JUNGES DT
Mission Statement
Junges DT is an integral part of the Deutsches Theater. We want to create an playfull access to the world. For this we are using all stages of the house and everything that the city provides as stage. We want to help young people between 12 and 25 years of all nationalities find their way into the Deutsches Theater. Junges DT provides an exchange about art and with art and enables a confrontation with great pieces, themes and formats. Junges DT also deserts theater, it sets out together with artists onto expeditions in the public and researches on the spot. Junges DT initiates international coorporations (for example with Hosman, Romania, Basel/ Switzerland, Zagreb/Croatia, Parma/Italy, Schaan/Lichtenstein) with certain issues on intercultural thinking.In the focus point stands the combined work of artists with young people: Education as aesthetical research. Together with young people we use the free space that theater provides.
We invite to see, discover and play.
We invite to see, discover and play.
HOLDING – IT – TOGETHER
HALT – ZUSAMMEN – HALT
Do you also have the feeling that everything is falling apart? That the centre cannot hold, that nothing can stay together anymore? And which centre, actually? Society’s, or your own?
In 1919 after The Great War – it was inconceivable back then that there should ever be a second – the Irish poet William Butler Yeats evoked apocalyptic images of unleashed anarchy: “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,” he wrote, “and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
One of our Junges DT actors warned on Instagram: “Please take care! Several groups of aggressive teens have been beating up strangers in the U-Bahn for no reason since the Corona pandemic. Both young and old people.” Then they attacked him too. He was hospitalised with several broken bones.
“Stay healthy!” has been replaced with “Stay sane!” and in his “vaccination promise to everyone”, the Minister of Health forgot – oops – everyone under the age of 18: that is, precisely the group from whom solidarity with the elderly has been demanded with great insistence.
In 1919 after The Great War – it was inconceivable back then that there should ever be a second – the Irish poet William Butler Yeats evoked apocalyptic images of unleashed anarchy: “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,” he wrote, “and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
One of our Junges DT actors warned on Instagram: “Please take care! Several groups of aggressive teens have been beating up strangers in the U-Bahn for no reason since the Corona pandemic. Both young and old people.” Then they attacked him too. He was hospitalised with several broken bones.
“Stay healthy!” has been replaced with “Stay sane!” and in his “vaccination promise to everyone”, the Minister of Health forgot – oops – everyone under the age of 18: that is, precisely the group from whom solidarity with the elderly has been demanded with great insistence.
Do you also have that feeling of vulnerability when you stop on an open road? A thin skin, the urge to put on armour? Do you recognise the struggle to pull yourself together, to focus? Have you also thought that you could use this enforced break as a turning point to finally take care of the really important things? At the very least, to read a couple of good books. And have you then just drifted? Have days, weeks and months slipped away from you, too? Do you also find it exhausting, this sense of personal responsibility?
Does social distancing actually lead to social distance? What has happened to #weareinthistogether and #leavenoonebehind? The tone is becoming more aggressive, and not only in the echo chambers of social media. The pandemic has deepened the rifts between the generations, the majority and the marginalised, the vaccinated, unvaccinated and anti-vaxxers, from Steglitz to Neukölln, the Erzgebirge and the Eckernförder Bucht. What does it reveal? Who are you holding onto, who is holding you? And what do you want to hang on to in the new normal? Do you also wonder what might lead to new social cohesion? Perhaps instead of in the sum of similarities, solidarity actually lies in the acknowledgement of differences.
The theatre can do both: stage conflicts and awaken empathy. But this only works if we all pull together! Finally, we’re all back in the same place as one. Welcome to Junges DT!
Does social distancing actually lead to social distance? What has happened to #weareinthistogether and #leavenoonebehind? The tone is becoming more aggressive, and not only in the echo chambers of social media. The pandemic has deepened the rifts between the generations, the majority and the marginalised, the vaccinated, unvaccinated and anti-vaxxers, from Steglitz to Neukölln, the Erzgebirge and the Eckernförder Bucht. What does it reveal? Who are you holding onto, who is holding you? And what do you want to hang on to in the new normal? Do you also wonder what might lead to new social cohesion? Perhaps instead of in the sum of similarities, solidarity actually lies in the acknowledgement of differences.
