International Media Studies Vol. 7
Published by Deutsche Welle Akademie
June 2013
Leisure – too much, or too little? Travel mode: flexible Page 2
Changing holiday habits Page 2
New leisure trend: wellness Page 3
Backstage in amateur theatres Page 4
FOTO: OCSURFPIX.COM
When free time gets crowded...
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ne hundred years ago, the average work week was comprised of seventy hours. Today, in developed countries, it varies between 38 and 42 hours. Fifty years ago, one transatlantic flight ticket cost the equivalent of one year of average income, now only the salary of two weeks. Every year, according to the World Tourism Organisation, more than one billon touristic international trips take place all around the world. Also, companies produce kinky accessories for
more than 8000 different sports and physical activities. At the same time, the average citizen in the western countries uses Internet sixty hours a week, watches more than three hours of television daily and holiday trips are getting shorter. There are more overweight than malnourished people in the world. What is happening? Are we having too much or too little leisure? This dossier dives into the world of hobbies and holidays, shows trends, extremes and new options.
Stress or fun? Thousands of beach dwellers watching a surfing competition in California
No room for bullies
Guide
Combat sports is a growing trend in leisure – Even soft souls find pleasure in boxing & co By Daniel Márquez and Hamed Mossadegh
and enjoy hurting people. Bayer, now 32 years old, is a lawyer who currently works as a public prosecutor in Düsseldorf and shows that, in a sport full of Ph.D. and accomplished professionals such an image is false. “The police men I work with like my fighting hobby because I can easily analyze and explain to them the crimes that involve serious physical violence”, jokes Alex Bayer about his passion for martial arts that started when he was 8 years old. Now he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 4 times a week. “I am not a violent person. I have never been involved in a street fight in my life. What I can say of all the groups I train in, is that they are constituted by very nice and educated people”. These sports, he says, allow his mind to rest, especially after consuming work sessions with complicated cases. “Stress just fades away”.
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he knockout was so hard that Alex Bayer can’t remember how it came about. It was a grappling tournament and his opponent tossed him off the ground. He landed straight on his head and regained consciousness only after half an hour. Numbness and a violent headache invaded him. A sport physician examined him and discovered that he had sustained a dislocation of two cervical discs. The doctor put them in place on the spot, in a long and painful session in the dressing room. He needed three months of physiotherapy. Then, he was happily back in training and competition, showing what an important part of his life the sport is. In the world of combat sports, people expect to find aggressive psychopaths that look for blood
Some find peace and relax in the combat. Others, look for joy, friendship and the sense of belonging to a team. That was the case of Marcel Pino Kohnen. Now 36 years old, he majored in History, Politics and Philosophy, in Bonn University. A martial arts practitioner since his early childhood. He had a short career as a teacher and a journalist in Berlin. “I even had gotten a good position in the Bundestag”, he remembers, “but I just realize I wasn’t suitable for that career”. Instead of that he chose to open a grappling and kickboxing school. “During the worst moments of my life, sports have been one of the few things that really kept me going; if I can help people through martial arts, just as martial arts helped me, I will be happy”, he says. Hobbies may be frustrating and boring once a practitioner feels he is not learning anything new, especially when he or she is a curious person that likes to be challenged. That is the case with
“I never had a street fight in my life”
Do combat sports make people violent? There is no evidence linking violent behavior with combat sports. Combat sports do not enhance or promote violence among its prac-
PHOTO: EIRA MARTENS
Can combat sports be relaxing? Isn’ t it a contradiction? No. Scientifically, even through these kind of sports stress, adrenaline and tension are released and a positive impact on the mood may be seen in a very short term. People facing crisis, like anxiety or depression, must be encouraged to take part in endurance sports.
titioners. There may be cases of people with a prior violent record or personality that get involved with such activities, but it doesn’t mean it is generated by the sport. How do combat sports affect mental health and psycologigal well-being? People who suffer from a sense of physical insecurity get special benefit. Knowing that you can defend yourself in an extreme situation may give you more self confidence and a better image of yourself, what will affect positively every aspect of your life.
