Paolo Franco Gallio, Lara Michel, Mai-An Nguyen, Photo: Maria Hartmann, 2024 
 

Theatre Education

The Schaubühne Theatre Education would like to give people of all ages the opportunity to get in touch with the theatre – whether as spectators, participants of workshops or projects, in discussions or cooperations. We want to open the doors of the Schaubühne and invite you to get more involved with our house and its productions.

Mai-An Nguyen

»For me, theater means freedom and room for experimenting with personal dreams and political ideas. A safe space from which everything can grow. My goal is to make this place accessible to as many people as possible.«

In my elementary school in Cottbus, where I was born and grew up, theater offered me the opportunity to try out different roles. A special home was (and still is) the Piccolo Children's and Youth Theater in Cottbus. Where social attributes and prejudices felt like a corset, being on stage gave me the freedom to be and do everything I wanted. That's why from 2011 to 2014, I studied theater education at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. During my studies I became part of the BuT committee »Youth clubs at theatres« and volunteered to work for the »Bundestreffen Jugendclubs an Theatern« until 2017. In 2014 I started my first job at the Neue Bühne Senftenberg. There I produced the project »Rastlos ..., Grenzenlos ..., Unterwegs«, a German-Polish youth theater project about Brecht's Exillyrik in cooperation with the Dom Kultury Bielsko Biala, and the »sturmfrei! Festival«, a cross-generational art festival for the region of Niederlausitz. In 2017, my path led me to the Maxim Gorki Theater, where I worked closely with Uta Plate to develop the education and outreach programme for the work of the exile ensemble. With the season 19/20 I now start working at the Schaubühne. Since season 19/20 I have been working at the Schaubühne, and starting with season 20/21 I’ll be head of the theatre education department.

Lara Michel

»Theater is a place of encounter, of exchange, of stories. Of polarization, of conflict, of understanding. Everyone is allowed and should be given the opportunity to tell their own stories.«

Born and raised in Gießen in 1994, I made my first experiences in the youth club as a player on stage at the local theater and quickly found my way into other workspaces of theater - including as an assistant director. Through my own first experiences and points of contact with the theater, my desire to be able to pass on these experiences to others developed more and more. For this reason, after my FSJ in 2014/15, I decided to study theater and media studies and education in Erlangen. During this time I became part of the organizing team of the theater- and performance - festival »Arena ... der jungen Künste« and was part of the artistic direction for two of the three years. This was followed by further practical experience at festivals such as the »figuren.theater.festival 2019« and various editions of the Poetenfest. In context of theater education my paths led me to the Theater Pfütze (Nürnberg) as well as to various schools in Erlangen, where I worked with different groups through the VHS Erlangen. Finally, in 2020, my path as a theater educator led me to the SH Landestheater for my first engagement at a theater.

2 years later, in 2022, I was drawn to Berlin to continue my master's degree in cultural and media management. With the season 2023/2024 I will be part of the theater education at the Schaubühne.

Paolo Franco Gallio

I am Paolo Franco Gallio and this season (2024/25) I will be doing my FSJ in theater education at the Schaubühne. I was born in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg in 2005, my parents came to Germany as teenagers. I am a middle child and have two brothers. So teamwork was very important to me right from the start.

I don't want to go straight from the Abitur to the semester exams without a real reality check that might inspire my choice of studies - I'm wavering between theater pedagogy, theater studies, philosophy, German studies and sociology.

I'm interested in everything to do with literature and the performing arts, including and especially playwriting, dramaturgy, theater pedagogy, directing and stage design. I am particularly interested in social participation and a critical view of our society and environment. I hope that my voluntary service at the Schaubühne will provide me with learning moments at the interface between text/dramaturgy/staging/audience. And I hope that I can give something back with positive energy and constructive impulses.

»Theater should not be judged by whether it satisfies the habits of its audience, but by whether it is able to change them.« - Bertold Brecht