The theatre can do both: stage conflicts and awaken empathy. But this only works if we all pull together! Finally, we’re all back in the same place as one. Welcome to Junges DT!
THE PRODUCTIONS
A village against a girl. Four pupils against a teacher. Parents against children. Radicalism versus authority. In three new productions, Junges DT examines the cohesion and conflict points between the generations. All three plays are about the fault lines caused by differing values and the resulting centrifugal forces, conflicts and attempts to break free. Young people become system wreckers in very different ways.
In Karen Köhler’s controversial novel MIROLOI, the nameless protagonist rebels against the patriarchal structures of her village. As an outsider, she has little to lose and questions the traditions and laws that succeed in holding this community together only by force. She finds her name, love and new freedom, but the price is high. Dutch director Liesbeth Coltof brings the world premiere of this exhilarating story about emancipation to the Kammerspiele stage with performers aged 10 to 70.
The claustrophobic play LIEBE JELENA SERGEJEWNA (DEAR JELENA SERGEYEVNA) fell victim to censorship shortly after its premiere in the 1980s because it can be read as a parable of the USSR in which those who are equal want more than equality. Persecuted by her students, a teacher tries to defend her ideals against the increasingly unscrupulous behaviour of a gang of four. Jan Friedrich stages this existential struggle between old values and neoliberal ambitions with young Berliners and DT actor Judith Hofmann.
In the musical play-in-progress UNSPOKEN [DIALOGUES ARE] UNFORGETTABLE, Lithuanian director Kamilė Gudmonaitė asks her young performers what they would never talk about with their parents and what they really want to talk about, but can’t. What remains unspoken between the generations? Would the unsaid bring them together or tear them apart? The youth ensemble is performing this documentary musical in the Box.
CONTACT US
Birgit Lengers (Head of Junges DT)
Tel +49.30.284 41-399
E-Mail lengers@deutschestheater.de
Christiane Lehmann (dramaturg and cultural mediator)
Tel +49.30.284 41-475
E-Mail lehmann@deutschestheater.de
Maura Meyer (Team Junges DT/theater & school)
Tel +49.30.284 41-312
E-Mail maura.meyer@deutschestheater.de
Peter Kolb (Team Junges DT /organisation & communication)
Tel +49.30.284 41-220
E-Mail kolb@deutschestheater.de
Junges DT
Schumannstr. 13
D - 10117 Berlin
Tel +49.30.28441-220
Fax +49.30.28441-408
E-Mail info@jungesdt.de
Tel +49.30.284 41-399
E-Mail lengers@deutschestheater.de
Christiane Lehmann (dramaturg and cultural mediator)
Tel +49.30.284 41-475
E-Mail lehmann@deutschestheater.de
Maura Meyer (Team Junges DT/theater & school)
Tel +49.30.284 41-312
E-Mail maura.meyer@deutschestheater.de
Peter Kolb (Team Junges DT /organisation & communication)
Tel +49.30.284 41-220
E-Mail kolb@deutschestheater.de
Junges DT
Schumannstr. 13
D - 10117 Berlin
Tel +49.30.28441-220
Fax +49.30.28441-408
E-Mail info@jungesdt.de
THE PROJECTS
Clubs & camps
Experience theatre up close and get actively involved! Anyone aged between 12 and 22 can try their hand at performing with the Junges DT, meet other theatre fans and discover new forms of drama.
As usual, we are opening the season with a staged reading in cooperation with LesArt. The novel YOU ARE [NOT] SAFE HERE, nominated for the German Children’s Literature Award, premieres on 30 August in the Box.
In the youth clubs, a production is developed together over a number of months. Rehearsals take place once a week and on several weekends, and the production is then performed three times in the Box. In our camp WAS HÄLT UNS [ZUSAMMEN]? (WHAT HOLDS US [TOGETHER]?), the autumn half-term is turned into a festival that takes over the entire DT. And participants’ acting muscles can be flexed once a month in the THEATREGYM where DT artists and actors work as coaches. No previous experience is required to take part – a passion and time for theatre are enough!
