Foto: Julia Schade © NRWKS

Theatre festival FAVORITEN 2018 – Independent theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia

Event trip

On the occasion of the biennial theatre festival FAVORITEN in Dortmund, five curators, theatre makers, programme managers and journalists from Ethiopia, Estonia, Israel, Canada and Mexico visited North Rhine-Westphalia in September. They got to know the festival of independent performing arts in North Rhine-Westphalia and discussed framework conditions and content with the artistic directors of the 2018 festival edition, Fanti Baum and Olivia Ebert.

During the festival, the participants not only saw works from the independent theatre scene in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also visited relevant institutions and held discussions with organisers, artists and experts.

In Mülheim an der Ruhr, Omar Mohamad introduced the guests to the Silent University Ruhr and Fabian Saavedra-Lara to the concept of Interkultur Ruhr. A visit to the Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World), based in Cologne, was also on the programme, as was a discussion on the structures of the independent theatre scene in North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond with Harald Redmer from the NRW State Office of Independent Performing Arts and Janina Bedunski from the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts.