Schnawwl
The (or the) Schnawwl is the children's and youth theater of the Mannheim National Theater and its youngest division . It was founded in 1979 with its own ensemble and has its main venue in the converted old fire station in Mannheim's Neckarstadt . The name Schnawwl is derived from the Electoral Palatinate pronunciation of the word Schnabel .
history
Director Arnold Petersen took up the nationwide trend of promoting theater art for children and young people through financial, spatial and personal freedom and commissioned Pavel Mikulastik to set up an independent children's and youth theater. The development team was completed with the pedagogue Anette Enders and the dramaturge Roland Haas. After an initial phase of communication for children, schools, parents and organizers with the play "Haut den Lukas", the new section was opened with a festival on September 29th and 30th, 1979. The new section, which was later called "Schnawwl", began with performances at different venues, from May 1981 with its own venue under the roof of the old fire station. Although the smallest division has had to struggle with a small budget and limited personnel expenses, but high revenue targets and production pressure since it was founded, and therefore had to cope with repeated changes in the ensemble, the Schnawwl with its wide range of stories and narrative styles quickly achieved great popularity in the region . For many years it has also been one of the leading children's and youth theaters in Germany.