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Festival Theaterformen celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015 and steered the course of events in Hanover. Eight German premieres and a total of 130 events were held during the eleven-day anniversary edition programme. It was the first Festival under the artistic directorship of Martine Dennewald. The Festival opened with Marco Layera’s LA IMAGINACION DEL FUTURO. The container installation, STILL (THE ECONOMY OF WAITING) opened the same day on the Opernplatz. Hanover's spectators were very interested in Julian Hetzel’s work and many of the performances were sold out. With the productions by Rimini Protokoll and BY HEART from Tiago Rodrigues, the Festival presented several other performances that demanded active participation from the spectators. A cast of forty-three players from Hanover, selected early this year by the directors, Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone, performed THE RECORD by 600 HIGHWAYMEN. Rimini Protokoll, Tiago Rodrigues, Xavier Le Roy and 600 HIGHWAYMEN respectively showed two of their current productions. For Martine Dennewald, the idea of showing several pieces by one company is a means of encouraging the spectators to make comparisons. Many spectators were drawn to the Festival Centre in 2015. A lot of visitors attended the fringe events presented by Theaterformen. These included open-air concerts, the festival breakfasts and the video installation, MY OTHER LIFE by Mats Staub.

Artistic Director . Martine Dennewald
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Lars-Ole Walburg

Website 2015

The 2014 Festival opened with an adaptation of Macbeth from Verdi. Brett Bailey gathered an intercontinental team from South Africa, Belgium and Serbia for his present day version of this archaic story. It played to a full house in the Braunschweig State Theatre on both evenings, and was received with standing ovations. Festival Theaterformen coproduced this project with the world-acclaimed director together with partners in Vienna, Brussels, London and Paris. The three premieres Goethes Zebra by Hans-Peter Litscher, Statue of Loss by Faustin Linyekula and sounds like war: Kriegserklärung by the Berlin performance collective andcompany&Co. were received with enthusiasm by the public. The works of Faustin Linyekula and andcompany&Co., dealing with the topic "100 Years World War I", were specially created for Theaterformen and the Lift Festival in London.
The end of this year's festival also marks the departure of its artistic director Anja Dirks after six festival editions. Anja Dirks curated the first festival in 2009.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Braunschweig Staatstheater Director . Joachim Klement

Website 2014

Theaterformen set a priority of the 2013 Festival with "Kinshasa Connection", a project sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation within the context of "Shared Spaces". In addition to the wide-ranging fringe events and film programme, the focus is on In Case Of Fire Run For The Elevator by Boyzie Cekwana, Faustin Linyekulas' Drums And Digging and La Fin de la légende by Dieudonné Niangouna - plays that were initially shown at the partner festival Connexion Kin in Kinshasa and subsequently in Hanover. Ten Theaterformen grant-holders were also present at both festivals. Within the context of this theme, Theaterformen commissioned Agentur Kriwomasow with the audio exhibition Congo Connection that was presented in the Landesmuseum Hanover. The Iranian production and the opening Theaterformen event Iwanow by Amir Reza Koohestani, Late Night by the Blitz Theatre Group from Greece, Olmamis mi? by the company Studio 4 Istanbul, and the Syrian Intimacy by Omar Abusaada brought important issues of world politics to Hanover's stages and ensured unusual encounters and moving moments. Three spectacular productions created the topical emphasis "Posthuman dramaturgies": Sans objet by Aurélien Bory, Rimini Protokoll's Remote Hannover and Urwald by the Swiss Far A Day Cage company. Two different interpretations of Shakespeare's Lear were the last premieres, both in sold-out houses, of the festival's 14th edition: She She Pop performed Testament with their fathers in the Schauspielhaus, and Konstantin Bogomolow presented his Russian version of Lear in Ballhof Eins. The Office National de Diffusion Artistique (ONDA) from Paris also held their meeting during the festival. The ITI - International Theaterinstitute hosted their annual general assembly at Theaterformen.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Lars-Ole Walburg

Shared Spaces

In the summer of 2013, the network Shared Spaces was established in Kinshasa. Among the initiators are, alongside Theaterformen, other festivals, international artists and curators. One of the first projects was the co-production of several performances. Three of them were first shown at the Festival Connexion Kin and then presented in Hanover as part of the focus Kinshasa Connection. The focus also included discussions and the academy of the festival grant-holders. The reader, that is available here, documents the colloquia during Theaterformen, outlines the co-productions and reports on the aims and ideas of shared spaces, as formulated at the inauguration.