JUNGES DT – LIVE & DIGITAL
Since March 2020, Junges DT has been developing a variety of artistic formats and narrative forms with and for young people which have allowed art and solidarity to continue despite the pandemic. Among other things, this has led to a WhatsApp drama; livestreamed plays; a backstage video series; an interactive puzzle game (invited to the 2021 Theatertreffen der Jugend); a podcast subscription for wonderful moments; two radio plays; seven live monologues on Instagram; a web series; and a multimedia and a digital classroom play. You can listen to or watch many of these events on our website at “Junges DT Digital”. Even though we are looking forward to in-person meetings at the DT itself, we will continue to use and develop these digital resources.
As usual, we are opening the season with a staged reading in cooperation with LesArt. The novel YOU ARE [NOT] SAFE HERE, nominated for the German Children’s Literature Award, premieres on 30 August in the Box.
In the youth clubs, a production is developed together over a number of months. Rehearsals take place once a week and on several weekends, and the production is then performed three times in the Box. In our camp WAS HÄLT UNS [ZUSAMMEN]? (WHAT HOLDS US [TOGETHER]?), the autumn half-term is turned into a festival that takes over the entire DT. And participants’ acting muscles can be flexed once a month in the THEATREGYM where DT artists and actors work as coaches. No previous experience is required to take part – a passion and time for theatre are enough!
JUNGES DT – LIVE & DIGITAL
Since March 2020, Junges DT has been developing a variety of artistic formats and narrative forms with and for young people which have allowed art and solidarity to continue despite the pandemic. Among other things, this has led to a WhatsApp drama; livestreamed plays; a backstage video series; an interactive puzzle game (invited to the 2021 Theatertreffen der Jugend); a podcast subscription for wonderful moments; two radio plays; seven live monologues on Instagram; a web series; and a multimedia and a digital classroom play. You can listen to or watch many of these events on our website at “Junges DT Digital”. Even though we are looking forward to in-person meetings at the DT itself, we will continue to use and develop these digital resources.
THEATRE AND SCHOOL
Joining Forces
Collaborating with teachers is an essential part of theatre education. All young people from the 7th grade upwards have the opportunity to experience the theatre as a place of social and cultural participation. Junges DT has devised a variety of formats for this purpose which are constantly being developed with its advisory board of teachers.
Theatre in the classroom: three plays suitable for all age groups in secondary schools are available for booking. These fit into the two-hour timetable of school life and, at the same time, offer a break from it in the best possible way. In our latest production, directing team Sarah Fartuun Heinze and Hannes Kapsch encourage pupils to use “imagination as an extreme game engine” in a participatory theatre game PLAY II PAUSE. And the popular productions of CORPUS DELICTI by Juli Zeh and RAGE by Wilke Weermann are also still available for booking.
Discussions of plays in the DT’s repertoire facilitates a deeper look at the world of theatre and makes productions accessible beyond a mere visit to a performance. During “cultural field trips”, preparatory and follow-up workshops and guided tours behind the scenes, pupils can gain insights into production processes and approaches to aesthetics and, through this, they can deepen their understanding of themes explored in plays.
Streams for the digital classroom: If the Deutsches Theater is too far away, streams developed for the classroom offer the opportunity for pupils to experience theatre at school or at home on their laptops. Actors can also be beamed into schools via video chat in digital follow-up discussions.
Theatre in the classroom: three plays suitable for all age groups in secondary schools are available for booking. These fit into the two-hour timetable of school life and, at the same time, offer a break from it in the best possible way. In our latest production, directing team Sarah Fartuun Heinze and Hannes Kapsch encourage pupils to use “imagination as an extreme game engine” in a participatory theatre game PLAY II PAUSE. And the popular productions of CORPUS DELICTI by Juli Zeh and RAGE by Wilke Weermann are also still available for booking.
Discussions of plays in the DT’s repertoire facilitates a deeper look at the world of theatre and makes productions accessible beyond a mere visit to a performance. During “cultural field trips”, preparatory and follow-up workshops and guided tours behind the scenes, pupils can gain insights into production processes and approaches to aesthetics and, through this, they can deepen their understanding of themes explored in plays.
Streams for the digital classroom: If the Deutsches Theater is too far away, streams developed for the classroom offer the opportunity for pupils to experience theatre at school or at home on their laptops. Actors can also be beamed into schools via video chat in digital follow-up discussions.
FOLLOW US
