Theatre of the People Announces Reversal of Performance
The Theatre's Trembling Rubicon
The theatricskeep rolling, yet beneath the surface,the theatre world quakes - at least in certain sections. Known for strapped budgets, there are drastic cuts across the cultural sector (and other areas such as youth and education programs). For the capital's culture, this amounts to a staggering 130 million euros alone for this year. The Volksbühne, as reported, has been asked by the Berlin Senate to slim down its expenditure by 2 million euros.
The Senate Department for Culture and Social Affairs is on a mission to save pennies - instead of brainstorming ideas for potential additional revenue streams that could aid the finance department. Amidst other austerity measures, the dissolution of the Volksbühne's theatre workshops and their integration into the 'BühnenService Berlin' is being considered. The latter, as mentioned, is Germany's largest theatre service provider, located at the Ostbahnhof, and constructs stage sets for the three opera houses, the Theater an der Parkaue, and the Deutsche Theater.
Following in the footsteps of the 2004-established Opera Foundation - when the budget situation was equally dire - the Senate has proposed transferring the Gorki Theatre, Deutsche Theater, Theater an der Parkaue, Konzerthaus, and the Volksbühne into a public-law foundation. The objective, just like the Opera Foundation, is to continue running the theatres independently in terms of their business and artistic aspects. Simultaneously, the plan is to seek synergies (keyword: administration) and centralize the workshops, as this saves finances and personnel and requires fewer subsidies from the state.
Interestingly, the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is the only Senate-managed theatre in Berlin that still boasts workshops with its own staff, its own premises, and its own infrastructure. Only the Maxim Gorki Theater - aside from the private Schaubühne - still has its own workshops and employees in the BühnenService premises.
Pushing Back
In the Volksbühne's workshops, a 1939 building originally crafted for the Volksbühne, 77 employees of various trades toil away, from designing a stage set to its production. Adding to the fold are 14 colleagues in the costume workshops, nestled within the theatre at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, all teetering on the brink of closure.
Despite the impending doom, nothing has been set in stone. Thus, the Volksbühne is once again lobbying for itself. On a Wednesday, the press was granted a tour of the Volksbühne's workshops on Thulestraße in Berlin-Pankow, offering a glance into the halycon days of theatre craftsmanship. Everywhere, people were immersed in their work. The closure of these very workshops, according to Celina Nicolay, the artistic director of operations, would spell "disaster."
The sword of Damocles hanging over the dissolution of the workshops is no novel concept for the house. For instance, Frank Mittmann highlights this in a recently published Volksbühne magazine about the workshops, adorned with the title "No Service." The defiant slogan is emblazoned with orange-glowing posters in front of the workshop and also within.
"We are the only Senate-led theatre," writes Frank Mittmann, "that still has its own workshops, and I must say, we owe that to our former Intendant Frank Castorf, who always advocated for us. It was on the brink several times, we've been through the worst stories with privatization plans and outsourcing and so on."
"It's a whole different ball game"
Frank Mittmann eloquently explains the advantage of in-house workshops, considering he, the term truly fits here, is a lifer. Frank Mittmann completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter at the Volksbühne in 1974 and headed the workshops in Thulestraße from 1987 to 2021. "The motivation of our own employees is, of course, also very important," says Mittmann. "It's just the case here that the colleagues from the workshop attend premieres or even participate themselves, for example, in the employee choir. That's a whole different connection you have to a house. You know what you're working for. And I think that also has a feedback on the quality of the work when there is identification."
Culture Senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson (CDU) received a tour of the workshops as the press did, but in March; at that time, she was still the Culture State Secretary. As Senator, she now states on our website's request that she was able to witness firsthand the highly creative and passionate work of the employees. They had expressed that "their workshops are part of their artistic identity." However, the Volksbühne, as a state-owned entity, would also need to tighten its belt in the context of budget adjustments. "The form of implementation lies in the responsibility of the Volksbühne itself," Wedl-Wilson hands the baton over.
The Volksbühne has picked up the baton. As Operating Director Celina Nicolay explained to the press present, there is already a proposal on the table. They have crunched the numbers. If the Volksbühne were to commission the Berlin stage service in the future, it would be "much more pricey." The Berlin stage service possesses free capacities due to decreased orders from other theatres, which are in cost-cutting mode by staging fewer productions. The Berlin stage service, so Nicolay, charges 60 euros per hour for its services. The Volksbühne, in contrast, can execute the task with a mere 47 euros - with all the perks that the in-house working method offers.
Furthermore, the Volksbühne needs to vacate its rehearsal rooms in Rummelsburg; the Gorki Theater also rehearses there. The lease expires in 2029. Therefore, the proposal is to build a rehearsal stage for both theatres on the state-owned property where the workshops reside, which has enough space for it. This wouldn't downgrade the theatre location in East Berlin but enhance it.
Historically speaking, a loop would be closed: When the workshops were built, a second building complex was planned, but it was not realized due to capacity issues during the war.
And such a new rehearsal stage would be in line with the vision of former Intendant Castorf and the designated Intendant Matthias Lilienthal. That's been calculated, as Operating Director Celina Nicolay emphasized, and a feasibility study is underway. If the Volksbühne (and then the Gorki) saves the "astronomical rent" of the rehearsal rooms, the new building could be realized with the saved money and occasional subsidies, ultimately saving a lot of rent in the long run. The baton, thus, has been handed back to the Culture Senator.
The Volksbühne is advocating for the preservation of its home-and-garden workshops, stating that their closure would lead to a lifestyle disruption for the 91 employees involved. Despite budget cuts in the cultural sector, the Volksbühne proposes building a rehearsal stage on its property, repurposing the space currently used by the workshops, which would save significant rent expenses in the long run.
In the spirit of previous struggles and adaptations faced by the Volksbühne, the proposed rehearsal stage could close a historical loop, as the original plan for a second building complex to house the workshops never materialized due to wartime capacity issues. A feasibility study is currently underway to determine the viability of this plan.
