Studio for Climate-Neutral Theatre Practice

The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz has long been working to make climate neutrality an integral part of its self-image and steadily implement climate-neutral measures in areas of theatre operation. A milestone in this development is the “Studio”, which the Schaubühne intends to use for staging various labs on climate-neutral theatre practices over the course of an entire season. The Studio will serve as a venue for three performative or discursive projects with international directors, curators and ensemble members, devoted to dealing with materials, labour and mobility in a more environmentally-conscious manner. The project stipulates that any climate-related restrictions should not result in a loss of quality or the inability to engage in international culture dialogue. The lab programme may well provide answers to the obvious question of how and to what extent artistic strategies and aesthetics are impacted when climate neutrality is taken into account.

The lab concept sees the Studio as an environmentally-friendly, self-contained space where ideas can be tested, performed and exhibited in close coordination with the theatre workshops, and where discursive events and interviews in hybrid form (live, with digital broadcasts) are also possible. The piece “Schrödinger’s Cat”, which will be developed in the lab under the direction of the British director Rikki Henry, will kick off the FIND Festival in April 2024. With this decision, the management team at the Schaubühne has afforded climate-neutral production a prominent place in its upcoming programme.