Vienna theater reform
The so-called Viennese theater reform was a change in the financial support of Viennese off-theater, which in 2003 should lead to a departure from the watering can principle for the distribution of funds.
The reform was commissioned by the incumbent Vienna City Councilor for Culture and Science, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny , supported by theater experts Anna Thier, Uwe Matheiss and Günter Lackenbucher, who presented a study on the problem. The aim of the reform was to improve the quality of independent theaters in Vienna and to remove the confusion of subsidies. To this end, “free theater in Vienna” was initially defined and problematized in the study. The main measures proposed therein were:
- Conversion of the previous advisory board system to full-time and paid curators
- Separation of the ownership or tenancy of private theaters in Vienna from the artistic directors in order to make them publicly advertised
- Moving away from the so-called “watering can subsidy” to a “all or nothing” system.
Thier, Matheiss and Lackenbucher were then appointed as transitional curators by the City Council of Mailath-Pokorny and commissioned to implement these suggestions. An “all-party consensus” on the content of the theater reform was also reached in the Vienna City Council. Mailath-Pokorny has in the meantime declared the “Vienna theater reform” to be “completed” in several press releases, but not all of the essential points have been implemented. The theater reform is also viewed critically by the independent groups. They criticize the fact that, in the opinion of the off-theaters , the evaluation of the reform was not carried out according to transparent, public criteria. In addition, they demand that "the financial resources for funding projects as well as one-year and multi-year funding for independent productions in the fields of theater, dance and performance must be massively increased."
Web links
- ORF report on the Vienna theater reform from 2003
- Expert opinion of the Vienna theater jury on the allocation of funds
- Diploma thesis on the Viennese theater reform with detailed information
- Scientific work on the dance and theater scene in Vienna. Figures, data, facts with special consideration of the effects of the Vienna theater reform 2003