Press Releases
New Leadership Team for the Berliner Festspiele’s Theatertreffen
Four theatre practitioners stemming from Poland, Ukraine and Germany will take up the mantle of joint leadership of the Berliner Festspiele’s Theatertreffen in 2023. In early September, Olena Apchel, Marta Hewelt, Carolin Hochleichter and Joanna Nuckowska will begin planning and shaping the festival, which is scheduled to be held in May 2023.
6 July 2022Ana Prvački: Apis Gropius. An Augmented Reality Experience in the Atrium of the Gropius Bau
The Gropius Bau is pleased to announce the launch of Apis Gropius (2022), a unique, site-specific augmented reality (AR) experience by Ana Prvački. Prvački is the Gropius Bau’s first Digital Artist in Residence 2021/2022.
23 June 2022Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child
The Gropius Bau is pleased to present The Woven Child, the first major retrospective of Louise Bourgeois to focus exclusively on the works that she made with fabrics and textiles during the final chapter of her storied career.
7 June 2022Takeover – exhibition with international artists curated by kids in the Gropius Bau
Takeover – exhibition with international artists curated by kids in the Gropius Bau
25 May 2022Theatertreffen Finale
The 59th Theatertreffen ended on Sunday, 22 May with the traditional final jury debate, two award ceremonies and the performances of “Slippery Slope” at Maxim Gorki Theater and “Der Tartuffe oder Kapital und Ideologie” at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. With this edition of Theatertreffen, the festival’s long-standing director Yvonne Büdenhölzer and her team bid farewell to Berliner Festspiele.
23 May 2022The 2022 Alfred-Kerr-Acting-Award goes to Samouil Stoyanov
The Alfred-Kerr-Acting-Award was presented to Samouil Stoyanov at the conclusion of the Berlin Theatertreffen on Sunday, 22 May at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
22 May 2022Stückemarkt: Commission of Work Goes to Amanda Wilkin
As part of the 59th Theatertreffen, the winner of the Stückemarkt Commission of Work was announced tonight, 19 May 2022: Amanda Wilkin.
19 May 2022Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal appointed as director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project
Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of the Gropius Bau, begins at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project on 1 September 2022.
13 May 2022Einstein on the Beach & I AM (VR): Opera and Virtual Theatre
Two productions by Susanne Kennedy and Markus Selg will be presented at Haus der Berliner Festspiele from 30 June to 4 July: a new interpretation of the opera “Einstein on the Beach” and the VR-installation “I AM (VR)”.
Ticket sales begin on 11 May at 14:00.
Claudia Roth, State Minister for Culture, Opens Theatertreffen at Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Today, on May 6, Claudia Roth MdB, State Minister for Culture and the Media, will join festival director Yvonne Büdenhölzer to open the 59th Theatertreffen at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. After two years of the pandemic and extensive refurbishment, the Festspielhaus will once more open its doors to the public.
6 May 2022Musikfest Berlin welcomes guests from Europe, America and Asia
From 27 August to 19 September 2022, Berlin’s concert season begins anew with the Musikfest Berlin, presented by the Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation.
28 April 2022Ayumi Paul is the Gropius Bau’s In House: Artist In Residence 2022
The Gropius Bau is pleased to welcome Ayumi Paul as In House: Artist in Residence 2022.
26 April 2022Invitation to a Press Talk with Artists
The 59th Theatertreffen will open on 6 May at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The festival schedule including the comprehensive accompanying programme has been published on the website of Berliner Festspiele.
19 April 2022BURNING ISSUES x Theatertreffen (again!)
At the beginning of the Theatertreffen, on 7 and 8 May 2022, the conference BURNING ISSUES x Theatertreffen will be held for the first time at the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz and once again at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Founded in 2018 by Nicola Bramkamp and Lisa Jopt, the conference advocates increased (gender) equity in the performing arts.
The programme is published on our website. Entry is free of charge.
