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Hauptsache Frei #9
Festival der Darstellenden Künste Hamburgs
April 20th – 29th 2023
Save the date: 05. - 09. Juni 2024
10.11.2023
Ksenia Ravvina and Alexandar Hadjiev are thrilled to take on the artistic direction of the festival for the years 2024 to 2026. Empowered by their extensive experience in the international interdisciplinary performance and theater field, as well as their commitment to fostering cultural education, they are prepared to embark on a new chapter for the Hauptsache Frei Festival.
A fantastic festival team comes together, and the goals for the upcoming editions are clearly outlined: to strengthen the Hamburg arts scene and its actors, to nurture artistic diversity, to highlight accessibility and inclusion at all levels, to extend a warm welcome to our valued audience and to ignite international artistic exchanges.
Save the date: 05. - 09. Juni 2024, and bottoms up to the 10th anniversary of the festival!
Time to say goodbye
04.05.2023
We look back on a full program in which Hamburg's independent scene showed itself in all its diversity and in which we were able to celebrate art together with you. This issue was a very special one for us, in which we not only said "Hello, how nice that you are here" to you, but also: "Bye, see you hopefully soon!" Because this was our third and therefore last issue as a team and therefore we can allow ourselves a little departure review: what happened in the last 3 years?
Three exciting festival years with 53 productions at 17 venues, many national visitors, 11 national guest performances and 3 labs through the alliance Festivalfriends, many workshops and trainings, numerous panels and a growing festival center, various collaborations, a complete website relaunch, with the Beyond Digital Speculation Unit and the newly established participation office lie behind us. We as a festival team have celebrated, worked hard, networked ourselves and others, and looked forward.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all who have accompanied and supported us over the three years! We wish the new HAUPTSACHE FREI festival team a good time and a fruitful collaboration with the artists of the independent scene in Hamburg.
Bye, see you at the festival 2024!
First time at Hauptsache Frei?
18.04.2023
Hamburg's performing arts festival is back! From April 20 to 29, Hamburg artists will present (music) theater pieces and dance performances in various theaters and even in a car workshop. In addition, there will be workshops and discussion events on digital artistic topics and accessibility in the arts. That's a pretty full program, and it's easy to lose track of what's going on. And maybe you've never been to our festival or rarely go to theaters for various reasons?
Don't worry! Our participation office will help and advise you. You can send all your questions, wishes or concerns to the e-mail address christopher.weymann@hauptsachefrei.de. Christopher from our team will answer you and make sure that your visit is a success. Maybe you need a recommendation on which day you can experience the most? Maybe you have mobility restrictions and need more information? Maybe you want to know beforehand what exactly the play is about? Or even get in touch if you just can't afford a visit financially. We don't ask questions or require "proof" - just let us know.
So what is the best way to do this? Just send a short email with "Hi I'm X and I'd like to go to the theater on day Y!" Or tell us what you're interested in and we'll find the right day for you.
See you at the festival,
FESTIVAL
PHOENIX ist eine Initiative professioneller Theaterschaffender, die sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, in der Stadt Erfurt ein zeitgenössisches Schauspiel- und Theaterprogramm anzubieten. Hier findet ihr Informationen zu dem Festival und dem Team. Das PHOENIX-Theaterfestival ist Mitglied bei FESTIVALFRIENDS — ein Festival-Verbund der Freien Darstellen Künste in Deutschland und hat in diesem Jahr die Möglichkeit 10 frei produzierende Künstler*innen nach Erfurt einzuladen. Der Besuch soll den Besuchenden vor allem eine Austauschplattform und einen Einblick in die Szene Erfurts und Thüringens bieten. Die Gruppe soll gemeinsam das Programm des Festivals besuchen und darüber hinaus lokale Kulturinitiativen sowie Erfurter Akteur*innen kennenlernen.
