Press Release

Today, 8 February 2019, a press conference on the programme of the Our Stage – 4th European Bürgerbühne Festival took place in Staatsschauspiel Dresden. The festival, organised in cooperation with the European Theatre Convention (ETC), consists of 11 international productions and will end with the ETC International Theatre Conference. The ticket sale for the festival also starts from today on.

Joachim Klement, Intendant at Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Miriam Tscholl, Artistic Director of the festival, presented the line-up, which consists of eleven productions and a top-class supporting programme. The festival will end with the ETC International Theatre Conference from 23 to 26 May, attended by representatives of ETC Member Theatres and artists from all over Europe.

The productions of the festival were selected by Miriam Tscholl, supported by a seven-member European advisory board. The invited productions come from Greece, France, Denmark, Scotland, Austria, Hungary, Spain, South Africa, Belgium and Germany and all impress with their artistic quality and social relevance. In the supporting programme, European artists, theatre directors and academics from a wide range of disciplines will explore artistic, social and political issues relating to participatory theatre in panel discussions, lectures, workshops and discussions.

Miriam Tscholl on the diversity that the festival has to offer visitors:

"If you take a look at the festival programme, it becomes clear: Europe - that's us. Football fans, mothers, thirteen-year-olds, wheelchair users, homeless people and twins. The oldest is a 95-year-old former butcher from the Molenbeek district in Brussels, the youngest a four-year-old football fan from Lens in France. We experience what they have to say in the liveliest way possible and with all the means theatre has to offer".

Joachim Klement, Intendant at Staatsschauspiel Dresden:

"In addition to the performances, the comprehensive public supporting programme is particularly exciting for visitors. I am delighted about the cooperation with universities who are dealing with participatory theatre in their seminars. A hundred students from six European countries will take part in the festival together with their lecturers within the framework of excursions".

Heidi Wiley, Executive Director of the European Theatre Convention:

"We are currently observing a trend towards aesthetic diversity coupled with artistic power on the stages and in the cities of Europe, where theatres with their professional structures open up to productions with citizens, with people of the community. The international exchange about the variety of forms of citizens' stage, participative theatre, community theatre, the possibilities but also the limits as identity-creating artistic debate in the public space, is an important topic for us as partners of Our Stage – 4th European Bürgerbühne Festival and for the concluding ETC International Theatre Conference.”

Read the Festival Programme (in German)