etb English
Theatre
Berlin International Performing Arts Center

Dear audience,

What a long, strange trip the year 2020 has been so far! We hope that you all have weathered the global uncertainty as well as possible in the nearly six months since we last saw each other at Fidicinstraße.

We’re very excited to be able to announce the remainder of our 2020 programming to you and wanted to also take the opportunity to let you know about a number of essential changes we have put in place to ensure your safety as well as that of our artists and staff.

There are three exciting projects schedule through the end of the year: BIYT’s You-Me-Human-Tree, a new performance project co-created by humans and trees of all different ages, experiences and backgrounds on October 2 and 3 as well as October 8, 9 and 10, our 8th Expo Festival: A Showcase of Wahlberliner, with eight performances by Berliner from all over the world over six evenings (October 29, 31 and November 1, 3, 5 and 7) as well as the world premiere of Exotic Animal, the new performance by Ming Poon, whom many of you will remember from his performance The Intervention of Loneliness from the 2019 Expo (December 3, 4 and 5).

In order to maintain the mandated minimum distance regulations, a maximum of two people from the same household can sit next to each other. When booking tickets, please be certain to only select two seats next to each other for people who live in the same household. Otherwise, please purchase individual seats.

The Absent Neighbor – Pay the Price of Two Tickets to Help Keep ETB | IPAC Going!

We are very happy to be able to offer live programming again, but the first thing you’ll notice when taking your seat is how much roomier the auditorium feels. In order to keep our artists and audiences safe, we’ve been forced to reduce our seating capacity by nearly 75% and close our bar.

As you can imagine, this has a tremendous effect on us financially and means that even with a full house, we can barely cover our nightly expenses, let alone keep our budget in balance. We’re looking at closing out the year with a large deficit.

Rather than raise our prices universally and exclude anyone from our programming, we have chosen to introduce a new ticket price: The Absent Neighbor. Audience members who would like to support us are welcomed and encouraged to buy a symbolic ticket for the audience member who would have been seated next to them before the ongoing global pandemic changed everything.

If you are able, please consider buying a ticket at the Absent Neighbor price level. Every little bit goes an extremely long way to helping us keep the theater going and continuing to bring you high-quality live art!

You are also welcome to donate to us directly via bank transfer:

English Theatre Berlin e.V.

Purpose: Donation
Berliner Volksbank
IBAN: DE31 1009 0000 5708 6460 00
BIC: BEVODEBB

All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

On June 17, 2020, we celebrated thirty years of continuous work in two spaces at Fidicinstraße 40!

And to celebrate three decades, we’re dedicating three hundred and sixty-five days to this very special birthday – as we prepare (hopefully) to reopen our doors this fall! We’ve got some lovely plans, from a pair of in-house productions to a couple of international touring shows, co-productions with the Berliner Freie Szene and, last but not least, our ongoing theater education work.

As we know you know, these times are anything but certain – and all the same, we’re hard at work finding ways to bring together our artists and audience even in these challenging times.

Keep an eye on this website and our social media channels for more updates!

Following the directives of Berlin’s Senate, ETB | IPAC will not be offering any performances until after July 31, 2020. Keeping our audience, artists and staff safe is, of course, the highest priority.

We continue to adapt our planning to the recommendations and directives of the authorities and will keep you up-to-date here and via our social media channels.

Due to the ongoing situation, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Festival will follow the recommendation of the Robert Koch Institute and postpone the 2020 Expo Festival. The health of audience members, artists and staff is of the utmost importance to us. We will announce the rescheduled dates here and via social media as soon as this information is available.

The performances from March 17 – 21, 2020 for the IMPRO Festival at English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center will NOT take place due to the current situation in Berlin. The health of our audience, artists and staff is of central importance to us and we are following the recommendations of the health offices and Berlin’s Senator for Culture and Europe.

Here is the information we have received from the organizers of the IMPRO Festival, Die Gorillas:

Liebe Zuschauer,

leider haben wir nun doch auf Grund der neuen Empfehlungen des Berliner Kultursenats sowie der Bundesregierung die schwierige Entscheidung getroffen, unseren Spielbetrieb mit sofortiger Wirkung einzustellen und unser internationales Festival in der kommenden Woche ausfallen zu lassen. Wir werden morgen entscheiden, bis wann genau wir den Spielbetrieb einstellen und bitten bis dahin um etwas Geduld.

Alle bestehenden Festival-Reservierungen werden storniert. In dem Fall brauchen Sie nichts zu unternehmen.

