Theater with refugees: Thespis Center on the brink of closure

The Thespis Center at the Deutsch-Sorbisches Volkstheater in Bautzen has brought refugees and locals together on stage. Now the institution, which has existed since 2017, is struggling to survive because its funding was not extended at the beginning of the year. As the project sponsor, the Bautzen theater had filed an appeal against the decision of the Sächsische Aufbaubank. However, it was unsuccessful. "We are completely up in the air," said artistic director Lutz Hillmann.

The Thespis Center works with children, young people and adults from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. These include Germans and Sorbs as well as people from Syria, Afghanistan, Russia and Ukraine, who meet in Bautzen for workshops, language cafés or theater plays. Hillmann stated that it had been demonstrably and exemplarily successful in creating empathy and understanding for one another.

In 2020, the Thespis Center was awarded the Saxon Integration Prize. In January of this year, Georg Genoux, the long-standing director of the center, received the Saxon Lessing Prize - largely for his dedicated work in Bautzen.

Theater as a bridge between cultures

Under the direction of Yana Humenna, a choreographer from Ukraine, and Halimeh Ibrahim, who comes from Lebanon, the project work will now continue on a voluntary basis until June. An event under the motto "Viva Thespis" is planned for Monday (March 10). As part of an intercultural performance, women of Kurdish, Lebanese, Ukrainian, Sorbian and German origin will be appearing to tell personal life stories and talk about their experiences of fleeing and making a new start in East Germany.

Intendant Hillmann is hoping that the center can be saved. "We have made attempts in all directions to find new funding." The landlord of the rooms used by the "Meeting Center for Refugees" has been extremely accommodating: The rent has been deferred for the time being.