theaterformen and Staatstheater Braunschweig are inviting to the event Wir verbünden uns! (We join forces!). A variety of contributions are planned that take a stand against the shift to the right in the country and internationally. The event will be followed by an exchange of ideas outside with the urban society: the audience is invited to eat, talk, ask questions, report and meet each other at a table around the Großes Haus, already known in Braunschweig as the "Ring-Tafel".
Shaking up theatre on the state of child psychiatric units in Poland
On the last weekend of the festival, rising star of Polish theatre, director Jakub Skrzywanek, will present a powerful example of new forms of documentary theatre. SPARTACUS. Love in the time of plague is based on extensive research about the disastrous state of child psychiatric units in Poland and draws on the report "Love in the time of plague" by journalist Janusz Schwertner, who received the 2021 Distinguished Reporting Award of the European Press Prize. The performance follows 48 hours in the day-to-day life of two Polish teenagers in a child psychiatric hospital after a failed suicide attempt. Despair and abuse are followed by a visually stunning spectacle of dance, folk music and colourful costumes made of LGBTQIA+ pride flaggs in the second part, which climaxes with the wedding of a queer couple.
A central concern of the festival is more accessibility
Since 2021, Festival Theaterformen has been working continuously to make the festival more accessible and accessible to all. The following offers are now made possible for some performances:
- Relaxed performances for neurodivergent audiences (e.g. autistic people)
- Interpretation into German Sign Language (DGS) for Deaf audiences
- Audio description for blind and visually impaired audiences
- Interpretation into easy language for audiences with learning disabilities
- Content notes and information about sensory stimuli at the invited performances
- Alternative seating/beanbags (e.g. for audience members with chronic pain)
- Surtitles in German and English
- Accompaniment service in cooperation with Kulturschlüssel Braunschweig
An overview of the entire programme and further information can be found at www.theaterformen.de. Advance ticket sales started on 12 April 2024, tickets are available online and at the box offices of the Staatstheater Braunschweig. Admission prices for the stage programme range from €8 to €28, while the events in the festival centre are free of charge.
The Festival Theaterformen 2024 is an event of the Staatstheater Braunschweig and is funded by the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, the city of Braunschweig, the Stiftung Niedersachsen and the Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz.
Ko’eyene is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
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