A short guide to the main disciplines in the rings and on the mats Boxing Just punches above the waistline. Amateur practitioners use gloves and headgear. Boxing has a long tradition in Germany, with close to 300 boxing clubs, many of them more than 100 years old. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu An option for those who don’t like to take blows. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu looks to, without strikes, force the opponent into submission through chokes and holds that threaten the joints-. Kickboxing Like if punches weren’t enough, kicks are also in the menu. The lightest versions allow only boxing and kicking above the waistline and the harder ones include also knee strikes and kicking the legs. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Action happens inside a cage. It combines strikes, takedowns and grappling. The fight initiates standing, like boxing, but it continues, with holds and blows, when the fighters go to the ground.
FOTO: GRACIE HUMAITA
“No evidence linking sport to violence” Bonn sports psychologist Dr. Monika von Heydebrand about fitness, mental health and self-esteem
Ines Henk, 29, a veterinarian who holds a Ph.D. and works on a laboratory, in scientific research. She has been practicing combat sports, from karate to jiu jitsu, since she was 14 years old. “It really relaxes me; I train even more during stressful periods in my job”, she says. What she like the most is the “complexity” of the sport. “There is always new techniques to learn”. Bayer, Pino and Ines Henk, they all agree that there is no room for bullies in such sports. “It requires commitment and takes time to be good at it”, says Bayer, “bullies just aren’t patient enough”. Pino agrees: “violent or abusive people don’t have what it takes”. For them, violence is not even part of the sport. “I never get emotional when I compete”, says Bayer, “is not a fight, just a sport; accidents like what happened to my neck, happen in any sports”. For Pino, having fun is the main point “if you see it as a fight, it doesn’t make sense”.
The A-Z of martial arts
Wrestling So popular that it was popular even in the ancient times. The Greek-Roman style allows only to hold the upper body; in the Freestyle it is also possible to grab the legs. By Hamed Mossadegh Not what it seems: When jiu-jitsu practioners exchange chokes they are actually having fun and follow strict safety rules
Dossier: Leisure – too much, or too little?
PHOTO: ESKENZI.WORDPRESS.COM
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June 2013
Changing holiday habits As daily schedules tend to get overloaded, people become more flexible in their free time and turn to last-minute holidays. Here we present the dominant trends in the booming business The clock is ticking: making timely choices for your holiday can save money
Travel mode: flexible
Be it last-minute or timely planned, holiday options are ever-growing By Roxana Craciun
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uper Last Minute offer: One week Mallorca for 200 Euro. Roundtrip to Cape Verde for 168 Euro. Tenerife for one week in June for only 267 Euro. Just by quickly checking some of the online traveling agency websites, one can get easily overwhelmed by an endless number of special holiday offers. The Germans are among the most active travelers in Europe. They enjoyed more holiday trips in 2012 than in previous years and reached a record of one hundred
Trend No. 1
king phone calls in their so-called leisure time. The solution to the growing pressure: last-minute bookings. Mrs. Cordula Schüler, manager of the Ltur Last Minute Office in Bonn says that her customers have become more spontaneous and turn more often to last-minute holidays than ever before: “People simply know, that with us it’s possible to fly away even on the next day.” Being more spontaneous and booking shortly before departure does not necessarily mean that trips become highly expensive. Prices differ according to the type of destination and time of departure. Holidays in July and August are usually more expensive. For instance one week in the Greek island of Crete starting the 28th of
million holiday bookings, shows a report by the German Society for Social Research (GfK) on traveling trends. With people working a higher number of hours a month, this might seem a paradox. In 2011 the number of people working on Saturdays reached 27 percent compared to 20 percent in 1992 as the German National Statistics show. Also the number of Sunday workers increased by 4,5 percent reaching 14,5 percent in the same period.
Book now, fly tomorrow On top of that, people not only work a regular 41,9 hours a week but they also stay busy checking and answering e-mails and ma-
June can be booked for 331 Euro, including flight, accommodation and breakfast. The same trip will cost 395 Euro per person with departure just one week later. Yet from a different airport and on a different date the price could be as little as 210 Euro.
