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Group of people in a building overlooking a lake in the background.

International Forum 2026 © Constanze Flamme

International Forum

The International Forum is a scholarship programme for aspiring performing arts artists from across the world. It’s a platform for global exchange and the promotion of young theatre makers, an initial impetus for collaboration, the search for diverse local perspectives on global issues, and a free space for developing artistic ideas together. Artists from all continents will gather in Berlin during Theatertreffen to see shows together, think together, experiment and make connections.

The 2027 Open Call

In its 2027 edition, the International Forum will explore the act of watching. Until 26 November, theatre practitioners from all disciplines of the performing arts who have around five years of artistic professional experience can apply. We invite the participants to join us in exploring the act of watching as part of our theatre practice, to engage with various techniques of watching theatre, and to examine in practical artistic workshops how we can consciously shape the act of watching as a creative process. We want to engage in dialogue, to spend two weeks exchanging different perspectives, immersing ourselves in Theatertreffen and talking about the invited productions. Cooking and eating (and washing up) together. Exploring the city and having a look around. Celebrating the art of watching theatre together.

To the Open Call

International Forum 2026

In the autumn of 2025, more than 800 artists from around 90 countries applied in response to our open call. The International Forum 2026 brought together 33 emerging theatre makers from Alexandria to Quezon City, from Timișoara to Langenthal. For that edition the International Forum, led by Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan, moved to the Floating ~~University~~, a rainwater collection basin at the former airport in Berlin-Tempelhof and a place of learning where birds, insects, algae, reeds and some humans with a thirst for knowledge now co-exist.

There, in the middle of the city and surrounded not only by people, the question of how to live together presented itself in an entirely new way. Generally, we think of and practise theatre from a human perspective in laboratory-like settings, from which we try to make statements about the world. Can this human gaze within theatre praxis be overcome? What language(s), images, movements and artistic strategies will we find as immediate neighbours of the Floating ~~University~~ ecosystem? The participants addressed these and other questions in workshops by the artists Rolf Abderhalden (Mapa Teatro), Shelley Etkin and Christophe Meierhans.

In addition, the invited participants also had the opportunity to attend and reflect on the festival: in conversations with artists from the productions invited to Theatertreffen and participants from the festival’s other formats, at night in the theatre foyer and the next day doing early morning exercise. Non-stop theatre for whole weeks – scenic research with no pressure to produce anything. And yet the artists’ worlds has been revealed in the Theatertreffen programme: at The Forum’s Forum on 6 May 2026 the participants presented a playful response to the question of what theatre today looks like for them.

The participants of the International Forum 2026

A group of people are sitting on the floor in a room. Two people are standing in front of a wall covered with Post-its, looking at each other.

International Forum 2026

In a circle, a group of people is sitting on colorful chairs on a wooden platform inside a water basin, beneath a white roof.

International Forum 2026

A group of people stands facing each other in a circle in a large room and extends their fingers toward the center of the circle.

International Forum 2026

A group of people is sitting at a long table in the evening sunlight, at wooden tables with colorful chairs under a sun sail, eating.

International Forum 2026

A person with long hair is holding an origami crane in their hand.

International Forum 2026

A person is slicing bell peppers in an outdoor kitchen.

International Forum 2026

A group of people are sitting in a circle on colourful chairs on a wooden platform, while four people are running within the circle.

International Forum 2026

A group of people stand in front of a house wall and try to look into an open window.

International Forum 2025

A group of people, all wearing 3D glasses, sit in a room and look into the camera.

International Forum 2025

A group of people stand in a circle in front of an old industrial building made of red bricks.

International Forum 2025

A group of people are sitting on chairs in a large room and chatting.

International Forum 2025

A masked person in black clothing stands in front of a photo of a square where a violent confrontation is taking place and holds up a sign with the text ‘Before we die we will be eternal’.

International Forum 2025

A man and a woman are talking to a group facing them.

International Forum 2025

Two people are standing in front of a wall on which large pieces of paper with handwritten notes are hanging.

