about

Out of the Black Box  :  exploring German theatre with a focus on refugee theatre, disability theatre and international collaboration.

The work explored here – much of it produced by groups on the borders of mainstream society – offers new perspectives, new energy, new challenges to what theatre is and could be. What happens at the edges of society is a good barometer of how that society’s doing. How settled with itself, how fearful, how accepting.

My name’s Julia Grime – I’ve worked in the Arts for over 20 years, in dance, in theatre, particularly at Theatr Clwyd, a major UK regional theatre. More recently, I’ve been living in Berlin, where I noticed how rapidly and directly German theatre responded to changing social issues.

So I set out to discover more. I saw more than 50 shows and met many people, with diverse life experience and creative practice, all united by their willingness to think outside the traditional black box of the theatre stage. From major theatres to grassroots organisations, to the independent Freie Szene, to academics, this website reflects some of who, and what, I found…

Copyright: All images subject to copyright as indicated throughout. Thanks to all organisations involved for the generous sharing of images and information. Julia Grime asserts copyright of all articles.

Acknowledgements:
Huge thanks to all the contributors as well as the artists who made the shows. And to Guy and Gary at Creation ADM, Manchester. And to Tom Pearson. And most of all to Philip Davenport for his endless support.

Project supported by THE BRITISH COUNCIL and the ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND.