Theatertreffen

   A combination civic forum, art festival, awards show, and mechanism for professional advancement, the Berliner Theatertreffen was founded for the purpose of inviting to Berlin during the month of May the most outstanding productions staged that season. A jury of individuals made the selections, and from the inaugural season (1963-1964) controversy surrounded the invitations extended, the membership of the jury, and the criteria used to extend the invitations. The most vocal complaint over the years has been the number of invitations to the same directors and/or theaters: Vienna's Burgtheater has received 44 invitations since 1964, when its production of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck was invited, and the Bochum Schauspielhaus has had 28 invitations; in the same time period, all the theaters of Cologne have received a total of just two invitations, and the Darmstadt State Theater has been invited only once. The implication is that the Burgtheater's work is more than 20 times better than Cologne's — or it may simply mean that jury members prefer a certain kind of production, especially one with the earmarks of Claus Peymann, Peter Stein, or Peter Zadek. The productions of those directors have been a regular feature of the Theatertreffen from the beginning. Meanwhile, smaller, high-quality theaters (for example, Heidelberg, Göttingen, Koblenz, or Nuremberg) have never been invited. The role of the Theatertreffen in the establishment of a director's career has likewise become singularly decisive; in many cases, an invitation to the Theatertreffen solidifies a director's work in the minds of employers (usually politicians and bureaucrats), as well as among many colleagues.