The International Theatre Institute – German Centre

THEATER DER WELT, an International Theatre Institute (ITI) festival, which has taken place every three years in different locations around the Federal Republic of Germany since 1981, returns to the Main River after exactly thirty-eight years with its sixteenth edition. In 1985, Frankfurt was the second host city and now, together with Offenbach, is not just more plural in terms of the location: in partnership with the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts) and the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, as well as with its first non-European programme director, Chiaki Soma from Arts Commons Tokyo, the festival is certain to open up many different theatre worlds for its visitors.
The ITI is represented almost everywhere in the world by national centres. In Germany, its members include around 200 theatre artists as well as representatives of associations and institutions from all areas of the performing arts. As part of the globally active UNESCO organisation, the International Theatre Institute, the German Centre of the ITI is committed to supporting international dialogue and the free development of the performing arts, the diversity of their forms of expression and the rights of theatre artists with its projects.
During Theater der Welt 2023, the German Centre will host a festival academy – the ITI Academy Week – with installations, workshops, talks and artistic interventions by emerging transnational theatre artists, managers and curators, which will conclude with the ITI’s public annual conference, which this year will focus on the theme “Conflict & Care”. With a digital installation on the Theater der Welt archive, the ITI also invites visitors to the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts), the ITI’s temporary location during Theater der Welt, to explore forty years of festival history and to additional discussions and events. In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in Exile, the project touring artists addresses artistic and administrative challenges for artists who have recently arrived in Germany. The two events will deal with the complex issues of art in exile and expectations in the German cultural sector. And after the performance of Ultimate Safari, the ITI will award its 2023 prize, which honours the work of transnational artists each year, to the group Flinn Works.

An overview of the ITI events:

Theater der Welt Archive
29.06. – 16.07.
Museum Angewandte Kunst

ITI Prize Award Ceremony for Flinn Works
08.07., 16:00 – 17:30
Frankfurt LAB

ITI Academy Week
08.07. – 16.07.
Museum Angewandte Kunst

touring artists & Goethe-Institut in Exile
11.07. & 12.07., each day at 15:00
Museum Angewandte Kunst

ITI Annual Conference – Conflict & Care: dispute as a part of transformation within the performing arts and its institutions
15.07., 10:00 – 17:30
Schauspiel Frankfurt, Chagallsaal