Opening Speech Stückemarkt

I didn’t know if anyone was watching me, and if so, how many people were sitting there in front of their screens. I didn’t know if they were doing laundry while doing so, had a good or bad Internet connection, were bored or happy to have found at least a small window into Berlin and Stückemarkt.

We all know the stories and complaints, about the small and big crises within the overarching crisis called “pandemic”. And also we have heard, read and talked a lot about how much the absence of the real, physical encounter has marked us all, has made us tired, has made us question why we are engaged in an art form that is so much based on exactly what has been absent for so long: The encounter, the gathering, bodies in one space at the same time.

I am all the happier today to be able to look you all in the eye. That you are here, that you are present, that I don’t see a filming camera anywhere and that you and we can look forward to what is coming. That we are together!

What is the future worth (to us)?

That’s what we asked in the international Open Call for Stückemarkt 2022 last fall, and we were curious to see what themes, what aesthetics and formal settings, what stories were driving up-and-coming artists and writers around the world.

We were more nervous than usual before the application deadline:
Who is still writing for theatre? Who is still taking this effort upon themselves looking for new ideas when sometimes it seems impossible to make sense of the present?

And also:
Who is privileged enough and can afford to write in worldwide lockdowns for closed theatre venues, to develop performances – who is still driven by the urge of wanting to tell stories so strongly that they are still there? That one writes and works for a completely uncertain future?

And:
What is left of this place after two years of a pandemic? Who still wants to hear the stories, who is writing them and for whom?

The redeeming realisation was: The desire and will to write for theatre and to develop performances, was unbroken. Once again, we were overrun with applications.

The long-time editors of Stückemarkt who supported us in the pre-selection process, and some of whom have been with us for a long time, also feedbacked something wonderful: this was the highest-quality works they had ever discussed.

At this point, an endless thank you for your critical, wise and devoted work!

The shortlist, which is meant to represent this year's Stückemarkt submissions did not make it easy for the jury. The shortlist was full of strong pieces which differed extremely from each other in form, content and aesthetics. This marked both the challenge and beauty of the task of selecting 5 texts or performances at the end, which are now to be seen, here in May as part of Theatertreffen.

Dear Stückemarkt jury – dear Kevin Rittberger, Ogutu Muraya, dear Olga Grjasnowa – my great gratitude goes to you, who have dealt so wonderfully, sensitively and conscientiously with the shortlist and the final discussion!

And you have made this great selection!

These are the works we can look forward to:

To ruth tang and “FUTURE WIFE.”
To Eric Marlin and “AirSpace or In the Next Century.”
To Amanda Wilkin and “And I dreamt I was drowning.”
To Aine Nakamura and “Circle Hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains”.
And to “Bakice/Grannies” by Kolektiv Igralke (Sendi Bakotić, Ana Marija Brđanović, Anja Sabol and Vanda Velagić) and Tjaša Črnigoj.

Dear Eric, dear Amanda, dear ruth, dear Sendi, Ana Marija, Anja, Vanda and Tjaša, dear Aine: How wonderful that you are here! The next few days will be all about you and your work! A warm welcome to you!

I would like to take this opportunity to express great gratitude to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, to Mr. President Thomas Krüger, who is once again funding the Stückemarkt commission of work this year.

Dear partner theatre, dear Schauspiel Leipzig, Enrico Lübbe, Torsten Buß, Marleen Ilg and Thomas Frank: I am very happy that you are with us; that you have so joyfully accepted this special task and invitation to choose one person/collective from the five invited pieces for a new work with you in Leipzig. This implies a great trust in us and our work – thank you very much! I am very grateful for the exchange with you and with our writers and artists, which started so excitingly yesterday. I wish you very inspiring Stückemarkt days!

Thanks also to the technical and organisational teams around the performances of “Grannies” and “Circle Hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains”.

Thanks to the teams of the readings, to the directors Marie Schleef, Sapir Heller and Kieran Joel – all three of you are for me the perfect fit for the first reading of the texts “FUTURE WIFE”, “AirSpace or In the Next Century” and “And I dreamt I was drowning” here at Stückemarkt!

And, last but not least:
Dearest Stückemarkt team, Daja Vogt and Sophia Scherbaum, without you this wild preparation ride would not have gone so well!

What is the future worth (to us)?

We actually have to ask more topically: What is our present worth to us, what is the future that follows?
With the war in Ukraine right on our doorstep, all that has been said, all that has been prepared, all that is imminent seems small. What keeps humanity alive?
It would be naive to believe that theatre could be a force against a cruel war.
The power of international collaboration has taught us to believe in alliances and solidarities. Believing in consciously continuing and never stopping, in theatre and in language as a democratic and free tool to shout, to be silent, to commemorate, to criticise.
All of this is so precious and worth protecting, is not to be taken for granted and is highly fragile, as we are seeing right now. And that is precisely why we are all here, because we believe in the power of language, in public expression and in its many facets, expressions and shades.

And because I am quite sure that I share this belief with all of you, I now open the Stückemarkt 2022 and ask the moderator of the following jury discussion Lili Hering to join me on stage.