Dr. Lily Climenhaga (Ghent University): A Stage of One’s Own: Multiculturalism, Migration, and the Struggle to Belong on the German Stage
Germany’s theatre culture is one of the best-funded in the world with ca. 140 publicly subsidized theatres currently in existence across the country. However, despite these theatres’ historical and contemporary status as liberal institutions, the German theatre landscape has struggled to navigate and integrate broader societal conversations around multiculturalism, migration, interculturalism, integration, and postmigration into their programs and structures. Beginning with the emergence of Turkish-German playwrights on subsidized stages (particularly those found across Berlin) and the spread and continuation of this movement by looking at productions such as Schwarze Jungfrauen [Black Virgins] (Günter Senkel/Feridun Zaimoğlu, HAU Berlin; 2006), Verrücktes Blut [Crazy Blood] (Nurkan Erpulat/Jens Hillje, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Berlin; 2010), The Situation (Yael Ronen, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin; 2016), and Mittelreich [Middle Kingdom, a novel by Josef Bierbichler] (Anta Helena Recke, Münchner Kammerspiele Munich; 2017), this lecture will examine how German theatre has responded on- and offstage to questions of citizenship, belonging, and representation.
Biography: Lily Climenhaga (PhD UAlberta/LMU) has spent ten years working extensively around the directorial and institutional work of Swiss-German theater maker Milo Rau and is currently completing the monograph, The Theatre of Milo Rau: Dramaturgical Dimensions. Lily’s current SSHRC-funded postdoctoral project explores changing institutional dramaturgies in Germany and Flanders. Recent special editions include: “Institutional Dramaturgies” (Theater Magazine, 2025), “Milo Rau – Comparative Lenses” (Documenta, 2025), and “Theaters of Post-Truth” (Theater Magazine, 2025) as well as two forthcoming editions on Berlin’s Volksbühne and theatre manifestos.
How to Attend
This is a hybrid event. Please join in-person from 2:00pm – 3:00pm in Buchanan Tower 997, or register here to join via Zoom.
