The discipline Theatre is pleased to present works by students of the academic year 2023/2024 that stand out for the diversity of their formats, demonstrating students’ consistent willingness to play with the ideas and boundaries of theatre, continually recontextualizing them. These works showcase theatre as both an aesthetic and social laboratory, opening up new spaces for imagination and action.

The BA Stage Design students are working on independent projects, creating installations, temporary architectures, and scenic spaces for performance, drama, and dance. This year, an audio walk takes us through rocky scenarios on Glanzenberg, where together we explore the ambivalent notions of the concept of home. We witness the birth of a being from an oyster, residing on lily pads and dreaming of becoming the ocean itself. Submerged with Ariel, we listen to the seductive sounds of the world above the waves, and engage in a game among species, celebrating animate objects carried to rest by primordial beings in a ritual.

In the Master’s programme in Stage Design, spatial and lighting concepts are developed for temporary installations, performances, drama, dance, and musical theatre productions, and are implemented either in individual productions or in collaboration within a team. In one of this year’s Master projects, light and sound compositions transport us into digital realms. Within the architectural mirrored space, the complexity of the cybernetic internet seems to condense into infinity, leaving us disoriented. In a second project, we navigate through spatialized characters representing the word “Utopia”. In both works, we question how we can orient ourselves and which forms of society we still want to believe in.

The BA Directing programme enables graduates to complete two major final projects alongside the realization of various scenic and performative works. One is a theatrical piece that engages with a given text or material, while the other is a project where content, form, and team are freely chosen.

At the end of the MA Directing programme, there is a significant final project, the content and form of which are freely chosen. The project presentations frequently occur in collaboration with other programmes of the Theatre discipline such as acting, dramaturgy, scenic design, or sound design.

Upon completing their studies, graduates undertake a theatre project involving non-professional actors. They determine the theme, performance location, and approach themselves. The process and performance are characterized by a continuous dialogue with the participants, emphasizing exploratory and experimental actions.

In their master project, students initiate a mediation initiative with an institutional critique focus. Through performative settings, they intervene in existing practices, providing impulses for reflection and advancement of the institution. Together with their partners, they drive forward a potential course of action as an example.

The students conclude their studies with a triad of artistic-practical and written-reflective works: with the production dramaturgy of the BA final productions and a thesis that reflects upon and analyses dramaturgical practices. Preceding this work is a lecture-performance that presents the research and makes it artistically experiential.

The students conclude their studies with a scenically exploratory work in the fields of performance, audio, and/or installation. They develop a format appropriate to their research question, along with a uniquely devised relationship between performers and audience. In doing so, they make dramaturgical constellations of performances visible and contribute to their further development.

The graduates of the Bachelor’s in Acting present themselves through their performances as authors of the narratives of their artistically exploratory works. The content emerges from individual inquiries and research, stemming from the themes of their respective written Bachelor’s theses. The projects and performances confidently showcase contemporary relevant content and forms, either developed solo or collectively. This demonstrates their ability to position themselves as socially conscious individuals, both in artistic action and beyond the stage. Transitioning into the professional field, the graduates present themselves in their work with reflection and professionalism.

In and through their diploma projects, the graduates of the Master’s in Acting present themselves as pioneering artists. They independently and confidently develop, create, and curate their performances, as well as full-length theatre projects, stemming from their research interests and their ability to engage in applied reflective practice. The graduates’ unique authorship is clearly evident here, with their works being showcased as artistic and professionally contemporary art in public spaces and theatre and cultural institutions. The connection to socio-economic and social contexts is central, providing audiences with a critically reflective and immediate access to performance art in the performing arts.