Top 5 destinations The holiday duration may not play such an important role, but the destination sure does. During 2012 every third German chose to go on trips in their own country. Next ranked are Spain, Italy, Austria and also Turkey. Spain and Italy followed a relatively constant trend in their popularity in the last 5 years but Turkey is going up. In the Ltur Office in
Plan-less but happy
Leisure on the web
A young German woman about her travels without itinerary
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hen it comes to travel itineraries, there are two categories of people: those of the what-will-bewill-be-ilk and those who want to stick to the schedule. Nowadays, according to travel experts, more and more people travel just with a ticket in their hand, without prior reservation of hotels. Judy Ninghistiab, 30, an Eritrean-born German sales lady, embarked on such an exciting journey to the unknown neither with a map, a schedule nor a plan. Here’s her story: “My destination: Italy. My purpose: a personal pilgrimage to Manduria, an ancient town in Apulia. I boarded the first flight
that into Italy. Arriving at the airport of Brindisi, I was first totally lost without directions, approximately four hours away from my final destination. No one could understand English and I could not speak Italian either. I started walking through a freshly pitched road and then a car drove towards me. A Samaritan sent by God – he gave me a lift and eventually I reached Manduria. I walked through the little village. I had to walk again to find a hotel, it was a bit uncomfortable but on the other hand it was also very rewarding. I was not sitting in a tourist bus. It was also pleasant: no dust and smoke. No
Bonn city centre a higher number of travelers have requested trips to Zanzibar and Dubai lately as a new tendency for long distance destinations. Cordula Schüler says though that some destinations are also affected by social unrest. “People have become more careful. Mainly because of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey they travel less to such destinations.” The 40 year old energetic woman sells holiday dreams but she personally prefers easy and harmonious get-aways: „With my husband and son, in a bungalow in Holland, grilling and playing volleyball.” But there is still one special wish she wants to fulfill herself “to travel by boat through the Grand Canyon.”
PHOTO: PERSONAL ARCHIVE
Trend No. 2
Spontaneous: Judy Ninghistiab
noise. No vehicles, the road was all mine. I got to hotel Santa Mar-
tha. Nearby was an island named Santa Martha where I had very beautiful quiet moments, watching sunset and the full moon. I enjoyed the solemn time at the pilgrimage center. The congregation put on flowers on each other at the end of the prayers, hugged and bowed before each other. I recommend this type of “plan-less”-tourism because it is an educational experience: At the end of the day I had sores on my feet by walking in slippers. But after all, I also came closer to people, to landscape and to myself because not everything was planned ahead. It had been one of the most pleasant few weeks that really refreshed me.“
• Entertaining and funny stories about African travels. www.travelingafrica. blogspot.de • Plan, connect and share your vacation experience. www. couchsurfing.org • Wellness trends for 2012 in Germany www.beauty24.de/other/ presse/Wellness-Trends2012. pdf • Juba Wellness Center www.jubawellnesstempel.de • Wellness-sites listed by national organisation www.wellnesshotels-resorts. de
Protocol. Maryann Egbujor
Credits/Impressum: Produced by International Media Studies in collaboration with Deutsche Welle. Editorial Team: Haneen Abualrous, Roxana Craciun, Maryann Egbujor, Daniel Márquez, Hamed Mossadegh, Oana Vataselu, Rozalia Petkova. Trainers: Andrea Tapper, Peter Frommann. Bonn, June 2013
Dossier: Leisure – too much, or too little?
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June 2013
Travelling to do good By Maryann Ijeoma Egbujor
PHOTO: FOTER.COM
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Volunteering is no luxury holiday
mental fields such as sport, integration, culture and education. The length of stay ranges between 3 weeks and 12 months. “Health and education related projects are mostly opted for”, says expert Wirth. Information materials which help them prepare for their trip is critically im-
explains Wirth. Not all volunteer holiday, however, is a success, admits Wirth. Some providers are taking advantage of projects to enrich themselves and exploit communities. Thus, even with the best intentions, they sometimes do not have the infrastructure in place to support international volunteers. Nonetheless, volunteering abroad can definitely be a symbiotic beneficial relationship. “Humility is needed in volunteer job”, says Wirth . It’s a humbling experience. It can be poetic. I have watched villagers and volunteers shed tears during emotional goodbyes and witnessed personal transformations on both sides, concludes the IN-VIA expert.
