Forever Present?

Since 2020 large numbers of productions have been postponed, often several times. Many completed stage works have never been premiered and no longer will be. Theatre makers have long become used to a new flexibility because the need for secure planning runs counter to a consistent pattern of short-term working. This state of permanent present makes us think: how can artistic and material resources be used more sustainably? Who has new answers to the old question of over-production that only became more drastically visible during the pandemic? How can we retain an audience that is no longer able to rely on anything? And which are the aesthetic discoveries and practical tools that we will want to keep in post-pandemic times?

In 2021 the Theatertreffen and the Performing Arts Festival Berlin initiated a joint series of talks for the first time on the situation of the performing arts in the pandemic. Unaffected by seasonal increases and decreases in Covid waves the social crisis triggered by the virus has long since manifested itself as the basis for our actions and working: there is no sign of making theatre “without Covid”. For this reason, we will again focus two talks in May this year, while the Theatertreffen and Performing Arts Festival Berlin are running, on working conditions during the pandemic. What are the strategies that theatre, artists and funding bodies are developing to deal with uncertainty and to continue to make it possible to produce art in both independent and fixed structures? Which new ideas can establish themselves in the long term and where are they in urgent need of rethinking? What are the demands that should be made as a consequence of politicians, but also of institutions and self-made structures within the performing arts?