Anniversary Edition a Complete Success

NEW PLAYS FROM EUROPE is the world's only international festival to solely feature new plays from living authors. The Theatre-Biennale celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2010. The festival was founded in Bonn in 1992, the European Year, by Artistic Director Manfred Beilharz and playwright Tankred Dorst. From 17-27 June 2010, 42 performances of 24 productions from 21 European countries presented a vast and impressive spectrum of artistic work and documented the aesthetic diversity of contemporary European drama.

Manfred Beilharz, Yvonne Büdenhölzer, Tankred Dorst and Ursula Ehler assumed the artistic direction of the festival. Head dramaturg Marie Rötzer acted as curator on behalf of the Staatstheater Mainz. The 41 festival patrons, renowned playwrights from each of the European countries, assisted in the selection process by recommending productions. All productions were performed in the original language and simultaneously translated into German for the audience. For the German productions, English translations were provided.

“The less the economy and politics trust in Europe, the more it seems that the reflections on European people, society and culture found in the new plays of European authors take on a important role,” said Manfred Beilharz, Artistic Director of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and member of the team of Artistic Directors of the Theatre-Biennale NEW PLAYS FROM EUROPE, at the concluding press conference of the festival. (Critical acclaim for the Theatre-Biennale)

Seating utilization for all performances amounted to nearly 80% of capacity. All together, around 7,000 people attended the festival's performances and special events. 86 playwrights participated in theoretical discourses, readings and lectures, in which they presented their views and reflected on dramatic writing issues in various European countries.

The translation prize for this year's festival, a prize which the WIESBAD-ENER KURIER presents to the best play translation and amounts to 1,000 euros, was awarded by Viola Bolduan, head of the arts & entertainment sec-tion of the Wiesbadener Kurier, to Luise Rist for her translation of the play “Bab and Sane” by René Zahnd from Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne. The festival rounded up the sum to 1,500 euros.