The Anti-Bubble Program 

by Christine Wahl

Christine Wahl in conversation with Anna K. Becker and Katrin Hylla about the involvement of the neighbourhood in the Schwankhalle’s programming and the constant task of questioning one’s own perspective. The artistic directors of Schwankhalle Bremen Anna K. Becker and Katrin Hylla in conversation with Christine Wahl.

Anna K. Becker, Katrin Hylla, congratulations on winning the Theaterpreis des Bundes – and to kick things off, a question that is asked of all the winners in this series of interviews: Can you name a special feature that distinguishes your theater, a unique selling point that only really exists with you? 

Anna K. Becker: We have an absolutely unique additional stage here, and it’s free! The Werdersee lake is right next to our theater – which we also performed on when we opened. You only have to cross the embankment once – it’s great! 

Katrin Hylla: Something else, which I don’t know if it’s really unique to us but I definitely think is very special, is the “Schwankcore,” our in-house choir that started out as a community or neighborhood project and has since developed a fantastic momentum of its own. It currently consists of 100 people between the ages of 20 and 72, and if this model really doesn’t exist anywhere else, I hereby release it and strongly recommend it for imitation. It’s lots of fun! 

What’s so unique about it?   

Hylla: When we took over the management of the Schwankhalle two years ago, we thought: Great, now we finally have a stable place in a city and don’t have to travel around as much as we used to as freelance artists; now that we could attend regular rehearsals again, let’s start a choir! So, we put out an open call and expected about 20 people at the first meeting. But 68 came! Some because they simply wanted to sing, others because they were perhaps looking for a social connection, and still others because the choir is located in their immediate neighborhood. 
With so many different people, there was naturally a clash of very different ideas about what should actually be sung. However, we didn’t want to be the choir curators, it was important to us that people organize themselves. In the meantime, a program group has been formed under the leadership of Mara Hebel, to which suggestions can be submitted, that are then discussed and decided on by the entire choir. In addition, there will soon be five world premieres by professional composers who have each written a composition on the theme of water especially for the Schwankcore, with its completely different voices and levels of professionalism. 

One of the special features of the Schwankhalle is probably its support association: It has the beautiful name “Neugier e. V.” (Curiosity Association). 

Hylla: But it’s been called that for a very long time, so it’s not our invention. 


Becker: But that doesn’t change the fact that the name should reflect the program from time to time! (Laughs) For example, the guest performance “Baggern” by the group Studio Urbanistan last fall, an audiovisual excavator ballet for three mothers that we showed in a derelict building site near the Schwankhalle between an Aldi and a Rewe supermarket, was a great curiosity activity for many people. We had completely different audiences at each performance, if only because there were of course many people right next to the construction site who were actually just about to put their shopping in their car, but then stopped and wondered: What’s going on here? What are these digging women doing? We are always particularly pleased when we can arouse curiosity ourselves and start a conversation in this way. 

The Schwankhalle hosts a huge variety of performances and activities. Can you nevertheless sum up your program in a nutshell? 

 
Hylla: Where shanty choir, boat ballet and contemporary performance meet – that would be a headline that pretty much sums up what we are about. On the one hand, it involves global thinking, i.e., looking at the whole world – and on the other hand, the approach of being locally connected, creating formats for encounters in exchange with local initiatives, artists and neighbors. However, it’s always important to us that art is not used for a specific purpose, that it doesn’t just serve as a vehicle to bring people together, for example. Of course it can do that, but it doesn’t have to. One of our concerns is always to ensure that there is art that is free of claims or attributions. 

Becker: I think the central point is that we have a fundamental sense of responsibility and that we also communicate this to the outside world, that we are constantly seeking feedback, opinions and demands. It’ll never be the case that everyone likes all the plays, and it doesn’t have to be that every time you leave here you say: That was so my thing! It’s much more important that we as a venue are fundamentally responsible for different audiences and different artists. There are venues where you know in advance exactly what kind of art awaits you there – and that can be great, I sometimes enjoy that myself. But that’s not our primary goal here, on the contrary. 

Hylla: I think we can actually say that we are running a kind of anti-bubble program. Breaking up existing peer groups and interest groups and facilitating unexpected encounters – that would definitely be at the top of the list if we had to write a statement of purpose for the Schwankhalle. 