PHOTO: FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET
n Germany, more than 23 million people volunteer. 35,000 per year do so in foreign countries. “Volunteering abroad has become a flourishing touristic business and a growing trend in Europe”, says Kristina Wirth, INVIA Volunteer Mission Organizer. Cologne’s Association IN VIA, a Catholic Association for Girls and Women Social Work was founded in 1898. The association was formally created in the industrial era, when many young girls and women from rural areas went into the city to find work. Today, the Organization is opened to men and women between 18 and 23 who want to volunteer at the end of their school carrier. They volunteer in the social and environ-
portant. Upon arrival, volunteers are hosted with an orientation about cultural differences and language basics. “Volunteering abroad is not a luxurious vacation” states Kristina Wirth. Volunteers must be willing to push their personal limits in order to help improve the lives of others and push developing societies forward. Some volunteers enjoy this adventure, aiming at making measurable difference in the villages with chains of dedicated volunteers over time, says Wirth. They realize in Africa for example, that it is basically different to walk 5 miles to the stream for water and survive without electricity,
Trend No. 3
Tops & Flops Popular and unpopular holiday trends
Shorter and more frequent holidays – In May 2013 Germans planned more short get-aways in one month by bridging the 4 official holidays with the weekend. Sustainable holidays – In 2013, 40 percent of the German population prefer an ecologically sustainable holiday. PHOTO: CAPEVERDEPRIVATERENTALS
More and more young people volunteer abroad in their spare time
Cape Verde, grows popular
Journey to Cape Verde – This destination is known to be the homeland of the singer Cesária Évora. Online bookings – German travelers opted for 6 percent more online bookings in 2012 than in 2011 reaching an overall of 36,4 percent. Berlin city trip – In 2012 the German capital city attracted the highest number of visitors since 2009 and was ranked the most popular city-break destination in Germany. Cruises (after the Concordia disaster) After the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank in January 2012 less travelers booked this kind of get-away.
One single long holiday a year – As holidays get cheaper and more diversified customers choose less one long-time expensive get-away as compared to shorter and more frequent journeys.
The temple of well-being By Haneen Abualrous
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ellness is among the first ten holidays and leisure preferences of Germans. In Bonn’s “Juba Wellness Centre” one gets a taste of the world of health and beauty. Sweet smelling aroma and soft music will lead your steps to a door, which is in a long passage in a four stars hotel. After entering that door, you will spontaneously feel relaxed, looking to the attractive Egyptian painting on walls and the pharaoh’s antiques that will catch your sights. A young man comes towards me smiling and relaxed, I asked him about the manager, however the surprise was, that he said: It’s me!
Patrick Maldonado, 35 years old, is the owner of Juba Wellness Center in Bonn. He says: ‘’We have more visitors from year to year, 80 percent are women’’. Wellness is a broad term; it could be defined as a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being. The number of men that visit wellness center does not develop, according to Maldonado some men consider wellness not manly enough. Nevertheless there are a few men, who come regularly to the sauna or to have back massage. On the other hand, they never go to cosmetic or face massage. What men usually do, is buying a card for women to visit the center and relax as a gift.
Trend No. 4
Wellness needs money! This is why the age group that visits wellness centers is people between 30 and 60 years. Vsiting a wellness center is not limited to high class people. One hour massage costs usually 75 euro, half an hour 35 euro. An average German woman goes to A wellness center approximately four times a year but just 20 per cent come that regularly. According to the Society for Consumer Research (GIK), the visitors of wellness center are 61 per cent life mates, 20 percent groups, 10 per cent families and 9 per cent are singles. Furthermore foreign visitors enjoy wellness during their stay in hotels. Maldonado said: ‘’Americans check in and ask immediately for a massage’’.
‘’It is not manly enough’’
Maldonado explains wellness is generally not allowed for kids under 16 years- On the other hand a soft massage for pregnant ladies is popular. But pregnant women should not use for instance sauna without doctor’s permission. The same goes for foot reflection, peeling, tanning beds. On the contrary she can do a manicure and pedicure or facial. ’The quality of wellness education can still be improved’’, Maldonado says. Finally, I asked him about the future of wellness in Germany, he said: ‘’ Hopefully the quality will increase, but the problem is to find good employees.” He finds that wellness education in Germany is bad despite the multiplicity of branches in this field. Therefore the entreprenuer wants to start his own wellness school in Bonn - as a benefit for his costumers and other people.
