HOME GAME 2011

In 2006 the Federal Cultural Foundation established the HOME GAME Fund for Theatre Projects which supports municipal and state theatres with more closely examining the social and urban reality of their cities. The theatres are supposed to collaborate with city residents, continue developing artistic strategies which began in the 1990s in the fields of the fine arts, performing arts and the independent scene, and produce new forms of documentary theatre, courses, installations and city projects.

The HOME GAME Fund has financed more than fifty theatre projects nationwide since 2006. In the meantime, dramaturges and theatre critics have come to equate the term “Home Game” with a type of genre for various theatrical forms which invite the viewers to engage in dialogue with one another and their surroundings. Countless articles have been published and numerous debates have focused on the relationship between theatre, art, politics and education. The HOME GAME projects have enabled directors, dramaturges, actors and artists in the fields of music, dance, performance, architecture and media art to expand their expertise through artistic research and improvisation, and explore new ways of working with colleagues, experts and amateurs.

From 29 March to 3 April 2011, the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Schauspiel Cologne held an event that bundles the experience of past Home Game projects and discusses the developments currently taking place in the German theatre world. The programme, titled HOME GAME 2011, featured a variety of formats and includes an international symposium, a walk-through archive of HOME GAME productions and an extraordinary festival. These were supplemented by workshops for dramaturges and artists. The event focused on the following questions: What kind of new theatrical forms and artistic strategies have been developed? What impact has HOME GAME had on the image of municipal theatres? How can one integrate new theatre forms into the daily operations of the theatres? How can the experience gained from the HOME GAME projects be transferred and passed on to others? What developments can we expect in the future?

HOME GAME 2011 wished to review its past achievements and offer theatre artists the opportunity to share their experience and network with one another. Along with dramaturges and artists from German theatres, the event has invited a number of international theatres, artists (collectives) and curators to present their experience of similar developments in their own countries. Artists and performance groups of Europe, Latin America an the Arab world presented a selection of new, widely diverse approaches to project work and audience dramaturgy in Cologne. The cooperative projects, workshop programmes and urban interventions organised by these theatres encouraged participants to find ways to continue the project work after the HOME GAME Fund concludes.

Following the symposium CITY I THEATRE at the Munich Kammerspiele in February 2007 and the HOME GAME – WORKSHOP held at the Thalia Theater Hamburg in December 2007, HOME GAME 2011 was the third and final event coordinated by the Federal Cultural Foundation for the HOME GAME Fund. Following the festival, the Federal Cultural Foundation presented a HOME GAME documentary, comprised of the results of the workshops, the most important symposium lectures and vivid presentations of all the funded projects once last time.

The Federal Cultural Foundation has allocated a total of 600,000 euros to fund the HOME GAME 2011 programme.