Autorentheatertage 2019

Five outstanding international productions and ten guest performances from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, plus three world premieres in one long night: The festival Autorentheatertage combines the trends of contemporary theatre into a two-week festival from 24 May to 8 June 2019 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin – in 2019 already in its 10th Berlin edition. An eclectic programme – from pre- and after-show talks to discussions, readings, concerts and play parcours make the festival a meeting place between countries, cities, authors and audience.

Back in December last year, the jury of Stückewettbewerb (Playwriting Competition) – which featured cultural journalist Esther Boldt, the film director Valeska Grisebach and actress Steffi Kühnert – chose three plays from 113 entries, which will premiere at the end of the festival on the 8 June 2019 during the Long Night of the Authors (Lange Nacht der Autorinnen).

Coproduction with the Theater Neumarkt Zürich
Entschuldigung
by Lisa Danulat
Director: Peter Kastenmüller
Deutsches Theater

Coproduction with the Schauspielhaus Graz
keeping calm (ruhig Blut)
by Eleonore Khuen-Belasi
Director: Clara Weyde
Kammerspiele

Deutsches Theater Berlin
zu unseren füßen, das gold, aus dem boden verschwunden
by Svealena Kutschke
Director: András Dömötör
Box

The international prelude to the Autorentheatertage once again directs the radar to the East and shows exciting productions from Belarus, Hungary, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Russia in compact form on one weekend for the first time in Berlin. All five plays tell stories of social conditions and personal longings in a sensual, playful and also relentlessly unmasking way. The big questions about individual claims to happiness and state control, about attributions and affiliations are asked literarily and also very musically.

Gogol Center, Moscow
Who Is Happy In Russia
by Nikolai Nekrasov
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
24 + 25 May
Deutsches Theater

Divadlo Na zábradlí, Prague
Europeana
by Patrik Ouředník
Director: Jan Mikulášek
24 + 25 May
Kammerspiele

T6 ensemble, Budapest
Gypsy Hungarian
by Kirstóf Horváth, Ádám Császi and the T6 ensemble
Director: Ádám Császi
24 + 25 May
Box

Belarusian State Youth Theatre, Minsk
The Man from Podolsk
by Dmitry Danilov
Director: Dmitry Bogoslavsky
26 May
Kammerspiele

CCA Dakh, Kyiv
TseSho (What’s that?)
developed by the ensemble Teatr-Pralnia (Laundry Theater) and Vlad Troitskyi
Director: Vlad Troitskyi
26 May
Box

All Radar Ost-performances are shown with German and/or English surtitles.

Opening Radar Ost
with Marina Davydova, Ulrich Khuon and Birgit Lengers, Moderation Sonja Zekri, on 24 May at 18.00, Saal, free admission.

Introductions
Introduction of Who Is Happy In Russia with Anna Shalashova (Gogol Center) on 25 May at 17.30 and introduction of The Man from Podolsk with Elina Finkel (translator) on 26 May at 18.30.

An Extraordinary Literature Class
An interactive slam poetry event, freshly mixed from traditional folk and homemade rap, 24 May, Box, in English language, free admission.

Land of Storms
Film by Ádám Császi with introduction of the director on 25 May at 18.00, Box, free admission. 

Ostwärts
Reading with the actresses of the ensemble Katrin Klein, Kathleen Morgeneyer, Linn Reusse, Katrin Wichmann, Almut Zilcher, Regine Zimmermann and table talks with the artists of guest productions from Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine on 26 May at 11.00, Saal, admission 6/8 Euro including coffee and croissant.

Party
with DJane Pelzbikini on 24 May at 22.30 and after-show party on 26 May in the Bar, free admission.

Concert
Vernesa Berbo und die Balkan Boys
Three musicians from the Balkan Forest in Thuringia meet the actress and singer Vernesa Berbo. Together they sing about love, courage, beauty and the longing for nowhere.
Balkan Jazz, Soul and Folk! 25 May, 22.00, Bar, free admission.


The Autorentheatertage will be continued from 27 May with selected productions from our contemporary repertoire. The German-language guest performance programme will start on 30 May.

Ten plays were selected from the large number of contemporary theatre texts, premiered between March 2018 and February 2019. As in previous years, the focus was on genuine theatre texts by German-speaking authors and groups. All texts and productions can be experienced for the first time in Berlin.