Musizierende Person in einem Gummiboot. Vor sich eine Tuba, die das Gesicht und den halben Körper verdeckt.
© Monika Allesch

You repeatedly emphasize how important it is for you to open up your venue in every conceivable way. Also, because the Schwankhalle – as it describes itself – is located in Bremen’s Neustadt district, a place with many lower-income households. 

Becker: That’s right, and these efforts to open up the venue encompass several levels. One very practical and very concrete measure that was started under our predecessors, for example, is that we have a solidarity-based pricing system. This is really very affordable, even compared to other independent houses, and is based on the fact that people pay for tickets according to self-assessment, so nothing has to be proven. In addition, there are a large number of free events anyway, especially when it comes to workshops. However, the question of who can afford to go to the theater in the first place is only the first of many. Then there is the question of who is actually able to come to us and at what time. That’s why we’ve established afternoon formats, for example, and have specifically chosen Sunday at 4 p.m. as a particularly family-friendly performance time – where there is also free childcare. 

 
Hylla: By the way, afternoon performances are not only interesting for families, but also for people who would like to go to the theater and go home again while there is still daylight. Another opening initiative that we were able to initiate, mainly thanks to the NEUSTART KULTUR funding, and which may now be able to continue with the Theaterpreis money, are audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired people and translations into sign language for deaf people. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done in the area of removing barriers. 
Of course, there are also other areas where we want to create easier and more transparent access. For example, a person once asked me after an event: How can I even get to perform at the Schwankhalle? What do I have to have already done, where do I have to have been or who do I have to marry to be allowed to perform here? (Laughs) Since then, I’ve been offering a consultation hour once a month, and anyone with any questions can register in advance for it. 

Speaking of which, how did you get started in the theater – and ultimately come to work at the Schwankhalle? 

Hylla: My path to directing and later to artistic direction was via acting. Unfortunately, when I started out in this profession over 20 years ago, it wasn’t considered a virtue or even just a positive attribute for an actress to think for herself; on the contrary, it was seen as a hindrance and an obstacle. That’s why I quickly said goodbye to acting and started developing my own productions. Then I went back to study – to the thinkers in Giessen. 

You also studied at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies there, Anna K. Becker.   

Becker: Yes, because I found out about it by chance. I actually wanted to become a film director, so I interned at a film production company as a teenager. There I realized that the director didn’t really have any say at all: If the producer said, now there’s no more money, the scene was rewritten. I found that quite sobering and thought that everything was a bit smaller in the theater and therefore perhaps more self-determined. But when I was given the task of writing a director’s concept for Kleist’s “The Broken Jug” when I first applied to a directing school, I was also pretty clueless. Luckily, I ended up doing an internship at tanzhaus nrw by chance and saw a contemporary performance there that made me think: Wow, what is that? That’s incredibly exciting! One of the makers had studied in Giessen. After the artist talk, I asked her what exactly Giessen was and how to get in there. 

Aufnahme der Schwankhalle von oben bei Nacht. Durch die große Glasfront wird das hell erleuchtete Foyer mit Menschen darin sichtbar.
© Jasper Wessel

Listening to you both, everything seems to be going very well at the Schwankhalle. What are your biggest challenges at the moment? 


Hylla: Not forgetting that we are not able to see 360 degrees – in other words, always trying to look at how we can repeatedly shake up our perspective, which is shaped by our backgrounds, origins, privileges, preferences and all sorts of other things. This is also one of our ideas for the prize money: to think further and more concretely about our project idea of a program advisory board, which has been on our minds for some time. 

How far have your plans progressed so far? 

Hylla: We are currently considering exactly what a suitable model might look like. For example, would it be good if some of our annual guest performances were not curated by us, but recommended by the program advisory board? And how could such a procedure be developed in practice, which people with which perspectives should be represented there, what would they need, how can they be paid appropriately in the long term, and what would the organization of such a structure – perhaps beyond Bremen – look like? 

Are there any other projects you’d like to invest the Theaterpreis money in? 

Becker: We are definitely delighted about the prize because it is a great recognition of our work – and by that I mean the whole team, who incidentally also gave us an incredibly warm and hospitable welcome when we started here two years ago. 
And as far as the prize money is concerned, these considerations are not just at a curatorial level, but involve everyone working in the building. The list of needs and wishes has been opened – and is becoming increasingly long.