© Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn
International Forum
The International Forum is a scholarship programme for aspiring performing arts artists from across the world. It’s a platform for global exchange and the promotion of young theatre makers, an initial impetus for collaboration, the search for diverse local perspectives on global issues, and a free space for developing artistic ideas together. Artists from all continents will gather in Berlin during Theatertreffen to see shows together, think together, make connections and celebrate.
Applications are welcome after an open call each autumn.
The 2025 International Forum
More than 880 artists from 110 countries responded to the Open Call published in the autumn of 2024. The 2025 International Forum gathers 33 young theatre makers from Riga und Asunción, Ibadan and Schwedt. For this edition, the International Forum, with its co-directors Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan, will move to Uferstudios, a former tram-depot in the Berlin district of Wedding.
All the things that are impossible in transit can happen here at the depot: cleaning, maintenance, adjusting screws. A short pause for thought before the next journey. After all, everyone who stops off at the depot will have to get out at some point. What happens when theatre and art leave their habitual spaces? How does reality change theatre – and vice versa? And how can theatre itself be a means of transport; a vehicle that will carry everybody and hopefully lets its passengers exit somewhere else than where they got on? They will explore these and other questions together in workshops held by artists Joana Tischkau, Wang Chong and the collective Turbo Pascal.
Furthermore, the fellows have the opportunity to attend and reflect on the festival itself: in conversations and encounters with artists involved in the productions invited to Theatertreffen, in the hotel lobby late at night and during early-morning work-outs. Non-stop theatre for two weeks, a scenic research process with no pressure to produce. And yet, insights into the worlds of these young artists are possible in the Theatertreffen-programme: During the event “The Forum’s Forum”, the fellows will give the public a playful insight into their work.
Impressions from the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Fabian Schellhorn
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
International Forum 2024
© Participants of the International Forum
Team
History
The International Forum has been running since 1965 (up until 1973 under the title “Begegnung junger Bühnenangehöriger – Meeting of Young Theatre Professionals”), making it the oldest permanently operating institution of its kind. While it initially served as an event series providing information and a discussion forum for young professionals from West Germany, the circle of participants expanded in 1970 to include Austria and Switzerland following agreements with institutions in these two countries. In 1980, the Goethe-Institut entered into a co-operation that was to open the Forum to the world.
At the same time, the International Forum focus shifted to practical work: workshops became an integral part of its programme in 1980. The International Forum has been increasingly open to worldwide social dynamics of development, in order to investigate the role of the theatre as a public political sphere. The Forum’s numerous workshops and discourse events have since then focused on exploring the place of the theatre between the poles of art, politics and society and on negotiating political issues and discourses. It still enables both questioning and being questioned and has had a sustainable impact on participating artists’ methods of working and thinking.
From 1965 to 1968 the “Begegnung junger Bühnenangehöriger – Meeting of Young Theatre Professionals” was directed by Joachim Werner Preuß. From 1969 to 2005, the “Internationales Forum junger Bühnenangehöriger – International Forum of Young Theatre Professionals” was directed by Manfred Linke. From 2006 to 2014 Uwe Gössel took over the reins, from 2015 to 2017 Daniel Richter, from 2018 to 2022 Necati Öziri. From 2024, Aljoscha Begrich and Sima Djabar Zadegan took over as directors of the International Forum.
The International Forum takes place in cooperation with Goethe-Institut and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and is supported by the German Stage Association. Further funding institutions of 2025 are Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport and the regional association of the German Stage Association in Baden-Wuerttemberg as well as the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion Berlin, the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and the Cultural Department of the State Capital Munich.
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