History
Theatre ANU was founded in 1998 in Heppenheim by Stefan Behr, Tina Friedmann, Martin Kaschke, Harry Unger and Christoph Becker. Even though most of the founding members soon left the company again, they have remained loyal to Theater ANU to this day and continue to perform in individual productions. 1999 saw the birth of the stilt theatre production The moon a station theatre based on a Grimm fairy tale motif. On the basis of Ovid's Phaethon the second production was created The sun chariot - a shadow theatre on building facades.
The premiere of Light trails (2005) was awarded the most important German street theatre prize in Holzminden.
With the production The Great Journey (2007), Bille Behr, then still Kolbe, joined the company. The second theatre installation after Light trails was groundbreaking for the conceptual and dramaturgical signature of Theatre ANU - the idea of the theatre cosmos was born: the audience is invited to immerse themselves in the artistically created worlds and to linger in them, they become visitors. The combination of installation and acting make the productions diverse and multi-layered spaces of experience for them.
In 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the theatrical installation Angels over Berlin, which was published under the title Angel Land will be continued as a site-specific theatre project. Commissioned productions have taken Theatre ANU to England, Spain and Switzerland, among other places.
2011 will be Come to MoraLand - a poetic theatre fair and the third large-scale theatre installation - will premiere.
In 2012, Theatre ANU staged its second major production in the park: Ovid's Dream - In the Garden of Changes is inspired by the Metamorphoses of the Roman poet Ovid. Contemporary dance meets a sound garden of Ovidian stories.
In 2013, Theater ANU conquers a new play space: the forest. Commissioned by GRIMM.2013, the production is created Shadow ForestThe collaboration will continue in 2014. For 100 years of Lake Edersee, the company is staging Night Sea Voyage, a dream play below the 48-metre-high dam wall. The Expedition Thälmannpark is another highlight of 2014, a project that explored the creative method of Synektik with participatory involvement. As a staging, the following emerged The Garden Analogia, funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste e. V.
In 2016, with the support of a crowdfunding campaign, the production Sheherazade - City of Storytellers. In the tradition of Arabic storytelling and the stories of the Arabian Nights, visitors experience a magical place where peace is created with words, with stories.
As a project for Ash Wednesday of the Artists, Theatre ANU created 2017, in collaboration with the artists Stefan Hunstein and Axel Nitz, The Raft of the Medusa, a multi-layered performance installation that explores the question of humanity in times of crisis, commissioned by the Archbishopric of Munich.
In 2018, three new formats were created at Theater ANU. Invisible touch I, a blindfolded format for a small group of visitors, allows each visitor to relinquish all responsibility for an evening and surrender completely to feeling, to the here and now. As a commissioned work Perpetuum Mobile for the city of Bad Karlhafen and, just like the production that was also created in 2018, the Dreamerit is still performed today as a repertory production.
In 2019, Theater ANU created the commissioned work for the 150th anniversary of the Bad Nauheim spa. How to heal a heart? A story that rewrites the healing power of water and the cure. Another highlight of 2019 was the participation in the Urban Nations Biennale "robots and relicts: un-manned". As part of this event, renowned street artists present their works in a specially created urban dystopia in the middle of Berlin. Theatre ANU was present with its new production In Transition in the process.
Still unaware of what the year would bring for the (cultural) world, ANU 2020 started with a new production and entered the world with Inkognito a theatrical masquerade ball in new waters. The production actively involves the visitor in the events and lets him become a player who is allowed to test his own limits for one night. After the cultural scene was briefly paralysed in February due to the corona pandemic, ANU began to deal internally with the question: How can the art scene survive the coming period and where do cultural workers have a responsibility towards society? Under the leadership of Stefan Behr, online meetings were planned and realised again and again in the coming months. Organisers and cultural workers exchanged ideas and shared their fears and approaches to solutions. Out of such an exchange, in spring 2020, came the production In the forests of Moraland. The audience went on a hike through the forests of Idar-Oberstein in small groups, away from the crowds. Under the direction of artistic director Jörn Hinkel, ANU was allowed to be part of the theatre festival in summer 2020. Another summer in Bad Hersfeld. With the staging Yggdrasil , To the stars and Story Grove Theatre ANU rethought theatre there, continued to live culture, kept its distance and mastered the often frightening situation together with artists, organisers and visitors. In the months that followed, ANU developed a hygiene concept that could be applied to almost all of its repertoire productions and is still able to offer theatre experiences for up to 600 people per evening, despite frequently changing requirements/regulations.