Falls Sie Ihre Tickets bereits bezahlt hatten, bieten wir Ihnen dazu eine Erstattung an. Da uns die Einstellung des Spielbetriebs als unsubventioniertes Theater hart treffen wird, wären wir sehr dankbar, wenn Sie im Rahmen Ihrer Möglichkeiten in Betracht ziehen würden, ob Sie uns mit Ihrem Ticketkauf als Spende unterstützen und auf eine Erstattung verzichten können. Alternativ bieten wir auch an, dass Sie die gebuchten Karten auf einen Termin später im Jahr umbuchen können. Für Erstattungen senden Sie bitte Ihre Buchungsdetails und Ihre Bankverbindung an uns.

Wir bitten zudem um Verständnis, dass wir angesichts der Masse der Nachfragen nicht auf alle Anfragen umgehend reagieren können. Die Bearbeitung aller Anfragen wird etwas Zeit in Anspruch nehmen. Wir bemühen uns, sie schnellstmöglich zu beantworten.

Bleiben Sie gesund.

Ihre Gorillas

Dear audience members,

Based upon the recommendations of Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe as well as those of the German Federal Government, we have now made the difficult decision to cancel all of our performances as well as our international festival next week. We will decide tomorrow when we will resume performances and ask for your patience until then.

All existing reservations for the festival have been cancelled. If you have only reserved tickets, you do not have to take any further action.

If you have already purchased tickets, we will offer you reimbursement. As ceasing our performances as an unsubsidized theater has serious financial consequences for us, we would be very grateful if you could take a moment to consider whether it would be possible for you to view your ticket purchase as a donation to us and refrain from requesting reimbursement. Alternatively, we can also offer to exchange purchased tickets for tickets to an event later in the year. If you are requesting reimbursement, please provide us with your booking details and bank account information.

Please understand that, due to the volume of inquiries, we are unable to respond to all inquiries immediately. It will take us some time to able to answer everyone. We will try to do so as quickly as possible.

Stay healthy,

Die Gorillas

Tickets for the 2020 Expo Festival: A Showcase of Wahlberliner are now on sale!

You can find the festival website (with ticket links) right HERE and you can download the program booklet HERE!

ANNOUNCEMENT: interspecies performance project looking for 10-18 year old humans!

If trees could talk, what would they say?

Since January 2020, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center has been developing a brand new theater project open to everyone! We are now specifically looking for more performers to get involved between the ages of 10 and 18. 

YOU-ME-HUMAN-TREE is a performance project exploring the interconnections and overlaps between humans and trees. It is a FREE opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to be part of a creative process and performance and to work with a team of professional artists, including theater makers, musicians from Exploratorium Berlin and an eco-costume designer.

We are now looking for 10-18 year olds to take part in phase II of the project: REHEARSING AND PERFORMING (April – May 2020). This phase will take place via weekly Wednesday evening rehearsals, starting on April 1 and will also include a 4-day intensive during the Osterferien from April 14-17. Full attendance at rehearsals are crucial and the performance dates are May 7-10.

YOU-ME-HUMAN-TREE is a FREE opportunity that will give you the chance to:

• Perform onstage in a professional theater
  Be part of an exciting ensemble of people of all different ages, experiences and backgrounds
  Develop your theater-making and performance skills
  Whether you have prior experience or not – all are welcome! If you have a basic knowledge of English, are committed and between the ages of 10-18, WE WANT YOU!

For more details and to secure your spot, please email Grace Evangeline Holme HERE

Click HERE to download our complete schedule for January to March 2020!

The curatorial team of the Expo Festival is very please to announce that the following works and artists have been invited to participate in the 2020 edition of the festival! Many thanks to all who applied – choosing eight works from over 130 submissions was quite a challenge!

ExpLoRE (Sunday, April 19)

Con-Sensual – An interdisciplinary performance by Derya Durmaz

The Horror Woman – A dance performance by GᾹZ Collective (Noga Abramobitch, Helen Burghardt, Zoe Goldstein)

I Am Everybody, I Am Every Body – An interdisciplinary performance by Marque-Lin, staged with B_No_Source [live]

Milktooth – A performance Promona Sengupta

Evening Performances (April 21 – 25)

The White Plague – A play by Alexander Raptotasios (Ferodo Bridges) – April 21

Mortality Hooray – A play by Artemis Chrysostomidou – April 23

I Am Not On The Blacklist – A dance performance by Hyoung-Min Kim and and Gabriel Galindez Cruz – April 24

Noose – A piece of puppet theater by Merlin Puppet Theatre – April 25