Theater Thikwa is "Germany's most well-known theater where artists with and without disabilities unite to make a theater" (rbb Kulturradio). Thikwa presents performances, dance, text-based, and music theater in its own performance venues in Berlin and guest performances worldwide with no fear of experimentation.
The foundation of Theater Thikwa is the Thikwa Werkstatt für Theater und Kunst, the Thikwa Workshop for Theater and Art. This is where the 44 members of the ensemble work. Theater Thikwa works predominantly with the personal characteristics of its performers and seeks out new forms of expression beyond the fixed definitions of genres. In doing so, it continuously works with external artists from the independent performing arts community.
The story of Thikwa begins with the founding of the association Thikwa e.V. to support collaborative artistic work between people with disabilities and non-disabled artists. Initiated by Christine Vogt, critical founding members included Hanna Näter, Gerlinde Altenmüller, Matthias Maedebach, and friends and staff members of Werkheim Zehlendorf. Christine Vogt received the Förderpreis, or incentive award, of the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft for the Thikwa initiative.
The first production by Theater Thikwa, Im Stehen sitzt es sich besser, unleashed an enormous public echo and spurred the current discussion about the "artistic abilities" of people with mental disabilities. Invitations for guest performances soon followed from all over the German-speaking world.
The first four productions, created in 1993, were produced as recreational projects. Nearly all so-called disabled ensemble members worked full-time in traditional workshops for the differently abled. This circumstance soon caused the project to reach its limits due to factors of content and the doubled workload due to rehearsals, performances, and tours. This is why efforts toward professionalization began in 1994. Theaterwerkstatt Thikwa was founded in 1995 and has been operated ever since in cooperation with Nordberliner Werkgemeinschaft (NBW gGmbH), one of Berlin's most extensive workshops for the differently abled.
From 1995 to 1997, Theaterwerkstatt Thikwa functioned as a temporary trial program. Financed by the German Federal Ministry of Health, it was the first pilot project in Germany that tried out the combination of the rehabilitation and education of people with so-called mental disabilities with forms of artistic expression. In the workshop, art was and continues to be produced all day, every day, 35 hours per week. As such, it distinguished itself from using artistic work as a supplementary offer to provide a respite from primarily repetitive tasks.
Theaterwerkstatt Thikwa initially offered 12 workplaces for people with so-called disabilities. It has been operated as a cooperation between NBW and Theater Thikwa e.V. since 1997. To demonstrate the role of the artistic fields, it was renamed Thikwa Werkstatt für Theater und Kunst (Thikwa Workshop for Theater and Art) in 2010. Now employing 44 people with disabilities, Thikwa-Werkstatt is a shining example of a competence center for diverse art. The employees make up the ensemble of Theater Thikwa.
The professionalization brought about by the comprehensive training provided by the theater workshop and the resulting research into the unique aesthetic and content-based possibilities of inclusive theatrical work soon bore fruit. The first production under these new conditions, Ein anderer Teil des Waldes (directed by Peter Baer), was invited to the 1996 Impulse Festival, Germany's most important forum for independent theater.
Thikwa quickly established itself as a somewhat different but universally accepted player in Berlin's cultural community. As was the case since the beginning, all of the productions in the years that followed were performed in renowned venues, including Theater am Halleschen Ufer (today HAU 2), Sophiensaele, Podewil, and Akademie der Künste. Performing inclusive theater at established venues was innovative in the 1990s, and Thikwa thus functioned as a trailblazer for diversity.
In 2005, the foundation board of Deutschen Klassenlotterie Berlin approved the application by English Theatre Berlin (ETB) and Thikwa e.V. to create a shared performance venue that was barrier-free for both artists and audience. Today's performance venue opened in 2008 in the Mühlenhaupthöfen and was Germany's first utterly barrier-free theater. Each year, Thikwa offers between 10 and 12 different productions, with 70 and 90 performances. The shared management of the venue with what is today the English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center (ETB | IPAC) emphasizes our commitment to diversity in all directions.
Theater Thikwa has been an exceptional cultural ambassador for Germany for many years. This is seen not only by the foreign guest performances throughout the entire world and international workshops. From 2002 to 2004, Thikwa initiated, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, the establishment of an inclusive theater workshop in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This project, realized by Christine Vogt and Gerd Hartmann, received the incentive award for cultural encounters from the Stiftung West-östliche Begegnungen, the Foundation for Encounters Between the West and East, in 2004.
There is also a long-standing cooperation with Theaterstudio Kroog II in Moscow. The performance Entfernte Nähe (directed by Gerd Hartmann and Andrej Afonin) arose from this cooperation in 2012 and featured an utterly Russian ensemble. For the very first time in Russia, an inclusive ensemble consisting of professional, non-disabled actors and dancers, and artists with so-called disabilities performed together on the stage of a state-funded theater. The production received the Golden Mask, the most important Russian theater prize, 2014 as "best experimental production of the year."
Theater Thikwa also has a particularly vibrant connection with Japan. A co-production with Taihen Performance Troupe for the Osaka Theater Festival was created in 2001. The four-part work-in-progress Thikwa plus Junkan Project was created and performed between 2009 and 2012 in Berlin and Japan. It was invited to the 2012 Kyoto Experimental Festival, amongst other invitations.
The interest in the special abilities, ways of thinking, and forms of expression of the Thikwa performers has continued to increase in recent years. Correspondingly, there are now many cooperations with other independent groups such as, for example, Monster Truck (Dschingis Khan – 2012; 2014, Zugabe – 2019). Thikwa performers work as guests at major theaters such as Deutsches Theater Berlin, Grips-Theater, and Theater an der Parkaue. Directors invite them within the independent performing arts community to be part of their productions.
In 2018, Thikwa received the renowned Martin-Linzer-Theatepreis for "outstanding performance by an ensemble in the German-speaking world" from the theater magazine Theater der Zeit, followed in 2019 by the Theaterpreis des Bundes, the German Federal Theater Prize, for "the outstanding evocation of societal diversity in the theater community with a simultaneous desire for artistic radicality."
From 1993 to 2003, Christine Vogt, Gerlinde Altenmüller, and Matthias Maedebach were the co-artistic directors of Theater Thikwa. Gerlinde Altenmüller was the sole artistic director from 2004 until her death in May 2012. Since then, Gerd Hartmann and Nicole Hummel have shared the leadership of Theater Thikwa.
