On November 28, 2026, Freundschaft im Theater. Eine Suche auf und hinter der Bühne (Friendship in Theater: A Search On and Off the Stage) will be published by Theater der Zeit. Edited by Anna Luise Kiss in collaboration with Lena Fuchs.
Can friendship be an artistic force on and off the stage? On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Friends’ Association of the Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts, this volume explores the multifaceted phenomenon of friendship in theater: as a motif from Aristotle to the present day, as a creative force behind the scenes, and as a working model. The volume opens with “Making Friends,” a participatory theater piece by the university’s Spiel und Objekt (Play and Object) degree program.
Conversations with Mouataz Alshaltouh, Barbara Colceriu, Carmen-Maja Antoni and Steffi Kühnert, Joachim Meyerhoff and Tom Stromberg, Nina von Mechow and Tabea Braun, Julia Wissert and Mable Preach, as well as Meo Wulf and Christine Groß, among others, offer personal insights into friendships and creative alliances (“Kompliz:innenschaften”) in the theater world.
Essays and analyses are devoted to legendary artistic partnerships such as that of Weigel and Brecht, explore friendship as the foundation of collective feminist theater work through the examples of “Frauen und Fiktion” and the “Rom*nja Power Kollektiv,” and examine the history of theater friends’ associations in Germany.
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