Countries of the Arab Spring – 38 percent of the German population were more careful in travelling to protest driven countries of the Arab Spring PHOTO: OCCITANIA.NET
The gate to living well and healthy: Beautifully designed wellness centres such as Le Hôtel Spa in Paris
Egypt falls on the charts
Holiday research in catalogues – Due to the increasing access to internet and online booking platforms, classic researching tools become outdated. Amusement parks – EuropaPark in Baden-Würtenberg ist he biggest amusement park in Germany.
Dossier: Leisure – too much, or too little?
June 2013 PHOTO: OHRENSCHMAUS THEATRE
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Applause for life By Rozalia Petkova
On the stage Nicole Niebergall (photo center): Her life experience has enabled her to act better
taken in earnest brings real value to life”, she says. The stage, Nicole says, gives her the chance to follow or develop characters instead of flatly observing them on a screen. Free time is not empty time for her. Nicole was sixteen when she started her training as an actress at the Kleines Theater of Bad Godesberg. At that stage she could have kept a steady course towards a big career but she gave up her emerging success for family life. “But that did not leave me frustrated”, pledges the happy mother and grandmother. She loves her routine and has successfully integrated theater in it. Nicole, bursting with energy, runs a house full of children, grandchildren, her four huskies and friends. While TV, a passive and popular hobby today, can steal over three hours from the life of the average German every day, theater gives her a second life. Also, Nicole concludes, theater gives actors, both amateur and professional, more confidence and vice versa. “With the years and the wisdom of living, it becomes easier to act”, she says. Nicole herself doubts that an actor with a narrow spectrum of emotions and experience could truthfully convey feelings. Her life experience, she says, has enabled her to act better.
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t times when the TV screen keeps most of us arrested on the couch in our leisure time, the stage of Ohrenschmaus Theater in Bonn sets its actors free. The stage is galantly set, not giving away the fact that the performance developing involves amateurs. The spectator is quickly drawn into the cozy room with heavy drapery, a fireplace, paintings and a small statue on the mantelpiece. An adventurous lady sits at a table in the corner watching a shiny general of full armor, vehemently marching. This is a scene from “Die Kapitalanlage’, the last premiere at the Ohrenschmaus Amateur Theater in Bonn, brought to life by a group of professional and amateur actors taking theater seriously. The two convincing actors are Nicole Niebergall, 46, and Christoph Pehla, 51 – a housewife and a handicapped ex-policeman. Nicole Niebergall is founder, director and actress at the theater. Acting, she says for her seems an adventure, very much fitting to the mind set of her character in “Die Kapitalanlage”, where she plays a fiercy amazone in an early 20th-century-setting. Escaping a falling projector aimed at her head, getting stuck in a meat eating plant, those are just two funny extremes Nicole has experienced on stage during her thirty years of acting. “A hobby
The Ohrenschmaus Theater with an amateur cast of ten people rehearses twice a week, Fridays and Sundays, on a regular basis, before and after a premiere. Its existence stretches over more than 18 years now offering one piece per year, usually with ten performances. Christoph Pehla, a fellow actor at Ohrenschmaus, is a perfect confirmation of Nicole’s take on acting. It was her who introduced the disabled former policeman to theatre. Meeting in the forest while walking their dogs, they got into talking, about acting as well. Since then, for more than twelve years, the brain aneurysm survivor, has been part of the team. Initially, it was hard for him to even speak but he noticed his new strengths – to observe more closely and to express himself through gestures. His newly found hobby, the theatre, got him started with mimicking roles, then helped him shape short answers on stage, eventually supporting his steady progress towards speaking again. He also decorates the stages. “I would not have dared take up theater as hobby but the dramatic experience rang my bells, awakened me”, he says. After the bursting of the blood vessel in his head, he only had a twenty percent chance of survival. Christoph, previously devoted to the intro-
“A hobby brings real value to life ”
For Christoph Pehla (photo) amateur theater is a life-giving hobby
vert hobbies of reading and painting, has struggled for decades to recover his physical and mental shape - the theater helped him on many different levels: “ after almost dying I wanted to live as many lives as possible.” Theater has accompanied Nicole all her life and given Christoph impetus at a much older age. For both of them it has been a lifegiving hobby. Their colleagues, no matter how entangled in their everyday lives and careers as salesmen, sextons, soldiers or confectioners, have one thing in common: like Nicole and Christoph they take their free time seriously. The play ‘Die Kapitalanlage’ of Ohrenschmaus Theater is to be performed in the fall season at 20 b, Kurfuerstr., 53115 Bonn.
