Change of location – scenes from the life of a city
The production “Ortswechsel. Szenen aus dem Leben einer Stadt” by the “Theater der Migranten” takes the audience on a trip around the streets and the hauses of the “Reuterkiez” district in Berlin-Neukölln. The spectators walk in groups and experience drama as a parcours around familiar and unfamiliar places. There, young actors of the multicultural ensemble have developed exciting, very musical and sometimes also bizarre scenes. Whether it be a Turkish barber, a Polish bookstore, a German bicycle shop or a Brazilian cafe – each of these places is a stage which is perfomed on in a wide range of ways by the artists. Here, the boundaries between fiction and reality are fluid. Drama thus becomes a form of expressing multi-layered everyday culture.
What have you taken home from this project for your artistic activities?
This project was an encouraging experiment which taught me how social art can work. Art as a participatory, low-threshold intervention in a public space. It was an experience full of insights to perform with a multicultural team in different locations of an urban district. With their historical and social backgrounds, with their authentic everday backdrops, these locations are a source of inspiration for a collaborative inventing of stories in which all players can participate, contribute their wide range of skills and have great fun.