Wandertheater der Gegenwart
In my theoretical work, I first studied the historical background of the travelling theatre as well as its status at that time on the fringes of society. In my next step, I researched the current situation of travelling theatres. In order to do this, I considered seven travelling theatres based in Germany. I described and investigated four of them, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting personally, in more detail. Finally, I established a definition of contemporary travelling theatres. Their distinctive feature is that they bring their own stage, infrastructure, and living space with them.
Schmerzkörper- genese
Inspired by travelling theatres from the 17th to the 19th centuries, which toured with their own general equipment but without a fixed venue, we are staging a mobile stage. Possibly the smallest stage in the world, it is pulled by an electric bicycle. This provides the team with a place to sleep on the journeys, thus fulfilling criteria such as proximity, sustainability, and barrier-free accessibility. The mobility of the stage offers the opportunity to travel to culturally isolated places, in addition to existing theatres and theatre festivals. It is ready for spontaneous action and can also perform in a pandemic- friendly way. We are able to perform where the audience happens to be. The first play to take place on it presents an excerpt from Bestandsverelendung (destocking) by the young and award-winning author Edda Reimann. It tells of the female body as a collective body of pain and examines mechanisms of patriarchal power retention. Performed by Yasmin Mowafek with dancing by Anna Orkolainen, we follow the main character and her split personality as she faces places in which she experienced violence.
Travelling theatre: 6 × 6 × 2.5 metres, performers, electric bicycle with trailer, tent, aluminium poles, stretch fabrics, ground anchors, expanders, pins • Production, direction, choreography, stage, costume: Kim Lotte Stöber • Dance, choreography: Anna Orkolainen • Acting, direction: Yasmin Mowafek • Text: Edda Reimann