Previous productions
- 2022 When Chocolate Fell from the Sky I Children's Theatre Production at Tempelhofer Feld
- 2022 Masquerade I Masquerade festival for Clemenswerth and Leer
- 2022 CHIMÆRIUM I As part of the Bad Hersfeld Festival
- 2021 So close to heaven I theatrical light installation
- 2020 Story Grove I As part of the corona theatre festival " Another Summer, Bad Hersfeld
- 2020 Yggdrasil I As part of the corona-conform theatre festival " Another Summer, Bad Hersfeld
- 2020 To the Stars I As part of the corona-conforming theatre festival " Another Summer, Bad Hersfeld
- 2020 The Forests of Moraland I Theatre Walk corona-conform, Idar-Oberstein
- 2020 Incognito I theatrical masked ball,Ballhaus Berlin
- 2019 In Transition | Commissioned production URBAN NATION Biennale "robots and relics: un-manned" Berlin
- 2019 How do you heal a heart? | Commissioned production 100 years of the spa Bad Nauheim
- 2019 Perpetuum - City without hardship. | Repertoire
- 2018 Invisible touch1 I Berlin
- 2018 Dreamer | Repertoire
- 2018 Perpetuum mobile | Commissioned production Bad Karlshafen
- 2017 The Raft of the Medusa | Commissioned production Ash Wednesday of the Artists, Munich/Dome
- 2016 Sheherazade and the City of Storytellers | Repertoire
- 2014 Nachtmeerfahrt. A dream play for the 100th anniversary of Lake Edersee | Commissioned production Kultursommer Nordhessen and GRIMM 2014
- 2014 The Garden Analogia | Special Project of the Daku 2014 Fund - Theatre in Public Space | Berlin Thälmannpark
- 2014 Masked Promenade around 1900 | Commissioned production for the 100th anniversary of the King Albert Theatre, Bad Elster
- 2014 Im Irrgarten der Gechichten - Lauffen am Neckar | Commissioned production for the city of Lauffen | Repertoire
- 2013 Shadow Forest - A Poetic Journey into the Dark Forest | Commissioned Production GRIMM 2013 | Repertoire
- 2013 Kesselbrink - In the maze of stories | Commissioned production for the city of Bielefeld
- 2013 Tonspurenfestival | Kloster Irsee | Commissioned work for the opening of the festival
- 2012 A Birthday Table for George Tabori | Commissioned work for the George Tabori Award Ceremony, Berlin
- 2012 Ovid's Dream - In the Garden of Changes | Repertoire
- 2011 Come to MoraLand | Repertoire
- 2010 Die Schlüsselsuche | Commissioned production for the city of Oranienburg
- 2010 Am Lichterfluss | Commissioned production Cultural Summer Opening Rhineland-Palatinate
- 2010 The Legend of The Winged Boy | Commissioned production Newcastle, Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site
- 2010 Angels over Zollverein | Opening of European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010, Essen
- 2009 Angels over Berlin | 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, Berlin
- 2009 Opening of the Congress Centre Heidenheim | Commissioned production for the city of Heidenheim
- 2009 Das Moortslandfest | Commissioned production for the design studio Fabritastika, Switzerland
- 2008 Angels and Thieves | Commissioned production for the city of Heidenheim
- 2008 Angel Museum - a theatrical installation | Repertoire
- 2007 The Great Journey - Encounters in the Labyrinth of Lights | Repertoire
- 2005 Traces of Light - a Poetic Park Performance | Repertoire
- 2004 Opening event Hessentag, Heppenheim
- 2001 The Chariot of the Sun - Phaethon's Flight, after Ovid | Repertoire, played
- 1998 The Moon - a poetic stilt theatre based on a Grimm fairy tale motif | Repertoire