FORMAT
Festivals der Freien Darstellenden Künste gelten als Innovationsmotoren für künstlerische Positionen und ästhetische Praktiken. Sie bieten aber auch wichtige Potenziale der Vernetzung, um neue Orte und Regionen, Bühnen und Akteur:innen kennenzulernen — abseits des eigenen Arbeitsschwerpunkts. Das Format ermöglicht Künstler*innen, Festivals und ihre Programme als Besucher:innen zu erkunden. So können die eingeladenen Künstler*innen Kontakte zu neuen Kompliz*innen, Szenen und Kontexten knüpfen. Das Vernetzungsformat &FRIENDS BESUCH dient dem Austausch und der Initiierung von Kooperationen zwischen darstellenden Künstler*innen aus verschiedenen Regionen Deutschlands und wird ermöglicht durch FESTIVALFRIENDS. Dieser ist zugleich Labor für künstlerische Produktion und Motor für langfristige überregionale Vernetzung sowie eine Plattform zur Stärkung von bundesweiten Strukturen der Freien Szene.
Die &friends-Gruppe nimmt am ersten Festival-Wochenende teil, vom 8.—11. Juni 2023. Darstellenden Künste. In Kooperation mit dem KulturQuartier Schauspielhaus, dem Zughafen e.V., dem Thüringer Theaterverband und vielen mehr veranstaltet PHOENIX am ersten Festivalwochenende eine Konferenz zu verschiedenen Zukunftsthemen der Darstellenden Künste. Am Donnerstag, 8. Juni, findet eine Panel Diskussion über die Situation, Probleme und Chancen der freien Darstellenden Künste statt. Am Freitag, 9. Juni, präsentiert die renommierte Transformationsforscherin Maja Göpel ihr neues Buch „Wir können auch anders“ – samt Celebrities aus Film und Fernsehen. Am Samstag gibt es Round Tables zu den Themen »Aktionen gegen Rechts« und »Nachhaltiges Produzieren«, eine Kinderkonferenz, und natürlich auch Kunst. Das vollständige Programm findet ihr unter: www.phoenixfestival.de
INFOS ZUR BEWERBUNG
● ZIELGRUPPE: Adressiert werden alle freischaffenden Künstler:innen der Performing Arts mit Sitz in Deutschland.
● ZEITRAUM: 8.—11. Juni 2023
● ORT: Erfurt
● SPRACHE: Die Programmpunkte des Formats werden in deutscher Sprache angeboten.
● UMFANG: Wir bitten um eine Kurzbiografie* (max. 1 Seite) sowie eine Erläuterung (bis zu 800 Zeichen), warum die Teilnahme am Format &FRIENDS BESUCH für die eigene Arbeit wichtig ist. Solltest du bereits an einer Formatausgabe von uns teilgenommen haben, bitten wir um einen kurzen Hinweis in der Bewerbung. *Wir freuen uns auf einen weiterführenden Link, der eure Arbeit(en) repräsentiert.
● KONTAKT/FRIST: Deine Bewerbung kannst du als ein gesammeltes PDF per E-Mail einreichen an luca.sonnen@phoenixfestival.de bis zum 19.04.2023
● REISEKOSTEN/PAUSCHALE: Der Verbund FESTIVALFRIENDS übernimmt die Reisekosten aller eingeladenen Künstler:innen. Es wird ein Betrag über 300,00€ (brutto) für Aufwand und Verpflegung pro Person gezahlt.
You are a performing artist from Hamburg and would like to visit the festival and discuss what you have seen with colleagues? Are you interested in digital artistic practice and topics, but have little experience so far? Then apply now to become part of the #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit and get in touch with digital artists!
As an interdisciplinary team of Hamburg and international artists, you will accompany the first week of the festival. Inspired by the works of your colleagues, you develop speculative reactions and invent alternative, futuristic narratives. In doing so, you go in search of the digitality in the program: Which interfaces were used and which ones would we use if we were working in the year 2050? What open source technologies could we use? How would an AI have directed and how did the play feel in virtual space? The team creates benevolent, serious, humorous, and perhaps self-critical sketches of a speculative, digital performance world, commenting on the festival for the entire festival community.
How can I participate?
Hamburg artists from the field of performance/performing arts can apply. You explicitly do not need any previous knowledge in the field of digital art or digitality - interest is enough! You also need to have time to actively participate in the festival from 19-22.04.2023. Apply by 26.03. with a short (max. 2000 characters) motivation text and a short biography via mail to beyond@hauptsachefrei.de! If you participate, you will see the program of the first festival week for free and receive an allowance of 1.000 € (gross) for your participation.
