Swiss Theater Association

The Swiss Theater Association (SBV) is the association of the most important subsidized professional theaters in Switzerland. The association, based in Bern, brings together 31 theaters in German and French-speaking Switzerland. The association is chaired by Stephan Märki , designated director of the Cottbus State Theater and former director of Konzert Theater Bern . In April 2020 the office will be transferred to Dieter Kaegi, the artistic director of the Biel Solothurn Theater Orchestra .

tasks

According to the statutes, the association aims to “promote the artistic reputation and living conditions of its member stages” and “protect their interests”. To this end, the association deals with artistic, cultural and financial issues as well as with questions of stage, labor, copyright and interpreter law. In addition, he deals with social, organizational and technical problems in the theater.

As an employer organization, the association negotiates with its social partner, the Swiss Theater Association , a collective labor contract for the artistic solo staff as well as the choir and ballet group staff and participates in the arbitration tribunals and other committees maintained by the GAV partners. He also negotiates tariffs and tariff conditions with the collecting societies and theater publishers on the use of copyrights and ancillary copyrights.

The association works with other organizations and institutions at home and abroad, such as the Suisse Theater ITI, the International Association of German-speaking Theaters (IADT) and the Performing Arts Employers Associations League Europe (PEARLE).

organization

Together with its independent French-speaking section, Union des Théâtres Romands (UTR), the association unites 31 professional theaters in Switzerland with more than 5,000 employees and over 1.5 million visitors annually. The bodies of the SBV are the general assembly, the board of directors, the committee, the office and the control body. The general assembly is the electoral body of the association, approves the annual report of the president and decides on amendments to the statutes. The board consists of the commercial and artistic directors of the member theaters. It specifically decides on the admission of new members, the budget and the annual accounts of the SBV. The governing body of the association is the committee, which consists of the president, two vice-presidents, the syndic (legal advisor), the manager, a representative of the UTR and other members. The administrative office is responsible for the operational business.

history

On October 7, 1920, the Association of Swiss Theaters was founded in Zurich, which primarily wanted to differentiate itself from the new collective agreements and normal contracts created by the German Stage Association DBV and the stage cooperative. Its first members were the city theaters of Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich as well as the Corso-Theater Zurich, with the Grand Théâtre de Genève added a little later . From the beginning, cultural-political as well as theater, copyright and labor law issues have shaped the activities of the association. In 1962 the association issued new statutes and has been called the Swiss Stage Association (SBV) ever since. In 1986, the French-speaking member theaters founded the Union des Théâtres Romands (UTR) and have since formed an independent section of the SBV.

From 1921 to 1950 the association was chaired by Ernst Zahnd, board member of the Limmatstädter Theater-AG and novelist. He was followed by the publisher Emil Oprecht (1950–1952), Fritz Minning, administrative director of the Stadttheater Bern (1952–1961), later the Lucerne city president Paul Kopp (1961–1975), Hannes Strasser, administrative director of the Zurich Opera House (1975–1993) and Ivo Reichlin, Administrative Director of Theater Basel (1993–2001). Since 2001, the administrative director of the Lucerne Theater , Adrian Balmer, has been president of the association, and on 10 November 2014 the association elected Stephan Märki, director of Konzert Theater Bern, to succeed him.

Kathrin Lötscher has been running the association business since 2010. She succeeded Marco Badilatti, who in 1994 took over the management from the Bern notary Roland Morgenegg. The Basel lawyers Julius Goetschel (1962–1981) and Peter Mosimann (1981–2012) acted as legal advisor (syndic) to the association, and since 2012 the lawyer Maurice Courvoisier, who is also from Basel, has been the association's syndicate.