VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE
VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE is a neighbourhood ensemble from Stuttgart-Süd that deals with current and historic topics and issues in the neighbourhood. As a community project, VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE believes in multi-voiced storytelling in public space.
EMERGENCE
In the summer of 2019, Theater Rampe (director Nina Gühlstorff and dramaturg Paula Kohlmann) issued a call to join the newly founded VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE with a mobile research office on Marienplatz, posters and videos. In a laboratory and open stage, questions were formulated for a new Volks*theatre. Then, in autumn 2019, a 15-member neighbourhood ensemble formed and began collecting stories about Marienplatz in open research meetings. The square is the pivotal point for all ensemble members and thus became the protagonist of the first production.
PREVIOUS PROJECTS
During the first Lockdown in 2020, the contactless phone performance TAG Y addressed vacancy and housing shortage as well as social distancing and the desire for community.
In AUF DIE PLÄTZE! – EIN WIEDERSEHEN MIT MUSIK (2021), audience and ensemble met again at a song recital on Marienplatz, before moving on to DIE GÄRTEN on Schimmelhüttenweg in 2022, where plants, animals and mythical creatures guided visitors through the gardens. In the summer of 2023, the VOLKS*THEATER ensemble invited to a big neighbourhood festival on Erwin-Schöttle-Platz: TO DEATH, LIFE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD!
NEIGHBOURHOOD CONNECTIONS
The ensemble has neighbourly connections with various initiatives and groups from S-Süd and tries to facilitate community through art. For example, in (artistic) cooperations with, among others, the MüZe Süd family centre, the Schöttle-Areal initiative or the social neighbourhood project KUGEL (Kulturen gemeinsam leben).
Or in the SUPPOPTIMAL campaign, a project of the Bürgerstiftung Stuttgart, in which hot food was served every Sunday at SUPPE FÜR ALLE on Marienplatz during the second lockdown winter.
Click here for the audio documentary about the ensemble, the initial research and the 2020 telephone performance TAG Y.
FUNDING
VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE has so far been supported by the City of Stuttgart in the “Development Drivers” fund of the state capital Stuttgart as well as by funds for the promotion of the arts from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg and the Culture in Public Spaces Promotion Fund from the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart.
Currently, the VOLKS*THEATER RAMPE includes:
Magda Agudelo (actress, research group, concept).
Robert Atzlinger (actor, concept).
Christian Carlier (gardener, performer).
Gerda Eisele (tutor, jack-of-all-trades, performer).
Rosa Elidjani (educator, performer, responsible for social media).
Efthimios Gongos (dental technician, performer).
Paula Kohlmann (dramaturgy, project management, concept).
Dorothea Karapanagiotidou (administrator, performer).
Justyna Koeke (artist, costume designer).
Farmanullah Qalandari (part-time worker, performer).
Chantal Ruiz (Further Education – Intercultural Trainer, Performer).
Amir Nathanaeel Saadat (trainee, performer).
Binyamin Saadat (collaborator Theatre Rampe, performer).
Alexander Sowa (artist, stage design).
Paria Tavakoli (trainee, singer).
Britta Wente (neighbour, activist, network & performer).
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* The asterisk behind the word “people” means an opening for us that contradicts the exclusionary use of the word. Originally, Volk means “a whole crowd”. We make theatre for this crowd.
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