Save the date: 05. - 09. Juni 2024
Time to say goodbye
First time at Hauptsache Frei?
Open Call: Besuche zusammen mit anderen Künstler*innen das Theaterfestival in Erfurt
Open Call: Be part of the #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit
show past dates
Four performers frolic across the stage wrapped in huge padded bulges. They cuddle and fight. They talk about being a mother, not being a mother and the meaning of life. What influence does the bonding hormone oxytocin have? Does it guide our behavior? Or is it we who control the hormones? The performers approach these big questions with classical vocals …
→weiterlesen
Whether you are a young artist, a newcomer or a seasoned veteran - we invite you to an informal meet and greet over coffee and cake with representatives of Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Cafe Royal Kulturstiftung, Behörde für Kultur und Medien, Rusch-Stiftung, Claussen-Simon-Stiftung and the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung. Friday, 21.04.2023 2–4 PM FUNDUS Theater …
→weiterlesen
About the content: Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects of the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on a research trip with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could …
→weiterlesen
A body on stage in repetitive movements: Stop and Go. Realigning, circling, steps. The dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki is surrounded by surfaces onto which text is projected that explains, supplements and comments. In this way, the spectators are given free space for new trains of thought and contexts of meaning. PHRASES reduces the stage action and focuses …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Hydra is a creative coding environment developed by Olivia Jack to create and publish visualizations in real time, especially in the web browser. Hydra is ideal for beginners and allows for the development of interactive visuals with little or no coding experience. Participants will learn how to generate glitchy images and how to use code to create their …
→weiterlesen
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→weiterlesen
We invite all actors of the independent scene to envision the future of theater or that of a contemporary cultural institution. The focus will be on new ways of looking at "theater" as well as on the social and spatial potential of public space. The event in the form of a fishbowl discussion will take place in the former car dealership at Rentzelstraße 36, …
→weiterlesen
Do you sometimes feel lonely, exhausted or lazy? Then this evening might interest you. In the theatrical and promotional event of an un-security service, you will learn why your feelings are political. The INSECURITY uncovers a secret that everyone knows about but no one talks about. The INSECURITY is lonely, exhausted and lazy. The INSECURITY doesn't know …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→weiterlesen
With the musician Leo Hofmann we explore unconventional settings and potentials of sound design and theater music. Microphones and loudspeakers become instruments and co-performers. Thanks to wireless devices we get into motion and explore how sound can become a performative tool. We leave the usual stereo boxes switched off and think about alternative ways …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
A kilam is a special form of Kurdish poetry. From the 1970s to the 1990s, countless kilams on tapes traveled back and forth between Germany and other countries. They bear witness to the Kurdish diaspora. Listening to them over and over again helped in the loneliness. In her performance, Jacqueline Saki Aslan plays cassettes. In front of a curtain in a …
→weiterlesen
"Every story has a starting sound. Ours sounds like that." With a first sound, the two Kurdish performers take us into a story of birds, migration, love and civil war. Their starting point is the novel of the same name by Bakhtyr Ali, set in southern Kurdistan. They build bridges between traditional Kurdish narrative techniques, following the beauty of this …
→weiterlesen
And we get closer...we get to know each other better...we network...we communicate with each other...and together we find a common goal...common words...common hope...common movements...we become one. The rhythmic journey will be accompanied by the two Hamburg dancers and choreographers Bella Boldt and Babak Radmehr. THERE ARE NO MORE SPOTS AVAILABLE!
