A visit to the our stage festival: Participation, inclusion and sharing at the Bürgerbühne Dresden

Abstract

In 2009 Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the state theatre of Saxony, became the first playhouse in Germany to include, in the company’s structure and repertoire, a Bürgerbühne, a stage dedicated to documentary and participatory theatre. Within ten years, Dresden’s prolific and acclaimed model of a citizens’ stage became a thriving and active example of inclusion and participation in theatre arts. In May 2019, Our Stage, the 4th European festival of, and on, citizens’ theatre was held in Dresden, offering a full week of performances, seminars, talks, workshops and discussions on various aspects of participatory theatre. The article offers a partial account of the festival and its performances in order to trace recent developments in applied, documentary and participatory theatre; it also tentatively attempts to address the notions of participation, inclusion and sharing in relation to contemporary Greek theatre and its performances.