As part of their QuerFormat workshop series, in February 2018 the Schaubühne organised ‘Begegnungen’ (Encounters): a 5-day intensive poetry and performance project for young people in cooperation with The Poetry Project e.V.. The participants were aged 14-24 and most had experience of being a refugee.
The project was led by applied theatre practitioners Karoline Schulze and Géraldine Mormin and explored everyday life in Berlin. Through theatre and writing exercises the group connected with each other and contemplated their lives in the city. Supported by two translators, participants wrote poems that captured their ideas, experiences, identities and reflections. These texts were then dramaturgically arranged by the group into a live performance for an audience of family, friends and staff members at the Schaubühne on 9th February.
Grace Holme was the assistant on the project, aiding the facilitators’ workshop planning, as well as supporting participants within rehearsals. At the beginning of the week she also led a Post-It note collective poetry exercise, which provided a catalyst for some of the participants’ further writing.
