Presented LAFT Berlin in cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Ballhaus Ost, Sophiensæle, and Theaterdiscounter.
The very first Performing Arts Festival Berlin will be taking place all over the city from May 23 to 29, 2016. Artistic positions from the independent scene will be presented at more than 40 venues and locations. Initiated by Ballhaus Ost, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Sophiensæle and Theaterdiscounter and put on by the Landesverband freie darstellende Künste (LAFT) Berlin, the festival programme is being jointly organized and financed by all the participating venues. Each of the locations is selecting and presenting professional productions by independent Berlin groups and artists.
The festival will start off from May 23 to 25 with the Nachwuchsplattform [Newcomers Platform]for new talents and those new to Berlin. Up to twelve productions are being selected from a call, to be shown in the four initiating venues. Through workshops and advice, the newcomers will also get support and encouragement on their way into Berlin’s independent scene beyond the festival and its presentations.
Starting with the Festivalfest on May 26, Berlin will become the hot spot for independent performing arts from May 27 to 29. A programme with more than 100 theatre, music theatre, performance and dance productions will be shown over three days on more than 40 stages throughout the city, including works by cie. toula limnaios, Phil Collins, Das Helmi, Shai Faran, Gob Squad, Anja Gronau, hardt attacks, Hauptstadtoper, Frauke Havemann/ON AIR, Hysterisches Globusgefühl, Institut für Widerstand im Postfordismus, laborgras, Leien des Alltags, Lwowski°Kronfoth°Musikthetarekollektiv, Ana Mendes, MS Schrittmacher, Novoflot, Once We Were Islands, post theater, Quast & Knoblich, Damian Rebgetz, Richter/Meyer/Marx, Daniel Schrader, Tucké Royale, Turbo Pascal, Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt + Andreas Liebmann, vorschlag:hammer, Christoph Winkler and many others.
The framing programme of the Performing Arts Festival provides an opportunity for spectators from Berlin and the wider professional audience to meet informally with Berlin artists. Figures form the scene will lead thematic tours of the many venues in Berlin, during which spectators can become familiarized with the city’s cultural cartography. Professional visitors from both Germany and abroad have been invited to attend the presentation platform Berlin Diagonale on May 28, specifically in order to give them an overview of independent Berlin productions, venues, and working strategies, and to come into direct contact with the artists living here to initiate cooperations and to set up tours. This will give the works ‘made in Berlin’ sustained visibility. The all-day event “Collaborations & Co-productions” on May 27 provides artists and professional visitors another opportunity for meaningful exchange. In addition, the Fonds Darstellende Künste [Performing Arts Fund] invites everyone to attend the George Tabori Award Ceremony on May 29 at Heimathafen Neukölln.
With its goal of showcasing the diversity of the independent performing arts in Berlin and increasing its visibility, the Performing Arts Festival is following in the tradition of the 100° Berlin Festival, which took place for the last time in February 2015 at Ballhaus Ost, HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Sophiensæle. For twelve years the festival reflected the wide breadth of the independent theatre and performing artists in this city. But not only has the city of Berlin changed dramatically and developed in that time, but so has the independent scene based here. Countless new artists and groups, including international artists, have come to the city, while many familiar ones have become more established and professional. Numerous new venues and locations have been added and both the quality and the quantity of those producing independently has increased. It is this new situation that the former venues and sponsors of the 100° Berlin Festivals, along with the LAFT Berlin, wish to address with the Performing Arts Festival. The goal is to follow up the pilot year by establishing a fixed annual date in the calendars of Berliners as well as international professional visitors.
More information at: www.performingarts-festival.de
The following venues are taking part in the Performing Arts Festival Berlin: Acker Stadt Palast, Aula im Milchhof, Ballhaus Ost, Brotfabrik, Club der polnischen Versager, Dock11/Eden, Halle Tanzbühne Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Hauptstadtoper, Hauser - Dramatische Republik, K77 Studio, KuLe, Lake Studios Berlin, Mime Centrum Berlin, Radialsystem V, Schaubude Berlin, Sophiensæle, Studioboerne45, Studiobühne Alte Feuerwache Friedrichshain, TAK – Theater im Aufbau Haus, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Tatwerk, Theater o.N., Theater unterm Dach, Theater Verlängertes Wohnzimmer, Theaterdiscounter, Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte, ufa Fabrik Berlin, Vierte Welt, Zentrum danziger50 and many more.
