Touring theater

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Theater of the city of Schweinfurt , one of the largest example theaters in German-speaking countries

As a touring theater (also: theaters) are theater companies - usually from a theater producers operated - referred that no fixed venue play on, but only (or mainly) present their productions and guest performances. Touring theater companies often do not have their own ensemble , but put together a separate ensemble for each production.

The venues where such guest performances take place are sometimes called touring theaters ; other names are guest houses or, especially in recent times, example theaters .

Various possibilities

Many small and medium-sized cities in German-speaking countries, but also some large cities, do not have a publicly subsidized city or state theater with their own ensemble, but rather book guest performances from public state theaters and private touring theaters. Also otherwise fixed public and private theater ensembles sometimes go on tour as well . Co-productions by public theaters with private touring stages are also possible. Around 400 cities with sample theaters in German-speaking countries have joined forces in the interest group of cities with theater guest performances.

Some of the large theaters offer their own productions as well as touring guest performances in their programs. The spectrum of venues extends from smaller historical theaters to town houses , town halls , cultural centers and multifunctional congress and cultural centers to modern large theaters, which are structurally indistinguishable from larger city theaters. Entertainment theaters such as the German Theater in Munich or the Parktheater Augsburg are also among the sample theaters.

Cities with large sample theaters

The large municipal theaters in German-speaking countries include For example, the Stadttheater Fürth (which is now increasingly showing its own productions), the Solingen theater and concert hall , the STADEUM in Stade, the Itzehoe theater , the Forum in Leverkusen , the Pfalzbau in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, the Paderhalle in Paderborn, the Teo-Otto -Theater in Remscheid, the City Theater Rüsselsheim , the Theater der Stadt Schweinfurt , the Apollo-Theater Siegen , the Theater Wolfsburg and the Theater Winterthur .

Advantages and disadvantages of sample theaters

These large sample theaters offer a season of plays, concerts and often also dance and music theater productions with as many performances as a permanent city theater, whereby ideally even more different pieces can be shown in a larger stylistic range.

A disadvantage of touring theater is that the positive effects of the constant presence of a stage ensemble or orchestra on other urban cultural life and the cultural scene are necessarily absent. These include, for example, free projects by actors and directors outside the city theater, concerts and music lessons by orchestral musicians, long-term theater-pedagogical collaborations or, quite simply, the opportunity for artists and audiences to meet in the theater as in everyday life, to exchange opinions and get to know each other.

economics

The program of private theater producers or tour operators must be economically viable; State subsidies are only indirectly included in the company calculation through the payment of guest performances by the city's cultural offices. The customers of the German-speaking touring theaters are therefore primarily the public clients. In most cases, the operator tied the visitors to a venue through cheap subscriptions . Depending on the cultural-political objectives and the spatial and financial possibilities, a program is put together that on the one hand should do justice to the cultural mandate of the municipalities, but also appeal to the often older subscriber audience with tabloid comedies and actors known from film and television.

Well-known private theater company

Well-known and traditional private touring theater companies are the Euro-Studio Landgraf , the a.gon theater production , the Tourneetheater Greve , the Neue Schaubühne Munich , the Ton und Kirschen traveling theater and the Austrian ensemble Der Grüne Wagen .

literature

  • Personal rights / broadcasting and press law / event law . In: Artur-Axel Wandtke (Hrsg.): Medienrecht Praxishandbuch . tape 4 . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-024872-2 , p. 215 f., 275 .
  • Werner Heinrichs: The culture industry: visual arts, music, literature, theater, film . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-89942-532-1 , p. 213 .

See also

Web links