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The 13th edition of Festival Theaterformen opened with the piece 100 Percent Braunschweig of Rimini Protokoll. Overall, 16 contemporary theatre productions were shown in eleven days. 140 artists from twelve countries were part of the festival. Home Sweet Home, the installation of British artistduo subject to_change, became a total crowd puller. Many visitors not only came to build their own houses but also came back constantly to discuss about public spaces, about an atomic power plant which was built in the south of Braunschweig or about the International Kindergarden. Further productions presented within the festival focus "You are the city" were Domini Públic – Public Space by spanish artist Roger Bernat, and Izlog – Shop Window by Bobo Jelčić and Nataša Rajković from Croatia. Many productions staged in smaller theatres like Miet Warlop’s Springville from Belgium or Look at the Streets ... this is what hope looks like of Syrian artist Omar Abu Saada were even sold out before the festival started. And also the artists who had shown their plays in the big house of Braunschweig State Theatre – like Forced Entertainment with The Coming Storm, Christoph Marthaler with Meine faire Dame or Rimini Protokoll with 100 Percent Braunschweig – played in front of packed houses.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Braunschweig Staatstheater Director . Joachim Klement

Website 2012

At a secret place Festival Theaterformen opened in 2011 with Brett Bailey’s version of Orfeus from South Africa. Works of Mokhallad Rasem (Iraq), Omar Ghayatt (Egypt), Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué (Lebanon) and Amir Reza Koohestani (Iran) belonged to the main focus Middle East. The pieces Pièce pour la technique du Schauspiel de Hanovre of Phillipe Quesne and Anna Rispoli’s L'Invenzione dell' Ascensore in the Dutch Expo-Pavilion were specially produced for Festival Theaterformen. The Ship O’ Fools of Janet Cardiff and Goerge Bures Miller runnned aground in front of the Opera. And in the Opera house, Velma from Switzerland staged Velma Superstar. Beyond that, Elevator Repair Service from the United States, Béla Pintér and Company from Hungary, Toshiki Okada from Japan and Swiss Massimo Furlan presented their new pieces in Hanover.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Lars-Ole Walburg

Website 2011

20 years of Festival Theaterformen! Nevertheless, with the programme 2010 we looked into the future. Several pieces from Buenos Aires focussed on a future society. Under the subject Presence of the Colonial Past theatrical works of Brett Bailey, Boyzie Cekwana and Faustin Linyekula were shown. Discussing the colonial past was – and still is – as significant for the future of Africa as for the future of Europe.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Braunschweig Staatstheater Director . Joachim Klement

Presence of the colonial past

No other continent is approached with the same ignorance as is Africa. But why is that so? Presence of the Colonial Past, the focus of the Theaterformen Festival 2010 in Braunschweig, has essentially explored this question in the most divergent formats. The focus embraced a series of films, four theatre productions, a thematic weekend and finally this online publication, which documents the experiences and impulses initiated at Theaterformen 2010.

Festival Theaterformen 20th anniversary

In 2010 Festival Theaterformen celebrated its 20th anniversary. It was time to recall the eleven editions of the festival that took place in Braunschweig and Hannover between 1990 and 2010. The anniversary volume gives an extensive and richly illustrated overview of all the productions staged at Theaterformen in the last 20 years. Those who took part and shaped the festival over the years share their personal experiences with us: curators, artists, sponsors, staff and spectators. 20 Jahre Theaterformen takes us on a trip down memory lane summing up two decades of German and International festival history.

Available in German only

After a successful opening at the Aegi Theatre with Aurélien Bory’s Taoub many productions did not take place on conventional stages: Dries Verhoeven’s Niemandsland led through Hanover, Some Things Happen All At Once of Rosa Casado and Mike Brookes was staged in the main hall of the new city hall and the Belgian Compagnie Marius located Samuels Beckett’s All That Fall in the Georgengarten at Wilhelm Busch Museum. The Process (Franz Kafka) of Andreas Kriegenburg, Schukschins Erzählungen of Alvis Hermanis and Philippe Quesne’s La Mélancholie des Dragons were great successes. On the Ballhof stages: Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea of 1927, City Circus Zero Work of andcompany&Co. with Junges Schauspielh Hannover, The Rehearsal of Cuqui Jerez, Faustin Linyekula’s More more more... future, Patience Camp of Thom Luz and La Omision de la Familia Coleman von Timbre 4 / Claudio Tolcachir.

Artistic Director . Anja Dirks
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Wilfried Schulz

Website 2009

For the chorus in the ancient Greek tragedy Die Perser, director Claudia Bosse mobilised over 300 citizens, who were captured in portrait photos by Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov. The French Théâtre Dromesko brought a culinary offering with the soup kitchen La Baraque, featuring songs and marionettes; and then there was the walk-in cake served up by Canadian theatre company Théâtre des Confettis. For six hours, Ivo van Hove's actors captivated spectators with Roman Tragedies, a compilation of three Shakespearean dramas. German director Armin Petras also made his festival debut with Dorota Masłowska’s Two Poor, Polish-speaking Romanians.

