Participatory production for children and young people / Ages 9–18
The Junge Deutsche Oper is continuing its participative and inclusive work. Children and youths with and without disabilities work together to develop a piece of musical theatre while discovering their personal and individual forms of expression. The opera becomes a space of action for youth-related themes that can be brought to the stage through artistic means. What kind of music does the world need? What kind do I, and our society, need?
These questions are influenced by John Cage, who can be found at various points in the Deutsche Oper Berlin programme for this season. Children and youths between 9 and 18 years of age take these questions under the guidance of art educators to create their own piece of musical theatre. At the heart of this project are participation, self-realisation and artistic diversity: Everybody brings with they have, be it their voice, instrument, movement, sound, idea or experience.
A central motif of this project is the process of «vibration» in the sense of internal, external and social movement. The participants address the question of what moves them emotionally and physically, and what acoustic environments and impressions they encounter every day. These individual experiences become the source material for sound experiments, scene developments and choreographic processes. The concept of «sound» is deliberately broad: Voice, body, objects, everyday objects, ambient sounds and instruments are all treated equally, all in line with the concepts of John Cage.
At the same time, the project is a place for expressing desires, needs and demands of the world and society: What can we counteract with music (or silence) in these times of «uncertainty»? How can I listen well to myself and my needs? What message should my music send? How can music help us and make us move in our own way again? What kind of music does the world need now and going forward?
The children and youths will come together for weekly rehearsals between January and June 2027 to listen, experiment, create and work according to the methods of John Cage or community music. Throughout the project, the groups will increasingly mingle and the various worlds of experience, forms of expression and perspectives will be deliberately used as artistic resources for joint final performances at the Tischlerei in June 2027.
The result is a work of musical theatre that, as Cage taught, may be entirely left up to chance. It could be more like a happening or a score with fixed principles and rules.
Registration: jungedeutscheoper@deutscheoperberlin.de
Performances: 25, 26 and 27 June 2027 at the Tischlerei
