German theater company returns to China with two productions

Director Hans Werner Kroesingers' production Tripping Stones State Theater.[Photo provided to China Daily]

After its successful premiere in China last year, Theatertreffen in China will come to China again from June 7 to July 8. The program is jointly presented by Berliner Theatertreffen, one of the most important cultural forces in German-speaking countries, and Wu Promotion, a private Chinese events-promotion agency for the performing arts.

Two Berliner Theatertreffen productions will be staged this year in Beijing's Tianqiao Performing Arts Center: director Hans Werner Kroesingers' production Tripping Stones State Theater and director Herbert Fritsch's Der Die Mann.

"I was very pleased to find the Chinese audience so interested in the German theater scene. With different aesthetics and topics, I was delighted to see that so many people came to watch our productions. This made us realize the importance of an international exchange and dialogue about what concerns our people and what is important in the arts even more," says Thomas Oberender, artistic director of the Berliner Festspiele, an arts center that is the parent organization of Berliner Festspiele.

In 2015, Wu Promotion launched a five-year partnership with Berliner Theatertreffen to bring productions from the famous theater festival to China from 2016 to 2020.

Oberender, who has been with Berliner Festspiele since 2012, says the backbone of the festival always is the choosing of the 10 most remarkable German, Swiss and Austrian productions of the year. This choice is made by a jury of professional critics.

For Theatertreffen in China, a jury of theater experts from both China and Germany selects two or three productions from the 10 performances staged in Berlin to present them in China the following year.