FAVORITEN 08 – THEATERZWANG

The largest and longest-running festival of independent theatre in NRW will open its doors for the thirteenth time from October 17th to October 25th, 2008. Theaterzwang – premiering its new name favoriten 08 – Theaterzwang in 2008 – presents outstanding, experimental, professional productions of all genres of the performing arts. Its centre will be situated at the Theater im Depot in Dortmund, with the selected also appearing at several other venues. favoriten 08 – Theaterzwang aims to reach local and regional theatre fans as well as providing a forum for independent artists and the national and international professional public.

From 2008 onwards, the festival sponsors and presents artistic cooperations which have their production sites and working emphasis in NRW, yet also incorporate international relationships or endorse new methods of international networking. This decision reflects the belief of the festival that flexibility and inherent international potential are core qualities of independent theatre productions.

favoriten 08 – Theaterzwang will be produced by the Verband Freie Darstellende Künste NRW e.V. and the Office of Cultural Affairs of the City of Dortmund. For the first time since the festival’s inception in 1985 and from 2008 onwards, the State of NRW will act as a direct sponsor. Also for the first time, it will be made possible to host an artist in residence programme through the involvement of the Kunststiftung NRW. New partners for 2008 are the ITI (International Theatre Institute) Germany and the Institute for Theatre Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum.

Additionally, the inclusion into the festival’s performance network, financed and overseen by the NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal, remains a vital and very useful prize. Awarded plays benefit through possible showings of their material not only in Dortmund and North Rhine-Westphalia, but also nationally and internationally.