Schauspiel Köln
Schnee Weiss (Die Erfindung der alten Leier)
by Elfriede Jelinek
Director: Stefan Bachmann
30 + 31 May
Deutsches Theater

Theater Bremen
Love you, Dragonfly. Sechs Versuche zur Sprache des Glaubens
by Fritz Kater
Director: Armin Petras
30 + 31 May
Kammerspiele

Burgtheater Wien/NachSpielPreis des Heidelberger Stückemarkts 
Drei sind wir
by Wolfram Höll 
Director: Valerie Voigt-Firon
30 May
Box

Staatstheater Nürnberg
Representation of a fake sermon on dying
by Boris Nikitin and Malte Scholz
Director: Boris Nikitin
2 June
Kammerspiele

Schauspielhaus Zürich
Ich weiß nicht, was ein Ort ist, ich kenne nur seinen Preis (Manzini-Studien)
by René Pollesch
Director: René Pollesch
2 + 3 June
Deutsches Theater

Schauspielhaus Wien 
Mitwisser 
by Enis Maci
Director: Pedro Martins Beja
3 June
Kammerspiele

Schauspiel Leipzig
atlas
by Thomas Köck
Director: Philipp Preuss
3 + 4 June
Box

Theater Neumarkt Zürich
Café Populaire
by Nora Abdel-Maksoud
Director: Nora Abdel-Maksoud
5 June
Kammerspiele

Schauspielhaus Graz
Revolution devours its own children! (Die Revolution frisst ihre Kinder!)
A film and theatre project by Jan-Christoph Gockel and ensemble
Director: Jan-Christoph Gockel
6 June
Deutsches Theater

Oldenburgisches Staatstheater
The House of Monkey Island (Das Haus auf Monkey Island)
by Rebekka Kricheldorf
Director: Matthias Kaschig
6 June
Kammerspiele

Humans Animals Religions (Menschen Tiere Religionen)
A reading parcours with new texts by Svenja Viola Bungarten, Caren Jeß and Nele Stuhler
The jury of the Autorentheatertage 2019 read and discussed 113 theatre texts. Three of these texts will be premiered in the Long Night of the Authors (Lange Nacht der Autorinnen), three others will be presented by our ensemble - in excerpts and at special locations of the Deutsches Theater - as part of a reading parcours. 

Authors salon
Established authors and hopeful newcomers, writing directors and staging playwrights: Representatives of all forms of living authorship will be our guests during the festival days.
– Moritz Rinke before the play Westend on 28 May at 19.00
– Caren Jeß, Nele Stuhler, Svenja Viola Bungarten following the reading parcours on 1 June at 22.00
– Boris Nikitin following the play Representation of a fake sermon on dying on 2 Juni at 19.40
– Enis Maci following the play Mitwisser on 3 June at 21.40
– Rebekka Kricheldorf before the play The House of Monkey Island (Das Haus auf Monkey Island) on 6 June at 19.30
– Jan-Christoph Gockel and ensemble following the play Revolution devours its own children! (Die Revolution frisst ihre Kinder!) on 6 June at 21.30
– Lisa Danulat, Eleonore Khuen-Belasi, Svealena Kutschke before the Long Night of Authors on 8 June at 17.00

Introductions and talks
– follow-up discussion with the production team of Love you, Dragonfly on 30 May at 22.00 (after the performance)
– follow-up discussion with the production team of Schnee Weiss on 31 May at 21.50 (after the performance)
– talk with the director of WUT on 1 June, 19.30 (before the performance)
– follow-up discussion to Let them eat money - Which Future?! with Luisa Neubauer (Fridays for Future), moderated by Ulrike Herrmann (taz) on 4 June at 21.15 (following the performance in the auditorium)

Music and more
The open-air forecourt of the Deutsches Theater and the festival bar invite you to stay, to eat, drink, talk, party, dance:
– with the brass band PanTurbia and DJ Liam Mockridge on 30 May
– with the PopFunkIndieFolk-Band The Queef of England on 31 May
– with DJ Spencer Carter on 2 June
– with DJane Gerrytale on 3 June
– with the brass combo El Cartel on 6 June
– with DJ Karsten Mielke on 8 June

Award ceremony of the Hermann-Sudermann-Prize
This year's prize goes to Nora Abdel-Maksoud for her play Café Populaire, developed at the Theater Neumarkt Zürich. The award ceremony will take place on 5 June at 20.00, Saal.

International Dramaturg's meeting
At many theatres, contemporary author's theatre is a central component of the programme. Colleagues from Germany and abroad talk about their work experience, about the significance of new theatre literature and about the three texts premiered during the Autorentheatertage. In cooperation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft (dg). 8 June, 11.00 - 14.30, Saal (closed event)

The Autorentheatertage will once again be documented on a blog this year: playwright and director Daniel Wild and cultural journalist Jürgen Büsselberg will conduct interviews, photographer Arno Declair will capture scenes in the DT and Christoph Feist will illustrate the festival. Using video, audio and text as well as photos and drawings, the bloggers provide insights into what's happening in front of, beside and behind the stage. Portraits of the playwrights, interviews with the production teams, impressions of the jurors and background information are given equal place.