FIND 2011–2021
Festival International New Drama 2022
From March 31 to April 10
For this edition, we focused on the Canadian theatre director, writer, actor and filmmaker Robert Lepage (Québec) who, after a decadeslong absence from this city’s theatre scene, was now back on a Berlin stage for the first time.
Festival International New Drama 2021
Counterimage and Counterpower
from September 29 to October 10
To our great regret, the festival had to be cancelled at short notice in spring 2020 due to the pandemic.We were all the happier to be able to make up for some of the work announced last year in the fall of 2021. Of course, our programme also included new productions as well as panel discussions which completed the current festival edition. Taking the associative theme of »Counterimage and Counterpower«, the festival focuses on productions whose content and aesthetics seek to break prevailing power structures and question and subvert them from the margins. Starting with the 2021 issue, we will now devote a future focus to an important figure in international theater. The first of these was Angélica Liddell. In addition to two Liddell productions, we showed groundbreaking productions from the artist's earlier work on the network over the entire duration of the festival.
Festival International New Drama 2020
Counterimage and Counterpower
From 11 to 22 March 2020
At the 20th Festival International New Drama you have the opportunity to experience outstanding new works by theatremakers from eight countries and three continents. Following the associative theme of »Counterimage and Counterpower«, the focus lies on productions whose content and aesthetics seek to break prevailing structures and subvert them from the margins. In this way, the plays will uncover society’s blind spots and give space to images and narratives that are suppressed and erased from social discourse. At the same time, the works will reflect upon the position of their own art form: the theatre as a place of confrontation with images and counterimages, with power and counterpower.
The festival had to be cancelled one day before its start due to the Corona pandemic.
Festival International New Drama 2019
Archaeology of the Present
From 4 to 14 April 2019
At the 19th Festival International New Drama (FIND) we were presenting new productions by internationally renowned theatremakers and new discoveries from cities including Brussels, Santiago de Chile, New York, London, Barcelona and Montreal. All could be seen for the first time in Berlin. The performances researched the world’s current political and social conditions: structural and institutionalised violence, dysfunctional justice, social and healthcare systems and the erosion of the public community at the hands of neoliberalism; refugees, migration and climate change; patriarchal oppression and how it’s being questioned and breached by feminism and gender discourse. This year’s edition of FIND was using the theatre as a tool to outline something like an »Archaeology of the Present« where contemporary history is excavated to uncover the structures and origins of our world today.
Festival International New Drama 2018
The Art of Forgetting
From 6 to 22 April 2018
Between 6 and 22 April 2018 we invited our audience to experience for the first time in Berlin new productions from various corners of the globe. There were established theatremakers whose previous work was shown at the Schaubühne, as well as numerous new discoveries. Many of the invited productions were concerned with forgetting, and attempt to develop an »Art of Forgetting«.
In the era of neoliberalism, a cynically practised »Art of Forgetting« leads to the elimination of entire demographic groups from the public discourse: an army of »the forgotten« who believe their only chance to regain attention lies in following right-wing populists on their paths to triumph. The FIND programme productions countered this »Art of Forgetting« by making the theatre an arena of remembering. A place where suppressed conflicts erupt – and, by doing so, can perhaps indicate a way to overcome them.
Festival of International New Drama 2017: »Democracy and Tragedy«
From 30 March to 9 April 2017
From 30 March to 9 April 2017, the Festival International New Drama took place for the 17th time. Under the collective title of »Democracy and Tragedy«, the 2017 Festival of International New Drama was drawing together 16 productions from internationally renowned theatre-makers. The works presented in FIND 2017 addressed the current state of democracy, its imperilment, repressed guilt and contradictions. They interrogated social and family inheritances and our concept of community as well as the individual’s place within it and used the stage to contemplate how we can live together in the future.
For the seventh time now, the festival will be accompanied by FIND plus, the workshop programme for international theatre students, supported by the Allianz Kulturstiftung and the Deutsch-Französische Jugendwerk (DFJW).
Here you can find an overview of the FIND programme:
> Programme Overview
Festival of International New Drama 2016
From 7 to 17 April
This spring, theatre-makers from all over the world were coming together at the Schaubühne for the Festival International New Drama (FIND). Now more than ever, to be confronted in the theatre with their work and the realities of their lives sends an important signal: in a time when things which separate us have superseded the things we have in common, powerful social and political tensions are becoming apparent in western societies, the haves and have nots are drifting even further apart, the impact of global wars and crises and the refugee movements they cause are increasingly being felt in Europe, and borders are being closed and populist right-wing movements gaining power on our own doorsteps, during FIND the theatre should be a place for exchange and dialogue across national borders.
For the sixth time now, the festival was accompanied by FIND plus, the workshop programme for international theatre students led by renowned theatre-makers from the international scene. This year’s special guest country was Turkey.
Festival of International New Drama 2015
10 days, 11 countries, 11 directors: With the 15th Festival of International New Drama from 17 to 26 April the Schaubühne presented new productions and texts by dramatists from around the world. The festival has repeatedly reinvented itself to achieve its goal of presenting our audience with first-time experiences of new productions, texts and performances by internationally renowned theatre makers. In 2015, we were showing new theatre from Argentina, Belgium, Chile, France/Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Spain, Switzerland and the USA as well as a world premiere from the Schaubühne itself. The invited productions assessed the current political and social state of the world via the means of theatre. They focus upon the American middle-class, jihadism, the plight of refugees, the dubious practices of Western intelligence agencies, the overthrow of dictatorships and questions about alternative possibilities of participation in political decision making. They used the stage to gauge the relationship of the individual to world affairs and investigate how history can suddenly burst into private lives.
