Performing Arts Festival Berlin 2022 | 24.05.-29.05.2022

Under the motto ZUSAMMEN (TOGETHER), the seventh edition of the Performing Arts Festival Berlin (PAF) will showcase the diversity of Berlin’s performing arts from 24 to 29 May 2022. With around 50 productions from various genres, the festival provides a view of a representative cross-section of the independent scene. The programme of the scene, the heart of the festival, takes place in collaboration with numerous venues, stages and artists who perform in public spaces. She She Pop, FRZNTE, Costa Compagnie, RECLAIM Kollektiv, Novoflot, Ensemble Mosaik and many others are taking part.

Image above: Cie AGORA, Antigone Exp Nr.2

From performance, dance and spoken theatre, contemporary circus and theatre for children and young people, to joint walks and a mediation programme, the annual festival organised by LAFT – Landesverband freie darstellende Künste Berlin e.V. – offers a varied programme for a broad public over six days. Venues include established stages of the independent scene such as HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Ballhaus Ost, as well as circus tents, churches and clubs throughout the city.

Events in public places invite encounters and new explorations of Berlin. Digital and hybrid formats complement the stage programme, which after two digital editions will once again take place in front of a live audience.

This year, only revivals since 2019 will be included in the Scene programme in order to be able to show a broad spectrum of analogue and digital works and to give more space to productions that could not be performed during the pandemic. In this way, the festival brings actors, venues and audiences ZUSAMMEN again – for greater visibility and communication of artistic diversity. The productions deal with, among other things, spaces of experience between belonging and exclusion, inclusion and discrimination, the role of bodies in the digital age, (female) ageing processes and their social significance, queer feminism and contemporary performative forms of resistance.

With the Introducing… programme, the festival offers newcomers to the Berlin independent scene a platform. Together with the cooperating production houses Ballhaus Ost, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Sophiensæle and TD Berlin, four selected productions will be presented and the up-and-coming artists will be supported in their work with networking and advisory services.

The first live edition of PAF in two years will be celebrated with a special opening on May 24th and the closing on May 29th at Berlin club and art venues with a musical and performative programme in cooperation with numerous artists. This year, for the first time, the Closing will bring together several short performances by artists and collectives curated by the festival team. In addition, from Wednesday to Saturday, the wandering festival centre will be a guest at four different event and production venues of the Berlin scene. The scene and the Berlin public are warmly welcome to attend the diverse workshops, networking and mediation offerings on different perspectives on the theme TOGETHER and at the evening festival bar. On Open Stage Day on May the 28th, many of the venues participating in the festival will open their doors and offer the public a glimpse behind the scenes. PAF Radio and the PAF Blog complete the programme and report daily on experiences at the festival.

In addition, the IETM Campus gives a group of international young artists and producers the opportunity to get to know the Berlin independent scene. The FESTIVALFRIENDS will also be guests at the PAF. The FESTIVALFRIENDS is an association of a total of seven regional festivals of the independent performing arts. The aim is to share knowledge and experience and to strengthen the development and expansion of festival structures. A central concern is to bring artists and their positions beyond their local sphere of influence into new regions and contexts.

Complete programm on www.performingarts-festival.de

WHEN?

Tuesday, 24. May to Sunday, 29. May 2022

WHERE?

All over Berlin