3sat-Award Goes to Director Claudia Bauer. / 3sat presents “Starke Stücke” from the 59th Theatertreffen.
This year’s 3sat-Award, which includes a sum of 10,000 Euros, goes to director Claudia Bauer for her production “humanistää! – eine abschaffung der sparten”, based on Ernst Jandl, from Volkstheater (Vienna), which was invited to Theatertreffen.
4 April 2022Theatertreffen in Hamburg
Between 11 and 20 May, Theatertreffen will present eight shows of SIGNA’s performance installation “Die Ruhe” at the former Paketpostamt Altona in Hamburg.
30 March 2022MaerzMusik 2022: Connecting through sound
From 18 to 27 March, MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues 2022 of the Berliner Festspiele took place in the Gropius Bau, silent green and other venues in Berlin. With open formats, new constellations of artists, homages to the music pioneer Éliane Radigue and the Fluxus co-founder Benjamin Patterson, with talks, workshops and films, this year's festival was an invitation to encounter each other anew on different levels and to forge relationships through sound experiences. Over 6.000 visitors came to the festival curated by Kamila Metwaly and Berno Odo Polzer, almost all of which is still available in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library. At the Ukraine Fund Raising Concert on the closing Sunday of the festival, cash donations were collected to benefit the association “Wir packen's an”. The special account (GLS Bank; IBAN DE46 4306 0967 1059 2396 02) is still open for donations.
28 March 2022Actor Valery Tscheplanowa is the Juror of the 2022 Alfred-Kerr-Acting-Award
This award, which comes with a prize sum of 5,000 Euro, acknowledges an outstanding achievement by a young actor in one of the ten remarkable productions invited to Theatertreffen.
25 March 2022Theatertreffen to Open on 6 May with Christopher Rüping’s Production „Das neue Leben“ from Schauspielhaus Bochum
The 59th edition of the festival will be opened on Friday 6 May at Haus der Berliner Festspiele by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth MdB and Yvonne Büdenhölzer, Director of Theatertreffen.
21 March 2022MaerzMusik 2022: Festival starts tomorrow with a live audience and digital
MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues 2022 begins on Friday, 18 March, with “A Garden of Forking Paths” opening in the Gropius Bau. A Ukraine Fund Raising Concert will take place on 27 March as a joint initiative with ensemble mosaik as part of the final project “A Garden of Forking Paths – Finale”, combined with an appeal for donations for “Wir packen’s an e. V.”. Much of the content of MaerzMusik 2022 will be available live and on-demand in the just-launched Berliner Festspiele media library.
17 March 2022Letter of intent to support the voices of Ukrainian artists in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and across Europe
On the initiative of Stas Zhyrkov, Intendant Left Bank Theatre (Kyiv/Ukraine), over 100 cultural institutions, including Deutsches Theater Berlin, have so far signed the following letter of intent, which was sent to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine on March 14.
14 March 2022Stückemarkt of Theatertreffen: The Selected Works for 2022
Theatertreffen’s Stückemarkt presents new voices of authors from all over the world in various theatrical formats – from dramatic texts to performances.
3 March 2022Amelie Deuflhard to Receive the 2022 Theatre-Award-Berlin
The Foundation Preußische Seehandlung will distinguish theatre producer and artistic director of Kampnagel Hamburg Amelie Deuflhard with the 2022 Theatre-Award-Berlin for her special merits to the German-language theatre. The prize comes with a sum of 20,000 Euros and will be awarded at a ceremony during the 59th Theatertreffen of Berliner Festspiele (6 to 22 May 2022) by Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin and Chairwoman of the Board of the Preußische Seehandlung Foundation.