With a total of 31 shows, more than 5,500 spectators and a ticket sales average of 83% , F.I.N.D. 2015 has been one of the most successful festivals in its 15-year history.
Here you can find an overview of the F.I.N.D. programme:
> Programm F.I.N.D. 2015
Festival of International New Drama 2014
With the 14th Festival of International New Dramafrom 3 to 13 April the Schaubühne presented eleven days of new productions and texts by dramatists from around the world. F.I.N.D. #14 focused on the interface between private life, art and political responsibility. The invited artists posed questions about the extent of political responsibility in their art and whether it has the power to change anything. A special focus lied on the Spanish-speaking countries, where current social movements and conflicts mean that the meeting of the political and the private is especially visible – both in real life and on stage.
With a total of 32 shows, more than 7,800 spectators and a ticket sales average of 83% , F.I.N.D. 2014 has been the most successful festival in its 14-year history.
Here you can find an overview of the F.I.N.D. programme:
> Programme F.I.N.D. 2014
Festival of International New Drama 2013
From 16 to 24 March 2013, the Schaubühne’s Festival of International New Drama (F.I.N.D.), already in its 13th edition, presented new productions and texts by theatre makers and their ensembles from across Europe. For nine days, F.I.N.D. gave voice to directors, actors and playwrights from Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Russia and Germany and created a space for exchanges, experiences and joint reflections across national borders, language barriers and cultural boundaries. The festival set out to show that – in spite of all the crises – exciting theatre frequently occurs in Europe especially in places hardest hit by economical and political constraints.
With a total of 28 shows, more than 5700 spectators and a ticket sales average of 94%, F.I.N.D. 2013 has been the most successful festival in its 13-year history.
The festival programme as pdf can be found here.
> PROgramme FIND 2013
Festival of International New Drama 2012
In 2012 international theatre directors and their ensembles again showed their productions during the ten days of the festival. F.I.N.D. 2012 thereby follows the reorientation from 2011 in presenting guest productions by established directors from Europe, alongside young playwriters. The main focus of this year’s Festival of International New Drama was on adaptations, new versions and reworkings of classical plays:
Thomas Ostermeier’s Moscow produc-tion of »Фрекен Жюли« | »Miss Julie« by August Strindberg, in an adaptation by Mikhail Durnenkov, the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production »African Tales after Shakespeare« with texts by J. M. Coetzee, Wajdi Mouawad and other authors, Ivo van Hove from the Netherlands re-created John Cassavetes’ film »Husbands« for the stage and Mikaël Serre from France combined Franz Xaver Kroetz’s 1973 silent monologue »Request Concert« with the political essay »The Coming Insurrection« by The Invisible Committee. The writers’ project »Hotel Bogota« presented new short plays from Spain, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Sweden – especially written for and premiered at Hotel Bogota on Kurfürstendamm. Two new monologues from Great Britain and Iceland were shown: »Bunny« by Jack Thorne and »The Deep« by Jón Atli Jónasson. Performances by BLITZ from Greece and SandS through the hourglass from Australia completed the Festival programme.
In 2012, acting, directing and dramaturgy students participated in the second theatre students’ workshop »F.I.N.D. plus«. During the ten-day workshop, students from France, Palestine, Poland and Germany took part in practical master classes, met the artists of the Festival in workshops and discussions and introduced their work to the public in a workshop presentation at the end of the Festival.
With a total of 33 shows, more than 5500 spectators and a ticket sales average of 85%, F.I.N.D. 2012 has been the most successful festival in its 12-year history.
Here you can download the programme of 2012:
> FIND2012.pdf
Festival of International New Drama 2011
In March 2011, in the 11th year since its inception, the Festival of International New Drama reinvented itself as a large festival with visiting productions by playwright-directors from all over the world under the patronage of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. Over the course of ten days, some of the most important theatre directors and authors from Russia, France, Germany, Spain, Finland, Canada, Israel and Palestine presented their work at the Schaubühne.
World premieres by Wajdi Mouawad, Rodrigo Garcia and Friederike Heller, visiting productions by Alvis Hermanis, Yael Ronen, Jean-François Sivadier and Cilla Back, workshop presentations by Ofira Henig and Yael Ronen as well as a writer’s project with new short plays by playwrights from Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Estonia and Serbia were shown.
For the first time in its history, F.I.N.D. was complemented by an international symposium for more than 60 directing, acting and dramaturgy students from Berlin, Moscow, Rennes, Bordeaux and Strasbourg: F.I.N.D. plus. The students attended the festival performances, met with directors and artistic teams to discuss the productions they had seen and participated in a series of applied workshops directed by renowned theatre practitioners. Three of the students’ own productions from Moscow, Bordeaux and Berlin were presented in the festival. F.I.N.D. plus succeeded in creating a platform for artistic encounters, exchange and dialogue - between upcoming international artists, renowned theatre practitioners and the Berlin audience.
Here you can download our festival programme for F.I.N.D. 2011:
> FIND2011.pdf