Europe's Newcomers in Theatre: Transformations in Education for Directors

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The focus of this research is on the organizational field of study programmes for young theatre directors in Germany and Europe. It follows on from our research in “newcomer”-festivals which, as has become apparent, for the curation of their programmes rely heavily on the work done by young directors still working for their degrees. In the educational field, too, the crisis regime of the arts manifests itself in a huge institutional change that prevents the academies from losing their legitimacy. The crisis forces educational programmes to develop new strategies for the professionalization of their students including both new ways of teaching and a revision of longstanding categories such as “directing” itself. Study programmes react to the transformations taking place within theatre institutions while at the same time trying to actively shape their future. Thus, the „newcomer“-field itself turns into an institutional field of experimentation, which is heavily shaped by the internationalization of the theatre world as such. The aims of this research project are twofold. First, it compares three study programmes for young directors in Germany (Hamburg, Gießen, Bochum) indicative of the changes in the field. Subsequently, these programmes will be compared to their international counterparts and alternatives, primarily to the the DasArts programme at the Theaterschool Amsterdam. Second, it analyses the dynamics inherent in the educational field, which is characterised by an increasing international exchange amongst theatre students. Indicative of this, the programme of two „newcomer“-festivals, in Setkání/Encounter in Brno/Czechia) and Fast Forward in Dresden, which present work from international young artists still working in the academies or universities, will be examined.