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Poor Devil’s Party

The Annual Benefit for BIYT

A fundraising event for Sinner’s Circle – the Salem Witchcriers – a play by Berlin International Youth Theatre

Amid the Gothic gloom arises the Sinner’s Circle, a girl gang that is not to be messed with.

Yes, it’s a macabre tale and (spoiler alert) pretty much everyone dies in the end, but hey, why the long face? There’s still a chance to have some righteous fun before you sit back to enjoy the show!

Along with a special sneak peek of the new play, the benefit will feature special and “unusual ” live music, baked goods, a flea market, and of course, BIYT’s Legendary Wind-up Toy Race (bring your own toy if you’d like)!

As if that weren’t enough, there will be also be a boisterous auction of puritanical devices!

BERLIN INTERNATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE: Into the Haystack

A dramatic investigation of surveillance in a suspiciously normal yet surreal society where the citizens have given up all rights to privacy. They are ultimately safe – but safe from what? The police seem superfluous, while the ominous Seeing-Men have complete control. This is a world that Kafka would recognize with a shudder.

“In the digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?” – Al Gore

“So what is to be done to restrain the champions, whom tend to trample upon the rest, whose eyes are fixed upon some ultimate golden future?” – Isaiah Berlin, philosopher and political theorist 1909-1997

The 2015 Berlin International Youth Theatre Benefit

After months of anticipation, here is your one-time chance to get a sneak peek of this year’s BIYT production, Into the Haystack! Log off, liberate yourself from your sofa and come on down for a preview of this original play about secrets and surveillance, written BIYT’s very own Isaiah and featuring a cast of thousands (actually it’s only a cast of 18 but it looks like a lot more…)

Visit an eclectic theater flea market (without the fleas) offering

Costumes and props
Books, CDs
Games, toys
Fashion
Collector’s items
Oddities and priceless junk

There will also be homemade baked goods, refreshments, games and prizes for young and old alike!

And, of course, feel free to bring your own toy for our legendarily ludicrous BIYT Wind-Up Toy Race!

Featuring special live music and a sneak peek of Into the Haystack, which will run from May 22 – 24, 2015!

BIYT’S MACBETH

Something wicked this way comes …

Berlin International Youth Theatre performs

William Shakespeare’s MACBETH

a sinister tale of ambition, guilt and madness

In BIYT’s newest production we take a look at the corrupting nature of ambition and the destruction that stems from ruthless power.

Flattered, praised and rewarded as a hero, Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell of an even greater success. They predict his rise to the throne. This prediction prompts him, along with his wife, to secure his destiny by committing a series of murders, pulling them into a downward spiral of guilt and paranoia. Once violence is chosen as a means of achieving power, it proves impossible to stop and Macbeth’s inexorable loss of morality reminds us of how one evil minute can change a life forever.

Thunder! Lightning! Blood! Gore! Witches !

The 2014 Berlin International Youth Theatre Benefit

Happy belated 450th Birthday, To you dear Bill!

Yes , we realize that its a tad late since he was born in April, but hey, better late than never! So come join us and have a jolly good time as you support BIYT’s upcoming production of Macbeth by William Shakespeare and at the same time enjoy celebrating the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare!

Along with a special sneak peek of the new BIYT production, we’ll feature:

Special and “unusual ” live music
A silent auction in addition to our infamous auction of artifacts
Home-made baked goods
Games for the whole family

And don’t forget to bring your own wind-up toy for our classic BIYT wind-up toy race!

It’s Not About You

International People’s Theatre Berlin

The piece explores our ongoing search for meaning in a world overrun by choices that seem to define our identities and feed our delusions of self-importance and grandeur.

Eleven theater enthusiasts from around the world living in Berlin, six months to prepare for the “big show”, the daunting search for a theme. But could it be that the key to Generation Y lies in the search itself? For the protagonists of this age, endless navel-gazing provides a potent addendum to the American Dream. The seemingly boundless avenues of success and personal fulfilment are compounded by a daily binge of self-glorification – or abasement – on social media. But is the innate task of forging our own destinies in fact a thankless struggle against influences beyond our control? Are we doomed to succumb to the powers that have shaped the lives of every generation before us?

International People’s Theatre Berlin is an ensemble that aims at creating original theater pieces based on devised material.

Photos: Elise Scheider (Creative direction: Matthew Peach)

ACILE IN WNOEDRLNAD

ENGLISH COMMUNITY THEATRE

presents its version of Lewis Carroll´s classic tale

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re more than a little curious. But are you ready to take a tumble? Who knows where you’ll end up – this is Wonderland after all. We’ve all been following our own White Rabbits and we’re all simply terrified of the Queen of Hearts. Or are we? Saying what we mean is the same thing as meaning what we say, isn’t it? Mind the step or you’ll lose your mind. Enjoy the pepper, play croquet, try your best to speak the right way. Avoid the time, don’t cry when you’re sad, don’t talk to the Hatter or you’ll see that he’s mad. But you can’t help that – we’re all mad here… The day you become Alice is a very special day indeed.

“It all started long before I came here … It started all in my mind … It started with a magic speell…”

“My first impression of Wonderland was absolute freedom.”

Acile_web1 “The first thing was the cold. Minus 14, bone chilling cold. I waited by the station watching the glide, almost silently along the tracks. I had forgotten the instructions. I didn´t know what train to get and i´d worn entirely the wrong kind of shoes.”

“I first came to Wonderland with friends in 1986 when I was still in High School.”

Top photo: Thomas Farr / all other photos: Hannes Frueh

till someone sneezes

Berlin International Youth Theatre´s 2012 show

loosely based on The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder

The Skin of our Teeth, written in 1942, a time of strife for many people in the world, was meant to be a tribute to human endurance. In the original play, at the center is a family facing one apocalyptic catastrophe after another,

But in looking at the play through the eyes of an adolescent, the word “catastrophe” has different connotations.

How will the family survive when everyone is so preoccupied with pizza ? Does Playstation really help in times of panic? And why do the actors keep on interrupting the show? And what have they got against Guinea pig?

Although warned in the daily news of the coming Hurricane, epidemic or war, the family becomes caught up in their own personal problems making their chances of survival look – not very good.

BIYT has turned this classic play into a dark comedy full of Simpson-like symbolism and created another one of their signature epics.

The play bounces and boings with the ingenious music of Natalia Lincoln and whimsical design of Silie Heeschen and a cast a talented youth ages 11-17 from 9 different countries. An event for the whole family – or not.

Me, myself & you in cyberspace

A theatrical performance about our communication, identity and life in cyberspace

with students from the Leibnizschule, Kreuzberg

Who am I on Facebook, Schüler-VZ , Twitter & Co?

The play deals with questions like: Am I still me in cyberspace? Are my friends my real friends? What happens to our communication, our identity, our time in virtual reality?

What are the differences between my life in cyberspace and in my own reality? How does cyber-communication influence my life, my time, my friendships, my relationships?

Is it a new FREEDOM or is it a threat?

Never alone anymore? Never bored anymore? Always connected? What about stalking, controlling other people or have you been stalked/controlled/followed by someone you know or don’t know?

What happens if you are mad at someone? What happens if that gets slightly out of hand? One wallpost might be the beginning of something incontrollable… oops – and before you know it: you are cyberbullying someone.

A play about the glories (spreading and sharing good news, connecting across the planet, staying in touch) and the dangers of it (like cyberbullying, loss of identity, addiction)