→weiterlesen
Over coffee and tea, (up-and-coming) artists from Hamburg, artists from different regions of Germany, as well as directors of festivals and institutions of the independent scene come together. Similar to speed dating, the artists then have the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves personally, finally get rid of pressing questions, or quite gallantly …
→weiterlesen
It's business as usual: the independent performing arts scene is in a process of reorientation. For years, artists have been busy with new projects, new collaborations, new themes, new funding applications, new funding models and new audiences. Young artists have become part of the scene in Hamburg. Artists from other German states have moved to Hamburg. …
→weiterlesen
Do you know the story about the "damsel in distress"? You certainly do! Because she's everywhere: whether as Andromeda in Greek mythology or King Kong's white woman in the movies. A beautiful young woman is kidnapped by a monster and it takes a male hero to rescue her. In the context of a computer game based on interviews with real, defensible women, three …
→weiterlesen
At this workshop, the Hamburg-based collective Meine Damen und Herren will draw attention to barriers from their practice and explore them together with the participants: What does accessible curation mean? What are the needs of collectives with artists with disabilities? On which levels of the programming process must barrier reduction be considered? …
→weiterlesen
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→weiterlesen
We invite the makers of [in]operabilities to answer this question with examples of good practice. Emil Leske, Susanne Tod, Benjamin van Bebber and Leo Hofmann will present their practice of "multi-sensory" music making by means of practical exercises and stories from their joint music theater work. In the interplay of sign poetry, singing, haptic sound …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→weiterlesen
For this purpose, the Participation Office invites you to richly set tables with full glasses of our famous mediation drinks (wine and non-alcoholic beverages). And there is still room for you and your practice at the tables: artists and organizers are invited to get various impulses for low-barrier productions and inclusive artists can present their work. …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→weiterlesen
On stage
TITLE
ARTISTS
AUTO-FIKTION: DER STRUGGLE SO REAL
Verena Brakonier
▾
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→read moreFriday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
DEIN OXY
A team around Lisa Florentine Schmalz/staatsoper24
▾
Four performers frolic across the stage wrapped in huge padded bulges. They cuddle and fight. They talk about being a mother, not being a mother and the meaning of life. What influence does the bonding hormone oxytocin have? Does it guide our behavior? Or is it we who control the hormones? The performers approach these big questions with classical vocals …
→read moreDIE VERSAMMLUNG DER DINGE
FUNDUS THEATER | Forschungstheater
▾
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→read moreINNUENDO
Lea Ralfs and Jan Geiger
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"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→read moreNAH AM WASSER GEBAUT ON TOUR
Die Soziale Fiktion
▾
Do you sometimes feel lonely, exhausted or lazy? Then this evening might interest you. In the theatrical and promotional event of an un-security service, you will learn why your feelings are political. The INSECURITY uncovers a secret that everyone knows about but no one talks about. The INSECURITY is lonely, exhausted and lazy. The INSECURITY doesn't know …
→read morePHRASES
Venetsiana Kalampaliki
▾
A body on stage in repetitive movements: Stop and Go. Realigning, circling, steps. The dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki is surrounded by surfaces onto which text is projected that explains, supplements and comments. In this way, the spectators are given free space for new trains of thought and contexts of meaning. PHRASES reduces the stage action and focuses …
→read moreQBX–SAD BIRDS PAVILION
Ban Theatre
▾
"Every story has a starting sound. Ours sounds like that." With a first sound, the two Kurdish performers take us into a story of birds, migration, love and civil war. Their starting point is the novel of the same name by Bakhtyr Ali, set in southern Kurdistan. They build bridges between traditional Kurdish narrative techniques, following the beauty of this …
→read moreRETOUR-KILAMS AN KOFFERKINDER
Jacqueline Saki Aslan
▾
A kilam is a special form of Kurdish poetry. From the 1970s to the 1990s, countless kilams on tapes traveled back and forth between Germany and other countries. They bear witness to the Kurdish diaspora. Listening to them over and over again helped in the loneliness. In her performance, Jacqueline Saki Aslan plays cassettes. In front of a curtain in a …
→read more(SAVE ME) NOT
Frauen und Fiktion
▾
Do you know the story about the "damsel in distress"? You certainly do! Because she's everywhere: whether as Andromeda in Greek mythology or King Kong's white woman in the movies. A beautiful young woman is kidnapped by a monster and it takes a male hero to rescue her. In the context of a computer game based on interviews with real, defensible women, three …
→read moreSNITMØNSTER
Teresa Hoffmann
▾
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→read moreVOID
Véronique Langlott
▾
