The jury invited three authors to take part in the playwright’s workshop:
Thomas Arzt, Vienna: “Protest of a Provincial Proletarian”
Hannes Becker, Leipzig: “Friendly People”
Sandra Kellein, Berlin: “An Advanced Course in Feeling Good”
Head: John von Düffel
The pool of talent is getting smaller and more exclusive. After the brightly coloured panorama of twelve participants in the playwriting workshop’s initial year and guerrilla writing units of six to eight young authors in the years in between, this year there are “only” three: Thomas Arzt from Vienna with his play “Protest of a Provincial Proletarian”, the Leipzig writer Hannes Becker with “Friendly People” and Sandra Kellein from Berlin with her text “An Advanced Course in Feeling Good”.
This does not mean that there is less talent around, but our ambitions are higher, above all through our efforts to reduce the perceived gap between invitations to the Stückemarkt and the playwriting workshop. The keyword for this year’s textual work in our select group is therefore: intensity. Both in our investigations of the individual plays and in the authors’ encounters with each other. Fewer participants and more time – this promises greater precision and a more fundamental engagement with each other. It is hoped that this greater intensity will be evident in the presentation of the workshop writers, which this year avoids the maxim: “Give much, please many”. Entitled “Caution Fragile!” the selected authors and the excerpts of their texts will be more strongly featured and presented in a staged reading by leading actors. The extent to which the title applies to the invited playwrights is further demonstrated by the attempt to accompany their further development through a mentor system. Meetings should be arranged for the playwrights together with the workshop leader and areas of the theatre opened up to them which will open doors from the desk to the stage.
John von Düffel, writer and dramaturg, head of the Stückemarkt’s playwriting workshop