“Anybody can become angry – that’s easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is difficult.” Aristotle
Two opposing emotional states seem to determine our time: aggression and apathy, rage and resignation. In attack and defense mode, we give the world the finger. We are passive aggressive. Aptly, the term “thin-skinned flagellators” (Thea Dorn) combines ruthless aggression on the one hand, and sensitivity to insults on the other, whereby everything is interpreted as an attack on the ego. Anger, fear and aggression,” according to Yoda, are “the dark side” – seductive and ambivalent emotions that are powerful yet fatally blinding.

Blind with rage, as the saying goes, but anger is also what motivates us to great deeds. Hulk gains superhuman strength when confronted with injustice but he also turns into a grotesque green monster. So the question is, how do we channel our anger, our sense of powerlessness in the face of everything wrong with the world which can only be changed, it seems, with superhuman energy? What to do when equanimity turns into indifference? What if we no longer want to take Ritalin or knead rubber balls? When we decide that “No Future” is old news and instead take to the streets for “Fridays for Future”? We’re in a rage because we care about the future.

The Junges DT clubs will go far back to the very beginning. Ancient myths and legends are famous for the archaic wrath of the gods. In the club ZIRKUS OLYMP (12+) the gods will come down to earth to fight with all the means at their disposal against being forgotten (camp leader: Bjørn de Wildt). And in the club METAMORPHOS_IN (16+) it doesn’t matter who you are when you’re struck by the divine power of transformation (camp leader: Lasse Scheiba, Zoe Lohmann). Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in drag, the performers will transform themselves into animals, signs of the zodiac and half woman, half angry hounds of hell. The Junges DT clubs provide an opportunity to meet up once a week over the course of a season with other young people who are crazy about acting, to do theatre and develop their own productions. Open to anyone aged between  and 22. Previous experience is not necessary. At the end of the camp, there will be three performances in the Box of the Deutsches Theater.
In cooperation with LesArt and under the direction of the theatre teachers Sofe Hüsler and Kristina Stang, a staged reading will be prepared for the sixth time during the summer holidays and performed on 4 September in the Box. Once again, the reading will be based on a book from the current nominations for the Deutsches Jugendliterurpreis (German Youth Literature Prize): this year it is the novel Kompass ohne Norden by Neal Shusterman, which cleverly plays with different layers of reality. Since 2018 the theatre group has been part of the youth jury and decides itself which productions it will stage.
The newsletter “Junge Akteure” for and by young people, provides up-to-date information on projects and premieres, special offers, as well as registration info. To subscribe, visit jungesdt.de.

Theatre camps
Two holiday camps offer young people the chance to discover theatre for themselves in the space of just a few days. Together with other youngsters and professional artists, they are able to bring their ideas and issues to the stage.
Be a director! In the autumn holidays, the first ever PERFORMANCE CAMP will take place at the Deutsches Theater. For four days, young people aged between 14 and 20 can develop their own works. At the end of the camp, participants can qualify for the UNART youth competition for multimedia performances. In collaboration with the BHF Bank Stiftung and theatres in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and Dresden, seven groups will bring their own theatrical visions to the big stage.
Show your fury! The SPRING CAMP 2020 is all about anger. But what makes us incandescent with rage? Is anger important or simply destructive? Where does the energy for a temper tantrum come from? Or should we talk about it quietly “like adults”? No way! We’re going to finally flip out. During the Easter holidays we will be exploring elemental feelings with 90 young people. Six camps will be seething with anger, and our rage will be expressed through dance, theatre, performance and music.

Our declared aim is to enable all young people to be enjoy and be involved in art and culture regardless of their background, and with Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is a chartered right. As a cultural institution, we can only succeed in our mission by collaborating with the institution that all young people in society belong to: school. For this reason, we also offer numerous formats in the 2019/20 season, inviting teachers and pupils from all types of schools to the DT – and not only to see productions on stage.
A new element of this collaboration starting this season is the Teachers’ Advisory Committee (Lehrer_innen Beirat). We are founding this body to increase collaboration between schools and the theatre and to work towards a common goal. We will organise events where we ask questions and listen, but also give impulses and open otherwise closed (rehearsal) rooms.
For our new classroom piece RAGE, playwright and director Wilke Weermann has been talking to young people who go out on the street to fight for their future. What makes them so angry that they are willing to put their school grades at risk? How does it feel when nobody listens to you just because you’re not of age? What does democracy mean for someone who can’t vote? And what if “Fridays for Future” is just the beginning? Based on research material and interviews with Berlin schoolchildren, we will develop a classroom piece about the political attitudes of young people in Germany and visit them in their schools. The production is being developed for the European Theatre Convention’s “Young Europe 3” in cooperation with nine theatres in Europe. For the research stage, the Junges DT is collaborating intensively with the Weöres Sándor Színház (Szombathely) theatre in Hungary and the De Toneelmakerij (Amsterdam) in the Netherlands.