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→read moreFriday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Workshops and discourse
TITLE
ANALOGE VISITENKARTEN
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Over coffee and tea, (up-and-coming) artists from Hamburg, artists from different regions of Germany, as well as directors of festivals and institutions of the independent scene come together. Similar to speed dating, the artists then have the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves personally, finally get rid of pressing questions, or quite gallantly …
→read moreANTI-THEATER — A speculative space for possible futures
▾
We invite all actors of the independent scene to envision the future of theater or that of a contemporary cultural institution. The focus will be on new ways of looking at "theater" as well as on the social and spatial potential of public space. The event in the form of a fishbowl discussion will take place in the former car dealership at Rentzelstraße 36, …
→read moreLOW-BARRIER CURATION
▾
At this workshop, the Hamburg-based collective Meine Damen und Herren will draw attention to barriers from their practice and explore them together with the participants: What does accessible curation mean? What are the needs of collectives with artists with disabilities? On which levels of the programming process must barrier reduction be considered? …
→read moreLOW-BARRIER PRODUCING
▾
We invite the makers of [in]operabilities to answer this question with examples of good practice. Emil Leske, Susanne Tod, Benjamin van Bebber and Leo Hofmann will present their practice of "multi-sensory" music making by means of practical exercises and stories from their joint music theater work. In the interplay of sign poetry, singing, haptic sound …
→read moreCAFE OF (FUNDING-)POSSIBILITIES
▾
Whether you are a young artist, a newcomer or a seasoned veteran - we invite you to an informal meet and greet over coffee and cake with representatives of Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Cafe Royal Kulturstiftung, Behörde für Kultur und Medien, Rusch-Stiftung, Claussen-Simon-Stiftung and the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung. Friday, 21.04.2023 2–4 PM FUNDUS Theater …
→read moreTHE CULTURAL POLICY CONVERSATION
▾
It's business as usual: the independent performing arts scene is in a process of reorientation. For years, artists have been busy with new projects, new collaborations, new themes, new funding applications, new funding models and new audiences. Young artists have become part of the scene in Hamburg. Artists from other German states have moved to Hamburg. …
→read moreFestival Opening
▾
For our third and last festival edition as a team, we have chosen the theme "Continuation". To continue means to go on, despite all adversities. Continuing also means leaving, saying goodbye, leaving behind. In view of the crises that are unfolding very closely, our aim in issues HF#7 and HF#8 was to highlight the strengths and diversity of Hamburg's …
→read moreFREIE SZENE TRIFFT POLITIK
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What is the best way to explain to politicians what you do and how society - and Hamburg - benefits from it? This requires networking, exchange and tools. We will give you all this at our boot camp for convincing arguments. Under the motto "FREIE SZENE TRIFFT POLITIK" (Free Scene Meets Politics), from May to October 2023, actors from the independent …
→read moreHANDS-ON: INTRODUCTION TO LIVE-CODING WITH HYDRA — with Naoto Hieda
▾
Hydra is a creative coding environment developed by Olivia Jack to create and publish visualizations in real time, especially in the web browser. Hydra is ideal for beginners and allows for the development of interactive visuals with little or no coding experience. Participants will learn how to generate glitchy images and how to use code to create their …
→read moreHANDS-ON: MOTION CAPTURING — with Gloria Schulz
▾
The workshop starts with a technical introduction, a presentation of application scenarios and different MoCap methods. Together you will test the possibilities of working with MoCap suits: How do different motion dynamics behave in the software? What are technical limits in terms of duration and complexity of choreographies? What technical requirements are …
→read moreHANDS-ON: SONIC ACTORS — with Leo Hofmann
▾
With the musician Leo Hofmann we explore unconventional settings and potentials of sound design and theater music. Microphones and loudspeakers become instruments and co-performers. Thanks to wireless devices we get into motion and explore how sound can become a performative tool. We leave the usual stereo boxes switched off and think about alternative ways …
→read moreCREATING SPACE FOR ACCESSIBILITY
▾
For this purpose, the Participation Office invites you to richly set tables with full glasses of our famous mediation drinks (wine and non-alcoholic beverages). And there is still room for you and your practice at the tables: artists and organizers are invited to get various impulses for low-barrier productions and inclusive artists can present their work. …
→read moreWARM-UP WITH BABAK RADMEHR AND BELLA BOLDT
▾
And we get closer...we get to know each other better...we network...we communicate with each other...and together we find a common goal...common words...common hope...common movements...we become one. The rhythmic journey will be accompanied by the two Hamburg dancers and choreographers Bella Boldt and Babak Radmehr. THERE ARE NO MORE SPOTS AVAILABLE!