The stage is set... but how? By Oana Vataselu
friends or relatives, or in the worst case scenario, the actors must pay for their flame. The group started around 20 years ago and rented
a location with the help of sponsors. Today they have only one main sponsor which provides them with the rooms and, because they
PHOTO:AACHEN THEATRE
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ecreational theatre means much more than acting. But the sweat behind the curtain remains usually in the shadow “Acting means not just interpreting roles”, says Christoph Pehla, 51, one of seven amateur actors at the theatre Ohrenschmaus in Bonn. Each actor performs on and off stage. “Each of us contributes with something to our common passion: I, for instance, do the paintings, someone else stitches our costumes, we have a writer for our plays and also a director. Then there is another actor who creates our posters and someone else is in charge with the stage and lights” continues Pehla. Sometimes they receive objects or clothes useful in plays from
German amateur theatre has a lot to offer from classical pieces to dialect oriented stages. Here a few examples: Oldie but goldie The Oberammergauer Passionsspiele is the oldest German theatre performance. First staged in 1634, has become one of the most famous passion plays in the world. Nowadays performance takes place only every 10 years. (www.passionstheatre.de)
PHOTO: OHRENSCHMAUS THEATRE
The stage is a chance for amateur actors to develop characters instead of flatly observing them on the screen.
Most peculiar theatres in Germany
Posh costumes, elaborate stage setting: Even amateur theatre groups like the ensemble in Aachen (photo) can reach the bohemian acting feeling
try to manage the theatre themselves, they not only save a lot of money but also make revenues by ticket sales. The German tax law doesn’t charge amateur theatre groups. “More than 100 000 people are engaged in the German amateur theatre scene. With up to 8000 productions annually, amateur stages reach about eight million viewers per year”, says Katrin Kellerman, spokesperson of the Association of German amateur theatres. So, what drags some people to relinquish their leisure and continue working...after work?! “For me it enhanced my self esteem. For others it is a life dream. explains amateur actor Pehla. He agrees, art requires some sacrifice. But the end could be a win-win situation.
Protecting the dialect The Niederdeutsche Bühne Rheine delights its audiences since 127 years with productions indented to protect German dialects. (www.niederdeutschebuehne.com) Acting english A nightmare for foreigners: German is really the prevailing language in Germany, even most big movies are synchronised. Therefore a handful foreign-language theatres have proven very successful. The Bonn Players which celebrated 30 years of performing English language have established themselves as part of the cosmopolitan cultural life in the Bonn-Cologne region. The productions have embraced English, Irish, Scottish, American, and Australian authors. (http://www.bpdev.de/) Entity theatre in Munich is committed to workshop principles, time to develop a play, experiment and have fun. During the summer the group performs in the open air amphitheatre in the English Garden. (www.entitytheatre. com) Turkish delight Members of the Turkish community, the biggest of its kind in Germany, founded the first and only professional turkish theatre, the Ulüm theatre in Ulm in 1998. Their musical comedies also cover serious topics such as integration, bilingualism and women‘s rights. (www.theatre-uluem.de) A niche existence Theatre EigenArt in Passau develops among others thematics dance shows for people with disabilities and organize workshops with educational purpose. (www.tanztheatreeigenart.de) Black humor If you enjoy black humor you will appreciate Mort à-della founded in 2006. Oblique and eccentric, grotesque and absurd are the plays performed at the Bonne off-theatre. (www.mort-a-della.de) Improvise or leave! Les-Bon(n)mots improvisation theatre in Bonn calls for audience participation Their motto: „When the first ice is broken, there is no stopping for spectators and crowd!“ (www.les-bonnmots.de)
Compiled by Oana Vataselu