Artistic Director . Stefan Schmidtke
Braunschweig Staatstheater Director . Wolfgang Gropper

Website 2008

Starting in 2007, Braunschweig and Hanover began hosting the festival in turns. This year the programme featured unusual formats, including a theatre circus (Cirque désaccordé from France) and a Brazilian youth project (Afro Reggae). The Australian Back to Back Theatre performed their piece Small Metal Objects on Hanover’s famous Kröpcke square, mixing with the public in the pedestrian zone. Theaterformen 2007 hosted the world premiere of Simon Stephens’ Pornography, a co-production with Schauspiel Hannover and the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, which was later invited to Berlin’s Theatertreffen festival.

Artistic Director . Stefan Schmidtke

Website 2007

This year's festival addressed the socio-political issues of fundamentalism and democracy. Lebanese journalist and theatre maker Rabih Mroué contributed two productions (Biokhraphia and Looking for a Missing Employee), alongside Polish director Krysztof Warlikowski (Macbeth) and the English-German performance group Gob Squad (Room Service). German director Frank Castorf made his Theaterformen debut in 2004. The festival also offered a broad dialogue forum, with presentations and discussions featuring thinkers like Zygmunt Bauman, Slavoj Žižek and Antonio Negri.

Artistic Director . Veronica Kaup-Hasler
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Wilfried Schulz
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director . Wolfgang Gropper

The international programme featured Gerardjan Rijnders & Tom Lanoye from the Netherlands (Mamma Medea), Richard Maxwell from the US and groups from Croatia and Argentina, with Joachim Schlömer (La Guerra d’Amore, dance theatre), Christoph Marthaler and René Pollesch representing the German-speaking countries. Works inspired by the fine arts included pieces by David Claerbout and Yang Zhenzhong, and Fred Keleman adapted Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451 for the stage. In their project Sonde Hannover, newly-founded formation Rimini Protokoll used binoculars and surveillance cameras to observe the city from above.

Artistic Director . Veronica Kaup-Hasler
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Wilfried Schulz
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director . Wolfgang Gropper

With a focus on theatre of figures and of objects, the fifth festival showcased productions from Australia, Canada, Russia, Israel, and Argentina. The smallest show, It’s Your Film, was live cinema; four actors from British theatre company Stan's Café performed in a small booth for one viewer. Run by director, filmmaker and artist William Kentridge, the Handspring Puppet Company came from South Africa to present the Chimp Project. Pina Bausch (Kontakthof) and Belgian choreographer Alain Platel (Allemaal Indiaan) provided insights into contemporary dance theatre. Further highlights included Hamlet, directed by Peter Zadek (with Angela Winkler as Hamlet), and Jean Genet’s The Maids, staged and performed by Ignaz Kircher and Gert Voss.

Artistic Director . Marie Zimmermann
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Ulrich Khuon
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director . Wolfgang Gropper

The festival focused on contemporary German directors, with Elmar Goerden (Das Meer war groß), Martin Kusej (King Arthur), Karin Beier (The Tempest) and Heiner Goebbels directing the Ensemble Modern (Eislermaterial, Schwarz auf Weiß). The incredible triumph that off-beat rock musical Shockheaded Peter, by Julian Crouch, Phelim McDermott and musicians Tiger Lilies, enjoyed on the continent started with the European premiere in Hanover. Other productions showed works by Jan Fabre (Belgium), Eimuntas Nekrosius (Lithuania), Johan Simons (the Netherlands) and Forced Entertainment (Great Britain).

Artistic Director . Marie Zimmermann
Schauspiel Hannover Director . Ulrich Khuon (until 2000)
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director: .Wolfgang Gropper

The Staatstheater Braunschweig’s fire curtain came crashing down, necessitating a last-minute change of venue. This is why Hanover for the first time hosted a production of Festival Theaterformen: The Hanomag-Halle was home to a visually stunning production, Dante’s Divine Comedy, staged by Croatian director Tomaz Pandur. Wolfenbüttel had the honour of being the only city in Germany to host The Seven Streams of the River Ota, one of Canadian theatrical wizard Robert Lepage’s most spectacular productions. Mama!, a musical from Soweto, written and directed by Mbongeni Ngema of Durban’s Playhouse Company, made its European debut at a factory site in Braunschweig. In addition, Anatoli Vassiliev presented Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin with a young ensemble from Moscow.

Artistic Director . Thomas Petz
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director . Jürgen Flügge

The focus of the second Theaterformen festival, part of which took place in neighbouring Wolfenbüttel, was Eastern Europe. Two specially commissioned productions played a central role: the St. Petersburg-based Maly Drama Theatre’s dramatisation of Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed, directed by Lev Dodin; and Nathans Tod (Nathan’s Death), written and directed by George Tabori, as a co-production with the Bavarian State Theatre. In addition, Polish director Andrzej Wajda staged Stanislaw Wyspianski’s The Wedding, Romania’s Silviu Purcarete directed Ubu Rex with Scenes from Macbeth, and Swiss “historical detective” and storyteller Hans Peter Litscher presented Lessing's Blessings.

Artistic Directors . Bernd Kauffmann & Peter Ries
Staatstheater Braunschweig Director . Mario Krüger