International Forum 2025

A group of people form a circle around a water fountain.

International Forum 2025

Many people sit at a long wooden table and eat.

International Forum 2025

Participants of the International Forum are standing in a circle in front of the side stage at Berliner Festspiele, listening to a person speaking. It is evening and most members of the group are holding wine glasses.

International Forum 2024

Many small, hand-written papers are taped to a white wall under the headline “interests”.

International Forum 2024

Participants of the International Forum playing on the “Radical Playground”.

International Forum 2024

Members of the International Forum are cutting vegetables in the sun, bent over a beer garden table.

International Forum 2024

International Forum 2026

International Forum 2025

International Forum 2024

International Forum 2026

International Forum 2025

International Forum 2024

Team

Co-Directors: Aljoscha Begrich, Sima Djabar Zadegan
Assistance: Johanna Rolshausen
Phone Show number
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History

The International Forum (IF) has existed since 1965. Founded as the “Begegnung junger Bühnenangehöriger” (Meeting of Young Stage Professionals), it is the oldest institution of its kind in continuous operation. It began as an event that provided information and discussions for young professional theatre-makers from West Germany. In 1970 the circle of participants was widened when agreements were reached with institutions in Austria and Switzerland. As a result of the co-operation with the Goethe-Institut that began in 1980, young theatre-makers could be invited from all over the world.

The aim of the International Forum remains the same today: to create an open forum for early-career theatre-makers, a space that offers time and opportunities for artistic exchange, to work collaboratively, and experiment and explore theatrically – without the pressure of having to deliver a presentable product. Up until today the process of questioning and being questioned continues to have a long-lasting influence on the working methods and way of thinking of the participating artists. It is no coincidence that unique transnational and long-lasting working relationships have repeatedly evolved from the International Forum.

With the introduction of international participants, the Forum also took on a broader range of themes, focussing more strongly on socio-political issues on a local and global level in order to investigate theatre as a space for public debate located between arts, politics and society. Discourses around changing perspectives, equality, structural power imbalances and access were increasingly explored in the International Forum. This was the case even more so as the exchange between the local theatre scene and their international colleagues – especially those from countries that are out of the focus of the Western European cultural sector – called for a pluralistic view of the world and critical engagement with other points of view and forms of work that transcend the horizons of the German-speaking cultural landscape.

In the year 2000 the International Forum received the Fritz Kortner Prize, awarded by the magazine Theater heute and funded by the Friedrich Stiftung. In 2001 the International Theatre Institute (ITI Germany) awarded its prize on the World Theatre Day to the International Forum and its former director Manfred Linke.

In 2025, the 60th anniversary of the International Forum was celebrated with the artistic programme “Forum Theatertreffen 1965–2025”. It was curated by Aljoscha Begrich, Sima Djabar Zadegan and Nora Hertlein-Hull and consisted exclusively of contributions by alumni, giving an impression of the breadth of artworks created by the 2476 artists from 90 countries who have taken part – till now outside the public eye – in the International Forum.

Directors

From 1965 to 1968 the “Meeting of Young Stage Professionals” was run by Joachim Werner Preuß, in the period from 1969 to 2005 as the “International Forum for Young Stage Professionals” it was run by Manfred Linke. From 2006 to 2014 the International Forum was run by Uwe Gössel, from 2015 to 2017 by Daniel Richter and from 2018 to 2022 by Necati Öziri. In 2023 the International Forum became part of the “10 Treffen”. In 2024, Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan took over as its directors.

Participants

Since 1965, more than 2500 theatre-makers from 90 countries have been awarded scholarships to participate in the IF.

All participants since 1965

Documentations

Documentation 40 Years of International Forum

Documentations of the years

2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2024

Documentation 60 Years of International Forum 2025

The International Forum takes place in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport and the Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.
It is supported by the German Stage Association.

Theatertreffen is funded by

Funded by

The International Forum is realised in cooperation with

The 2026 International Forum was realised thanks to the support of our partners:

Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur