In our multimedia stories, we highlight selected topics of the festival, explore background information and start conversations.

Theatertreffen

Experiences, impressions, memories

The first members of the jury for the current edition of the festival took their first journeys to find the ten most remarkable productions of the year back in 2022. Between then and the beginning of 2025, they have seen an incredible 3,943 productions – and gathered countless experiences, impressions and memories. Now Eva Behrendt, Janis El-Bira, Valeria Heintges, Sabine Leucht, Martin Thomas Pesl, Katrin Ullmann and Sascha Westphal open their travel bags, phone records and wardrobes just enough to offer a glimpse of the many aspects of a juror’s daily life.

From the Life of the Theatertreffen-Jury

Stories

2025

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Berliner Festspiele linksbündig_neu

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Reflexe und Reflexionen

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Every year, the Theatertreffen brings the 10 most remarkable productions from German-speaking countries and works by up-and-coming artists from around the world to Berlin.

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The 2025 Open Call

This Open Call for the International Forum is addressed at artists at the beginning of their artistic practice who have already gathered some initial professional experience. They may be from all sectors of the performing arts, especially from the fields of directing, acting, set and costume design, dramaturgy, text production, music, video, performance, media, choreography, production management and theatre education.Around 35 artists from around the world will be invited to come to Berlin, to watch theatre together, to talk, to (re-)consider, to experiment and to make connections. The fellows will have the opportunity to attend the festival, to take part in intensive workshops with international artists, to reflect together the productions invited to Theatertreffen and theatre in general and to exchange ideas.Deadline for applications: 5 December 2024 (23:59, CET)

International Forum

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The Programme Is Online

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On 22 January, the Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of the 10 most remarkable productions for the 2025 Theatertreffen at a press conference. Our congratulations go to the nominated production teams and all participants!

The 10 Most Remarkable Productions 2025

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A new edition of “BURNING ISSUES x Theatertreffen” is in planning under the title “PERFORMING ARTS &amp; SOLIDARITY”, in co-operation with Szenografie-Bund as well as with Deutsches Theater Berlin and Sophiensaele. The Theatertreffen-programme, which will feature a range of discursive formats and keynotes, is being developed by Nora Hertlein-Hull together with dramaturgs Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan with reference to the ten selected productions.&nbsp; Nele Hertling will receive the Theatre Prize Berlin of Stiftung Preu&szlig;ische Seehandlung for her services to the theatre. As Theatertreffen’s long-standing media partner, 3sat will present especially produced TV-recordings of productions invited to the festival in its programme. This year’s “Starke St&uuml;cke” are: “Bucket List” (Schaub&uuml;hne am Lehniner Platz), “Laios. ANTHROPOLIS II” (Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg) and “Macbeth” (Schauspielhaus Bochum).&nbsp; The programme schedule of the 2024 Theatertreffen will be published on 5&nbsp;April; ticket sales begin on 19&nbsp;April.&nbsp;

Preparations Are Underway for the 2024 Edition of the Festival

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The Theatertreffen invites 30 exciting artists from all parts of the world to attend and reflect the festival and to exchange ideas and experiences across artistic and national boundaries. We are very much looking forward to welcoming all participants and thank everyone for their applications! More than 700 artists from 75 countries responded to the Open Call published in the autumn of 2023.

The 2024 International Forum Participants

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“Reviews are the worst thing about this job,” comments director Jette Steckel, who was invited to the 2023 Theatertreffen with “Die Vaterlosen”, in a guest article written for the Theatertreffen-Blog. Here young art journalists took a critical look at the 10 productions and themes all around the Theatertreffen. Reviews, essays and interviews were published continuously throughout the festival. You can read, for example, about “Lord of the Rings” fan Leonard Haverkamp’s experience of the accessible installation “Riesenhaft in Mittelerde”™ or Marta Ivkić’s review of “Bucket List”. And you can also learn more about the creative interactions of the 29 participants in the International Forum in Elliot Douglas’s article “The power of collaborative theatre”.

Perspectives on Theatertreffen

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Theatertreffen 2025: Impressionen

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Impressions

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Each year, the 10 most remarkable productions are selected by a jury of critics from up to 600&nbsp;shows within the German-language region and the viewing period.

