21st Schillertage Mannheim

The Internationale Schillertage
Mannheim
 
The Internationale Schillertage have been a biennial festival of the Nationaltheater Mannheim since 1978. Since 2019, under the direction of Christian Holtzhauer, the Internationale Schillertage are not primarily dedicated to the dramatic work, but above all to Schiller’s worlds of ideas and their reflection in the present day.
 
From the very beginning, the Schillertage have been distinguished, among other things, by their accompanying theatre-theoretical, -historical and –practical programme. Since 2019, the Festival Academy, under the direction of theatre scholar Laura Strack and dramaturg Johanna-Yasirra Kluhs, has developed into a democratic place of learning and exchange between the disciplines.

 
21st Internationale Schillertage & Festival Academy
Nationaltheater Mannheim, 17.-27.06.2021
 
In common, here and now?
Directed by: Laura Strack and Johanna-Yassira Kluhs
 
The 21st Internationale Schillertage will be guided by the term “TOGETHER” in 2021. As part of the Festival Academy, students, artists, curators and academics will reflect on the artistic programme and take an in-depth look at the festival theme.
“Together” or “In common”? A momentous difference. While “together” emphasizes unity, “in common” is something that lies between us and joins us. So what does it mean to go to the theatre together? And to what extent is the theatre a shared space?
 
Different bodies gather around an artistic event. They don’t know each other, but they share the space: in the seat next to the unknown person, over a glass of wine in the foyer, in the follow-up discussion with the artists. Inspiration and surprise, risk and challenge, repulsion and attraction – theatre makes the space between us touchable and opens horizons of concern for each other. But at a time when the social and physical space appears as a danger zone and the uttermost protection of the individual is demanded daily, the conventional architectures, practices and functions of theatre become questionable.
 
This year, the Festival Academy of the Internationale Schillertage will consist of three two-day workshops, each based on a different artistic practice. Together with choreographs, artistic researches and dissent and community, we will try to continue the work in the common and for the common: How can we refer to each other in a distanced way? How can we practice the distance between us in solidary dissent? How can we continue to care for the spaces in between – in theatre, in everyday social life and in international and global contexts?
 
With Esther Struck & Alexandra Knieps (SEE!), Stine Hertel, Alice Ferl, Jones Seitz (Lukas und), Giulia Crisci etc.
 
The languages of the Festival Academy and the Festival are German and English.