Theatre Without Audience

The founder of the Gießen School, Andrzej Tadeusz Wirth (1927-2019) invented the term "postdramatic theatre" in post-war Europe for a theatre form that has no definition.

From the point of his interest in theatre, ATW was always fortunate to be in the right place at the right time: with Kantor and Grotowski in Poland, Bertolt Brecht and 'Gruppe 47' in Berlin, Gertrude Stein and Robert Wilson in New York. Andrzej Tadeusz Wirth taught drama and comparative literature at Harvard, Yale School of Drama, Oxford, Stanford and the CUNY. In 1982 he returned to Europe and established the legendary 'Applied Theater Studies' (Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft) at the University of Giessen, Germany - a seminary for artists like Rimini Protokoll, Hans Werner Kroesinger, Moritz Rinke, René Pollesch, Gob Squad and She She Pop.

“Andrzej Wirth has achieved one of the most difficult things: He created Andrzej Wirth.” Jan Kott

Andrzej Wirth brought with the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen the theatre stage outside. So that the pacifist mission of the theater reaches everyone. The essay film "Theatre Without Audience" by Pawel Kocambasi emphasizes and reinforces the importance of democratic values, making clear that democracy can function because people participate in social life. The film connects the concept of a "theatre without audience" with the idea of the Polish "Solidarność" movement and invites the audience to take part in a shared process of reflection.

trailer: https://vimeo.com/1034032513?fl=pl&fe=sh
you are part of the meaning which is now created


performed by ATW, co-directed by Carolin Mader,
produced by Tom Streuber, directed by Pawel Kocambasi