→read moreWORKSHOP: DIE VERSAMMLUNG DER DINGE
▾
About the content: Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects of the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on a research trip with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could …
→read moreModules and formats
TITLE
Best Guests
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For selected events we offer the possibility to visit the festival in small groups (up to four friends) together with artists, to get to know the scene and to exchange ideas. Included is the visit of an event, a bottle of wine as well as the exchange of ideas half an hour before and after the performance. If you are interested please send an email to …
→read more#BeyondDigital
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This year, an interdisciplinary team of Hamburg and international artists will accompany artists will accompany the first festival week, visit performances by colleagues and develop digital artistic responses and reactions to the program. As #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit, the unit is looking for the unasked questions about digitality in the program: What …
→read more#BeyondDigital Speculation Unit
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The work of the #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit solves NO specific PURPOSE and answers NO PROBLEMS anybody has. It will NOT ASSES if working with “real” people in “physical” spaces is still an appropriate concept for the 21th century and WILL GIVE NO COMMENT on the question if theater can still save the world. The unit DOES NOT IDENTIFY itself as part of …
→read moreThe main thing for all: participation
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Barrier-free progress? Since our start as a festival team, one of the main focuses of HAUPTSACHE FREI has been on breaking down barriers. In our last festival edition as a team, we invite you and ourselves to change perspectives: In three formats we want to learn how inclusive artists curate, how inclusive working and producing can work, and make space for …
→read moreWE PRESENT @ Hauptsache Frei #9
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WE PRESENT is the LICHTHOF Theater's platform for networking and presenting Hamburg's up-and-coming performance artists. WE PRESENT invites up-and-coming artists to show works that have been created freely or in a training context at the LICHTHOF Theater and also offers them a new network, access to the independent scene and the chance to develop …
→read more&FRIENDS BESUCH
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The format of FESTIVALFRIENDS enables artists to explore festivals and their programs as visitors. In this way, the invited artists* can establish contacts with new accomplices, scenes and contexts. &FRIENDS BESUCH is supervised by Lisa Florentine Schmalz as part of our festival. If you have any questions about the format, feel free to send her an email …
→read more&FRIENDS GASTSPIEL
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With this format, FESTIVALFRIENDS connects existing productions with the nine festivals organized in the network and thus strengthens the supraregional visibility of artists. The guest performances of this year's edition are INNUENDO by Lea Ralfs and Jan Geiger and NAH AM WASSER GEBAUT ON TOUR by Die Soziale Fiktion & Friends.
→read moreVenues
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Website
Autowerkstatt Altona
Norderreihe 59
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FUNDUS Theater
Sievekingdamm 3
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Kampnagel
Jarrestraße 20
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Kulturkirche Altona
Bei der Johanniskirche 22
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Lichthof Theater
Mendelssohnstraße 15
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monsun.theater
Gaußstraße 149
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LICHTHOF Theater Probebühne
Rentzelstraße 40
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resonanzraum
Feldstraße 66
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Sprechwerk
Klaus-Groth-Straße 23
About the festival & FESTIVALFRIENDS
Hauptsache Frei is the festival of Hamburg's independent performing arts. Founded in 2015, the festival provides a platform for the artists of Hamburg's independent scene and invites professionals of the scene from all over Germany to Hamburg for exchange and networking. Concentrated on one week, the festival becomes a platform for artistic productions, contemporary trends, aesthetic innovations, socio-political discourses and scientific impulses. Hauptsache Frei is supported by the Bündnis für Festivals der Freien Tanz- und Theaterschaffenden Hamburgs e.V., a sponsoring association consisting of various institutions - venues but also interest groups such as DfdK Hamburg e.V. - in the city.
The Hauptsache Frei festival is a member of the FESTIVALFRIENDS network, an association of regional festivals of the independent performing arts in Germany. FESTIVALFRIENDS is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through the program "Promoting Connections" of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. (Federal Association of the Liberal Performing Arts).
Contact
You have a question, comment or just want to say hi? Write us an email and we will come back to you as soon as possible!