Namibia Initiative
The initiative, which is fully funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, enabled two directing students from the ADK to spend time in Windhoek/Namibia in the summer semester of 2022. There they developed a participatory project in collaboration with students from the College of Arts (COTA)
and a freelance performer and musician. With this project, the ADK, together with the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, is continuing the expansion of international offers within the framework of a bilateral student exchange in the fields of theatre, film and media with Namibia. The aim is to give young creative people from both countries access to the reality of life on the ground and to current social issues and to sharpen their narrative and technical skills.
In return, ADK was able to use this funding to enable three acting students from COTA to stay in Ludwigsburg in 2023 in order to be able to continue and complete the projects started in Namibia with the two ADK-directing students. In July, a three-part performance was presented in Ludwigsburg, Stuttgart and Windhoek.
Project ACADEMIX
The ACADEMIX-partnership of five European institutions, the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, the August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich, the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg and the Akademia Teatralna im. Aleksandra Zelwerowicza in Warsaw aims to deepen the exchange within the E:UTSA network (Europe: Union of Theatre Schools and Academies).
Fifteen young artists (pilot team) from the departments of acting, directing and dramaturgy from the various universities met for one-week rehearsal phases in Paris, Ludwigsburg, Barcelona for the Oui! festival and Warsaw in the period 2022-2023, as well as for a final rehearsal phase for the final presentations again in Paris. Together they explored the dramaturgical challenges of a multilingual production and the tools that can be used to convey meaning and emotion to the audience: Body language, non-verbal communication, language crossovers, dramaturgy and stage design, sound environment, scenographic choices, etc.
The three productions presented in the KOSMOTEATRO project are the result of the work of this pilot team. In doing so, KOSMOTEATRO is an impetus for the future existence of a festival of young European creation in Paris that will strengthen exchanges between European schools, teachers and students. The aim is to promote the employment of artists at European level by creating a common space for collaboration and creativity. The aim was also to create one or more multilingual artistic forms, first attempts to test on stage the potential of a theatre in which the diversity of themes and forms offers different and sometimes complementary approaches to multilingual creation.
In addition to the meetings of the pilot team, transnational discussions between the directors of the courses and the directors of the partner schools, as well as invited professionals, have created the opportunity for exchanges on the following topics: Professional integration, students’ personal projects, multilingualism, linguistic diversity and European theatre heritage.
Cooperation Freeszfe | ADK
The ADK is thrilled to become the 2022 host of the annual »Bundeswettbewerb zur Förderung des deutschsprachigen Schauspielnachwuchses« (Federal competition for the advancement of German-speaking trainee actors), colloquially known as »Schauspielschultreffen«(SKS).
The gathering in Ludwigsburg is organized by the SKS (Ständige Schauspielkonferenz, permanent acting conference) and Hamburg’s European Theatre Academy »Konrad Ekhof« and financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 2022, for the first time, the gathering will follow a new program concept adapted to the changing demands of the performing arts.
In addition to large-scale productions, this will include the presentation of smaller works showcasing the theatre’s variety in interdisciplinary and new formats and experiments. This places the discourse on the future of theatre and theatre creation at the very center of this conference of German-speaking students and teachers in the acting world.
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Being able to hold such a festival in Baden-Württemberg, with its reputation for innovation and culture, sends a powerful message of the ADK’s interdisciplinary and innovative nature and future in this fifteenth year of the Academy’s existence.
Significant contributions to the financing of the Ludwigsburg gathering come through the support of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and Art, the city of Ludwigsburg, the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Stiftung Kunst, Kultur und Bildung, the Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg bank and the Baden-Württemberg state chapter of the Deutscher Bühnenverein (German Stage Association).
The gathering has also been made possible by cooperation with the Film Academy and the Karlskaserne Cultural Center, which cooperation creates open spaces and a field in which approximately 300 acting students from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can come together in creative encounter and dialogue.
In favour of the Meeting, the biennial, international FURORE Festival curated by students, will not take place.
less DAHD Hidden Heritage
Since the summer semester of 2018 ADK has been involved in a pilot project called Studio DAHD (Danube Artistic Heritage Development) as part of INTERREG’s »Danube Culture Platform«, bringing together six countries along the River Danube (Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania) through the good auspices of the OÖ Kulturquartier (AT), the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts in Baden-Württemberg (D), the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture (BG), the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (SRB) and the Romanian Ministry of Culture (RO).
The Danube Region boasts a diversity of cultures, but is also rich in unresolved history, intractable ethnic hostilities, political turmoil and conflict, and constant border shifts – but that accounts too for an abundance of cultural gems and for a history of ideas that has helped to mould Europe today. A space for living with difference – a utopia? The history of this space demonstrates that cultural differences like languages, customs and religions, while not necessarily uniting people, do generate a field of opportunity – so close and yet so far away.
At Studio DAHD, 21 students from the participating countries work together to explore and evaluate the hidden heritage along the Danube, and to interrogate and redefine it with a contemporary artistic gaze. An exploration of a hidden heritage, buried, prohibited, forgotten, suppressed and effaced for whatever reason. By tracing identities and otherness, our idea of Europe is revisited, rethought, experienced in new ways.
Partners here are the Academy of Performing Arts in Baden-Württemberg (D), the University of Art and Design in Linz (AT), the Universities of Sofia and Varna (BG) and the Art Academy of Novi Sad (SRB), along with students of architecture, performing arts, film directing and editing, music production, cinematography, visual art, sculpture and photography.
Studying the hidden heritage of the Danube can uncover echo chambers to trace and highlight difference, to learn from a history of dissonance and destruction, to reflect on a future that will enable us to live out this culture of difference.
Studio DAHD is an experimental studio that enables students to expand their spheres of work. The outcomes of the Studio DAHD pilot projects will be presented in Novi Sad this autumn and together the participants will design a presentation format that can be shown along the Danube in different cultural institutions. ADK will present this at the beginning of academic year 2019/20.
Mentors: Prof. Sabine Pollak (AT), Prof. Elisabeth Schweeger (DE), Prof. Dubravka Lazić (SRB) and Mag. Nadezhda Pavlova (BG).