The 10 Productions

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On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the International Forum, a special framing programme will exclusively present alumni of the International Forum.

Forum Theatertreffen 1965–2025

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The International Forum is an initial impetus for collaboration, the search for diverse local perspectives on global issues, and a free space for developing artistic ideas together.

International Forum

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Aspiring arts journalists with a keen interest in the theatre&nbsp;will attend and critically reflect the Theatertreffen with the support of experienced mentors.

Theatertreffen-Blog

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Short impulse key notes by alumni of the International Forum will be followed by conversations between participants from the respective production and the audience about decisions regarding content and aesthetics.

Audience Talks

At a Glance

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by Martin Thomas Pesl

In his essay on the theatre year 2024, Theatertreffen-juror Martin Thomas Pesl looks to the past and to the future – and finds legacy issues, multiple identities, AI and even a spark of hope.

Black is the New Black

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The upcoming 2025 Theatertreffen is inspiring and exciting. This year’s festival promises new stories, new voices and new perspectives. We have the opportunity to experience seven premieres and the works of just as many directors showcasing their productions at the Theatertreffen for the first time, such as works from the Theater Magdeburg and the Vienna-based production and performance venue brut Wien. For us as theatre-goers, this is as an excellent opportunity to embrace new narratives and engage in new forms of story-telling and presentation which we have never, or only rarely, experienced in theatre.

Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media

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By Martin Thomas Pesl

Black is the New Black

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A few years ago, the director Katie Mitchell’s daughter gave her a seemingly simple task: not to create any more theatre productions that ended with women killing themselves. Mitchell’s production of “Bernada Albas Haus” opens the 2025 Theatertreffen. In staging this new version of the classic by Alice Birch, Mitchell has nevertheless made the artistic decision that the female characters should decide to die at the end of the production. In the director’s vision, it is impossible for people at present to envisage themselves and their future escaping a spiral of increasing violence.

Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska and Kirsten Ha&szlig;, German Federal Cultural Foundation

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38 productions were suggested and discussed for nomination for the 2025 Theatertreffen by the jury members.

The 2025 Shortlisted Productions

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Seven theatre critics determine the festival’s 10 most remarkable productions.&nbsp;

The 2025 Theatertreffen-Jury

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The Theatertreffen’s database lists every production, theatre and director invited to the festival since 1964.

The Theatertreffen Database since 1964

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Forum Theatertreffen 1965–2025, discussions, awards

The 10 Most Remarkable Productions

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Key Visual Neu

Marking twenty years since artist, writer and performer Vaginal Davis made Berlin her home, Gropius Bau presents the first comprehensive solo exhibition of her work in Germany. In her expansive oeuvre, punk meets glamour, queer activism meets Black counter-culture and resistance meets desire.

Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt

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Since the 1950s Yoko Ono has been ahead of her time, leaving her mark on visual arts, music and activism. To honour her groundbreaking work, Gropius Bau presents a comprehensive solo exhibition.

YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND

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Performing Exiles is an international and interdisciplinary festival produced by the Berliner Festspiele, that seeks to make diasporic lives in the city of Berlin visible and explore the contemporary meaning of exile. A preview of the programme has already been published. &nbsp;

Performing Exiles

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Eight selected concert highlights of Musikfest Berlin 2025 have already been published and are on sale. These include guest performances by the world’s best symphony orchestras and choirs from the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Italy, which are rarely heard in Berlin.

Musikfest Berlin

More Berliner Festspiele

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The recordings of “Bucket List”, “Laios. ANTHROPOLIS II” and “Macbeth” – the three 2024 “Starke St&uuml;cke” of 3sat – will be accessible in the 3sat Media Library and the Media Library of Berliner Festspiele from 2 May to 30 August 2024 (“Bucket List” until 2 May 2027). Selected events, texts and archival material are also available in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library.

In the Media Library

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Each year, 10 remarkable productions are selected by a jury of critics from up to 600&nbsp;shows within the German-language region and the viewing period.

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The topics addressed in the selection inspire us to engage with the urgent issues of our times.

Audience Talks &amp; Further Programme

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Each year, the Theatertreffen brings the 10 most remarkable productions from the German-language region as well as the works of emerging artists to Berlin.