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“Into the outdoors!” Is the name of the funding program from which the Darmstadt State Theater also benefits. Its terrace architecture is ideal for open-air games.
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Image: Darmstadt State Theater
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Most of the time, however, takes place outside. With the traditional open-air providers anyway, most of whom had to cancel in 2020. The Bad Vilbel Castle Festival had its first premiere, the family play “The Neverending Story”, in May without an audience, a few days later it was allowed to go into operation as the first stage. The Grimm Festival in Hanau is postponing its start and will play from July 1st to the end of August. The Bad Hersfeld Festival also begins on July 1st.
In Hesse, a special funding program makes the new open-air theaters possible: “In the open!” They say, a total of ten million euros is available for setting up or expanding open-air programs for culture. The Frankfurt artist house Mousonturm also benefits from federal funds and even wants to build its own temporary house for it: The “summer building” is to be built directly on the Kaiserlei roundabout, an open-air building designed by the architects’ collective Raumlaborberlin with boxes and a stage 25 meters in diameter. The Frankfurt theater also wants to appear there. The exact program will be announced soon. The Staatstheater Darmstadt is one of the big theaters that are moving outside with additional funds from “Ins Freie!”. It is a pioneer and is already using its spacious architecture for premieres on its terraces.
The downside: Many smaller open-air theaters cannot cope with the risk of uncertain planning, high hygiene requirements and greatly reduced number of seats this year either. There will be no “Barock am Main” festival in Höchst, other long-term open-air venues will remain orphaned. If the financial ceiling is not the thickest even in good years and many plans failed in the summer of 2020, there is no longer any room for maneuver for some. Others have also frustrated the obstacles over the past year. Others benefit from experiments in the summer of 2020: In Mainz, for example, the state theater with the open-air success “A Summer Night” from 2020 will also be playing in the courtyard of the state museum for the next few weeks, and the Mainz Chamber Games will once again take to the tennis court with the comedy “Extrawurst” . And everyone hopes that more will be possible with tests, masks and the experience of the past few months than in the previous Corona summer. Maybe even a full-blown midsummer night’s dream.
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