New Drama

Neue Dramatik © Iko Freese/DRAMA

Since the start of the 90s a generation of authors has developed, which has formatively characterised the genre of new German dramatic art. From the classical drama text to collectively compiled stage adaptations, these pages are a collection of authors and plays selected by a jury of experts covering a period from 1999/2000 onwards.  

Magazine

Hans-Werner Kroesinger and Regine Dura: “Stolpersteine Staatstheater“ (i.e. City Theatre Stumbling Stones) at the Karlsruhe Staatstheater Photo: Rob Moonen

Plays on the swing to the right
“I’m not a Nazi, but ...”

The German theatre has responded to the swing to the right in society. It has thereby proceeded to treat the subject in different ways aesthetically and thematically. [more …]
“Während ich wartete” (i.e. While I Was Waiting) by Mohammed Al Attar, guest performance at the Theaterformen Festival in Brunswick Didier Nadeau

Theatre projects of refugee artists
Away from suffering porn

On the German stage refugees are still often the authentic narrators of their fate, directed by established German directors. How can they become their own authors and raise their own, independent artistic voices? Examples from the theatre immigration country Germany. [more …]
Oliver Frljić „Balkan macht frei“ (i.e. The Balkans Make You Free), Residenztheater Munich; Photo (detail): © Konrad Fersterer

Teater i sæsonen 2014/15
Aktuelt, bittert, smerteligt

Teaterforfattere reagerer på kriser og krige, idet de accentuerer afskærmningstendenserne i denne verdens veltilfredse middelstand. [more …]
Stücke opening Photo (detail): © Michael Kneffel

Mülheim Theatre Festival 2015
Play Material: Reality

To the year’s Mülheim Theatre Festival 2015, theatre texts and premieres were invited that work like documentary fictions or literary documentations. All treat the breaking points of the global political situation. [more …]
Dea Loher Photo (detail): © Alexander Paul Englert

Dea Loher
Were I a pump attendant

Dea Loher is one of the most performed playwrights in the German language. Her theatre texts are about the neglected, the marginalized, the injured birds of paradise and all the enormities that can lie dormant in everyday life. [more …]
Wolfram Höll's “Und dann”, Schauspiel Leipzig Photo (detail): © Rolf Arnold

Plays of the Season 2013/14
The Question of Authorship

It was above all linguistically and formally experimental texts that made for surprises the  theatre season 2013/2014. [more …]
Award ceremony of the Mülheim Theatre Festival 2014: Helgard Haug, Daniel Wetzel / Rimini Protocol, Wolfram Höll and Milena Baisch with Dagmar Mühlenfeld, Lord Mayor of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr Photo (detail): Michael Kneffel

Mülheim Theatre Festival 2014
Authors Remain Centre Stage

Criticism of young authors has recently been booming. Not so at the Mülheim Theatre Festival. At this year’s competition for the Dramatist and Children’s Play Prizes, the debutants came out on top. [more …]
Royal Exchenge Theatre Production: „There Has Possibly Been an Incident“, directed by Sam Pritchard. © Jonathan Keenan Photo (detail): © Jonathan Keenan

The Change in the Concept of the Author
Play Development versus Drama?

The concept of the author has evolved considerably in recent years. Even the Play Market at the Berlin Theatre Meeting has been re-oriented. [more …]
Marius von Mayernburg; © Katharina Birus Photo (detail): © Katharina Birus

Playwrights
New Scope – The Concept of Writer-in-Residence at Theatres

The German-speaking theatre has been increasingly integrating playwrights into specific theatres. The concept of the writer-in-residence has been greatly expanded. [more …]
Katja Brunner „Von den Beinen zu kurz” (Too Short in the Legs), Hanover Schauspiel, awarded with Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis 2013; © Katrin Ribbe Photo (detail): © Katrin Ribbe

Mülheim Theatre Festival 2013
Networked Plays

Festivals have their own dynamics. This is also true of the Mülheim Theatre Festival, which has in recent years spun an ever finer web of cooperation. [more …]
Moritz Rinke „Wir lieben und wir wissen nichts” (i.e., We Love and We Know Nothing), premiere at Schauspiel Frankfurt Photo (detail): © Birgit Hupfeld

Plays of the 2012/2013 Season
A good vintage

The 2012/2013 season surprised with a variety of outstanding plays and was also otherwise full of eye-openers. [more …]