Journal Article

Introduction: A Dialogue on Contemporary German Theatre

Cornish, Matt, Savran, David

2023

Overview

For those of us from countries without publicly financed theatres, the most important fact about the German stage is its scale: its vast size and the billions of euros that cover 90% of the budgets of the roughly 130 Staatstheater and Stadttheater, the subsidized state and city theatres. The Freie Szene [independent arts community] is also impacted, both through state grants and because more and more independent work is being made in collaboration with publicly funded theatres. [...]because most theatres invest sizable sums in performances for children and students, the German public is familiar with theatre-going as a cultural practice from an early age, as well as with the dramatic canon. In the early 1990s, Germany experienced a recession, and the cultural sphere underwent budget cuts and major reorganization: “the dismantling of long-standing theatre institutions, the advent of new institutions, and the refunctioning of older institutions with new purposes and orientations” [10]. Nonetheless, the dense network of locally subsidized theatres in Germany means there are more intimate and spontaneous connections between performers and audience than in most Anglophone theatres. Because theatre in Germany is not a museum, one goes to a play to engage with what is happening here and now.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Aesthetics / Budgets / Dramatists / Gorki, Maxim / Minority & ethnic groups / Sovereignty / Theater / Traditions