© Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn
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, make connections and celebrate.
Applications are welcome after an open call each autumn.
In 2025, the 60th anniversary of the International Forum will be celebrated with the artistic programme “Forum Theatertreffen 1965–2025”.
The 2025 International Forum
More than 880 artists from 110 countries responded to the Open Call published in the autumn of 2024. The 2025 International Forum gathers 33 young theatre makers from Riga und Asunción, Ibadan and Schwedt. For this edition, the International Forum, with its co-directors Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan, will move to Uferstudios, a former tram-depot in the Berlin district of Wedding.
All the things that are impossible in transit can happen here at the depot: cleaning, maintenance, adjusting screws. A short pause for thought before the next journey. After all, everyone who stops off at the depot will have to get out at some point. What happens when theatre and art leave their habitual spaces? How does reality change theatre – and vice versa? And how can theatre itself be a means of transport; a vehicle that will carry everybody and hopefully lets its passengers exit somewhere else than where they got on? They will explore these and other questions together in workshops held by artists Joana Tischkau, Wang Chong and the collective Turbo Pascal.
Furthermore, the fellows have the opportunity to attend and reflect on the festival itself: in conversations and encounters with artists involved in the productions invited to Theatertreffen, in the hotel lobby late at night and during early-morning work-outs. Non-stop theatre for two weeks, a scenic research process with no pressure to produce. And yet, insights into the worlds of these young artists are possible in the Theatertreffen-programme: During the event “The Forum’s Forum” on 17 May, the fellows will give the public a playful insight into their work.
Impressions from the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Fabian Schellhorn
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
Team
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.
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 2476 theatre-makers from 90 countries have been awarded scholarships to participate in the IF.
In the year 2000 the International Forum was awarded the Fritz Kortner Prize, awarded by the magazine Theater heute and funded by the Friedrich Stiftung.
In 2001 the International Theatre Institute (Germany Centre) awarded its prize on World Theatre Day to the International Forum and its director Manfred Linke.
The International Forum takes place in cooperation with Goethe-Institut and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and is supported by the German Stage Association. Further funding institutions of 2025 are Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport and the regional association of the German Stage Association in Baden-Wuerttemberg as well as the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion Berlin, the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the Cultural Department of the State Capital Munich and the Ministry of Science, Research and Cultural Affairs of the State of Brandenburg. This initiative is co-funded by tax money based on the budget approved by the State Parliament of Saxony.
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