ETC members - Information

Theater an der Parkaue

Address: Parkaue 29
City: Berlin
Postal code: 10367
Country: Germany
Phone: +49 30 55 77 52 67
Fax: +49 30 55 77 52 22
Email: anne.paffenholz@parkaue.de
Website: www.parkaue.de
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The Theater an der Parkaue, Berlin's state theatre for children and young people since 1950, is the biggest state theatre for young audiences in Germany. As of August 2005, the THEATER AN DER PARKAUE has been set up as a place for artistic diversity and different theatre aesthetics. The theatre is led by Kay Wuschek (Artistic Director), Sascha Bunge (Associate Director) and Karola Marsch (Head Dramaturg and Director of Education). Our theatre can stage its manifold and comprehensive programme on three stages thanks to our 90 employees, including an ensemble of 18 actors. In addition to this, a great number of artistic guests work for the theatre. The THEATER AN DER PARKAUE stages more than 450 performances a year (including 12 – 15 new productions in each season) so that we can provide our 89 000 annual visitors with the world of theatre in all its shapes and facets.

As a repertoire theatre, the THEATER AN DER PARKAUE is devoted to discover the variety of nowadays' theatre and to present a great range of aesthetics to audiences aged 5 – 20. The repertory of plays consists of contemporary drama, new developments, old myths, popular fairytales, adaptations, and also classical plays from 2000 years of literature. Apart from the distinctive stress on theatre which is based on "classic" acting and literature, we are also interested in alternative presentation forms, as, for example, documentation theatre, performance theatre, dance and, additionally, projects in which theatre emerges from an exchange of different forms of art and media. This interest is also important for our work with children and teenagers within various projects.

Our theatre productions are supported by a complex theatre education programme in order to introduce the art of theatre to young people. This programme consists of workshops, talks after the show, projects with artists, downloadable teacher's guides on the internet and professional trainings for teachers. Moreover we regularly collaborate with two partner schools that have a close connection to the theatre.

At THEATER AN DER PARKAUE, children and adolescents are not only important as an audience. They can also be active participants and protagonists in a wide variety of projects that are led by theatre experts. Here they are given the means to generate material for their debates and to consolidate them into artistic translations. For this purpose, they are provided with artistic techniques and research methods. This special form of art education focuses on the method of aesthetic research, while the core idea is to consider art education as an art in itself. This is reflected by a variety of projects on offer, esp. in the theatre clubs and the so-called WINTERAKADEMIE. Currently, children and young people between 9 and 23 take part in five different theatre clubs that produce their own theatre productions. These are shown at the end of the season. Every year in the winter holidays, 100 children and young people between 8 and 18 take part in the WINTERAKADEMIE. For a whole week, they are working together in 10 laboratories with artists from different backgrounds (theatre, performance, video, dance / choreography, set design etc.). The artistic results of this work are shown in a public presentation at the end of the week. Each WINTERAKADEMIE deals with a main topic that is worked on in the different laboratories. WINTERAKADEMIE 6, taking place in February 2011, will be about the climate change. Several times the WINTERAKADEMIE took place as a collaboration with international partners, e.g. with Dschungel Wien (2007) and Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich (2009).

The THEATER AN DER PARKAUE has been a member of the European Theatre Convention since 2007. It is also a member of Assitej Germany (Association Internationale du Théâtre pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse). The theatre has a two-year-partnership with the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds that is funded by the German Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes / Fonds "Wanderlust"). Every other year, the THEATER AN DER PARKAUE is the host of the festival "Augenblick mal!", the German Children's and Young People's Theatre Meeting. The 11th festival will take place in May 2011. It is organised and curated by the Children's and Young People's Theatre Centre in the Federal Republic of Germany (Frankfurt / Main).

Season 2010-2011: New Plays and Performances

Season 2010-2011: Repertoire

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