28 February 2022Cracow Declaration of Solidarity of Theatre Directors and Cultural Workers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland
The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, since its earliest days one of Poland’s most important theatres, has found itself in an extremely difficult situation: a procedure for recalling its director Krzysztof Głuchowski was initiated. Midway through the term of his office, with no substantial, artistic, or legal grounds for such a dismissal
23 February 2022MaerzMusik 2022: Programme Update
Further details on the programme of MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues 2022 of the Berliner Festspiele (18 to 27 March) have now been published on the website: The opening “A Garden of Forking Paths” in the Gropius Bau can be attended at 17:00 or 21:00.
22 February 2022Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility
Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility revisits an exhilarating chapter in global modernism in Beirut.
8 February 2022The Selection of 10 Productions
In an online press conference today, 3 February 2022, the Theatertreffen-jury and festival director Yvonne Büdenhölzer presented the selection of ten remarkable productions from the past theatre year to be nominated for an invitation to the 59th Theatertreffen.
3 February 2022Dayanita Singh: Dancing with my Camera
The Gropius Bau is pleased to present Dancing with my Camera, the first major survey of the internationally renowned artist Dayanita Singh.
20 January 2022MaerzMusik Explores Relations
Berliner Festspiele’s MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues 2022 (18 to 27 March) has been co-developed by the Egyptian-Polish curator and writer Kamila Metwaly and artistic director Berno Odo Polzer. The ten-day programme in ten venues in Berlin – with silent green Kulturquartier as the festivals centre, and opening at the Gropius Bau – focuses on the visible and invisible relations that hold everything together, in music and beyond.
18 January 2022Invitation to the Press Conference
Live stream press conference:
The jury’s selection for the 59th Theatertreffen will be streamed live on Thursday, 3 February 2022 at 11:00.
Exhibition Programme 2022
We are pleased to announce the Gropius Bau’s exhibition programme for 2022. Key topics include establishing common ground, making space for one another, rituals of individual and collective caring and healing, and sites of memory and repair.
16 December 20212022 Theatertreffen-Blog: Open Call
Berliner Festspiele’s Theatertreffen is looking for new blog-editors for the next festival edition. The deadline for applications is 6 February 2022.
8 December 2021Zanele Muholi
This November, Gropius Bau opens the first major survey in Germany of South African visual activist Zanele Muholi. Muholi came to prominence in the early 2000s with photographs that tell stories of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives in South Africa and beyond.
13 October 2021Emeka Ogboh. Ámà: The Gathering Place
From 20 October 2021, a site-specific installation by artist Emeka Ogboh will occupy the Gropius Bau’s vast atrium – the heart of the institution’s historical architecture, which is freely accessible without an entry price, welcoming all visitors to the very center of the building.
11 October 2021Ámà: 4 Days on Caring, Repairing and Healing
From 4 to 7 November 2021, the Gropius Bau will convene Ámà: 4 Days on Caring, Repairing and Healing.
30 September 2021Matthias Pees to be appointed as new Director of Berliner Festspiele
Today, the board of directors of Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) GmbH, chaired by Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, appointed the dramaturg, curator and theatre manager Matthias Pees as the new director of Berliner Festspiele. On 1 September 2022, he will take over the position from Thomas Oberender, who has been director of Berliner Festspiele since 2012 and will leave the institution at the end of the year at his own request.
23 September 2021The Cool and the Cold. Painting in the USA and the USSR 1960–1990. Ludwig Collection
Painting in the USA and the USSR 1960–1990. Ludwig Collection, exhibited at the Gropius Bau in collaboration with the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, is a substantial group exhibition bringing together art from the Cold War’s two duelling global powers, exploring the relationship between East and West from the perspective of art history.
25 August 2021Thea Djordjadze: all building as making
At the Gropius Bau, Thea Djordjadze to open an expansive solo exhibition exploring the mutability of space, memory and material
23 July 2021SERAFINE1369 and Ana Prvački are the Gropius Bau’s Artists in Residence 2021/22
The Gropius Bau is pleased to announce two Artists in Residence for 2021 working at the intersections of intuition, bodily knowledge and our experiences of site and history: SERAFINE1369 and Ana Prvački.
13 July 2021