Participatory Theatre

HowlRound Theatre Commons: In 2009, at Germany’s Staatsschauspiel Dresden theatre, Miriam Tscholl pioneered “bürgerbühne,” or participatory theatre for citizens, a form of community outreach via artistic collaboration. Tscholl worked to give participatory theatre productions the same resources and scheduling as the playhouse’s main programming, and it became an integral part of the city’s theatrical landscape. Her approach has been adopted, adapted, and reinterpreted in theatres across Europe; a German theatre company, Munich Kammerspiele, for example, now includes such work in their main repertoire without distinguishing it from their other productions.