G R I P STHEATERBERLIN

1969–2001

Tel.: 030/39747477 (GRIPS box office)

GRIPS THEATER BERLIN, Altonaer Straße 22, 10557 Berlin

1966 The „Berliner Reichskaba-rett“ founds the „Theatre For Child-ren in the Reichskabarett“

1969 The GRIPS story begins with itsfirst play „STOKKERLOK UND MILLIPILLI“(BRÜDER-GRIMM-PRIZE 1969)

1971 BRÜDER-GRIMM-PRIZE for„BALLE, MALLE, HUPE UND ARTUR “

1972 The Company moves to theForum Theatre and adopts the name„GRIPS“

1974 GRIPS moves into a formercinema at Hansaplatz

1990 First East-West German playafter the collapse of the Wall: „AUF DER MAUER AUF DER LAUER“

1992 First Ensemble production:„HEIMAT LOS“(BRÜDER-GRIMM-PRIZE 1992)

1994 25 year anniversary (with newproductions of „MUGNOG-KINDER“, International Colloquium, Children’sParty, „THE GRIPS-REVUE - HITSFROM 25 YEARS“ and the GRIPSBook – Theatre Stories (Volume 1 until 1994) and: CARL-VON-OSSIETZKY-AWARD givenby the International League of Hu-man Rights to Volker Ludwig andGRIPS

1975 First youth play: „DAS HÄLTSTE JA IM KOPF NICHTAUS“ (BRÜDER-GRIMM-PRIZE 1975)and beginning of the anti-GRIPScampaign

1980 First adult play: „EINE LINKE GESCHICHTE“

1985 BRÜDER-GRIMM-PRIZEfor Leonie Ossowski's „VOLL AUFDER ROLLE“

1986 First Musical: „LINIE 1“(MÜHLHEIMER DRAMATIKER-PRIZE1987)

1989 First historical play: „AB HEUTE HEISST DU SARA“

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G R I P S T H E A T R E - A S H O R T B I O G R A P H Y

1995 GRIPS and the carrouselTheatre receive the Studio Stage ofthe Schiller-Theater as a communalsecond stage. The first GRIPS produc-tion there was „VORSICHT GRENZE!“

1996 FRIEDRICH-LUFT PRIZE awar-ded to „EINS AUF DIE FRESSE“as best berlin production

1997 BRÜDER-GRIMM- PRIZE awar-ded for the entire repertoire of the1995/96 season.

1998 GERMAN YOUNG PEOPLE’STHEATRE PRIZE for Lutz Hübner’s„DAS HERZ EINES BOXERS“

1999 Grips celebrates its 30th birthday with the revue titled„DON’T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30“and three new books (The GRIPSSongbook, The Author Volker Ludwig, and GRIPS Theatre StoriesVol II 1994-99) and the INTERNA-TIONAL THEATRE INSTITUTE PRIZEON WORLD THEATRE DAY.

2001 GRIPS celebrates the thou-sandth performance of LINIE 1. Theguest of honour is the HAK-CHON-Theatre Seoul with their korean versi-on of „LINE 1“, which in February2000 has already celebrated its ownone thousandth performance.Tour of India with „LINIE 1“ and„MAX UND MILLI“ in March 2001.

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G R I P S T H E A T R E - A S H O R T B I O G R A P H Y

GRIPS THEATREA brief history1969-2001

It is hard to pin down just how longthe GRIPS Theatre has been in exi-stence. A children's theatre was for-med in 1966 in the Reichskabarett.The Company was unique becauseup to then children's theatre in WestGermany had consisted almost enti-rely of Christmas fairy tales perfor-med in an unamusing and unadven-turous way ...

GRIPS ...... however, wasn't christened GRIPSuntil May 1972 when the Companymoved out of the Reichskabarett.

a country that was particularly anti-children. In doing this, we left outthe ironical, schmaltzy, cheap balletand operetta trimmings which, in ourexperience, merely elicited squealsof delight from the adults in the au-dience.

Later in the same year, STOKKERLOKwas followed by the première of MA-XIMILIAN PFEIFERLING. As was to beexpected, the story of little Maximili-an who blackmails his family andsurroundings into child-friendly beha-viour with his ear-piercing whistlecaused fairy-tale loving child expertsto hammer us with harsh criticismbased on their own preconceived ideas:

A decision was finally made to datethe GRIPS Theatre from the premièreof STOKKERLOK UND MILLIPILLI onthe 17th May 1969. After all, thehistory of the GRIPS Theatre is thehistory of its own plays, and these began with STOKKERLOK.To us, children's theatre was the sa-me as political cabaret, a means ofaffecting social circumstances ... Ifthe political excesses of the capitalistsystem were the butt of our criticismin writing for adults, in the case ofchildren it was the fathers who beatthem, the spit and polish-crazy mo-thers, the signs beginning with "NO"(NO PLAYING, NO NOISE etc.) andanything generally unfriendly to-wards children. We were on the sideof the oppressed class of children in

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1. We rid children of the last ounceof respect they have for adults.2. We teach them cheeky behaviourthat gets them a beating at home ifthey copy it.3. We torment them by presentingthem with the sad truth of their daily lives instead of letting them drift into a blissful fairy-tale world.

However, we have yet to hear of achild making a false assessment ofits home situation through some-thing it learned at the theatre.Anyway, as an oppressed class,children are clever tacticians whoknow only too well what they canget away with and what not. Thechildren were delighted to see them-selves and their everyday problems

changed. What GRIPS children lackin power they make up for in wit.Anti-authoritarian fun reached a highnote with Rainer Hachfeld's MUG-NOG KINDER!

Ten months passed before the nextpremière, BALLE MALLE HUPE UNDARTUR. The reason was that we toogot caught up in the anti-authoritari-an movement which threatened togobble up its own sapling. We be-gan to discover theories, studied thewritings of the Kinderladen move-ment, cited Brecht, and invited theopinions of countless friends, tea-chers, and children. The play is setentirely in a proletarian milieu andfor the first time, depicts the beha-viour of a whole group of children in-

at the centre of our plays, to be ta-ken seriously and discover that thereare others in the same situation, and- the secret headline of all our pro-ductions - that the world can be

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Volker Ludwig

cluding the games they play witheach other. In the summer of 1971 we gave uppolitical cabaret, although it was stillgoing strong. But it had long sincelost its relevance for us. The politicalmovement of which we were a partand of which we felt ourselves to bethe satirical voice had broken up indisarray. We felt that children's thea-tre was the most appropriate anduseful form for us to continue with,aimed directly at a specific group.Back to basics as it were. The actorsloved children as an audience andmuch preferred performing for themthan for adults. You always knowwhere you are with children. Theyare not polite and only pay attentionif they are really interested. They

impervious to the inconsistent degre-es of affection they receive.

Ever since MAXIMILIAN PFEIFER-LING, children have inundated uswith suggestions for plays. One suchtopic was the conflict between boysand girls at school. However, our re-search was not very revealing. Allwe came up with was that "onlyboys play football and only girls playwith dolls". Then we began askingwhat they wanted to do when theyleft school. Much to the horror oftheir progressive teachers, twelveyear-old girls from Wedding all decla-red "housewife" to be their prospec-tive choice of vocation, and when as-ked why not a profession they re-plied "my husband might not like

can be full of enthusiasm until theyare ecstatic, but they can also turnaway from us and exit noisily as soon as they are bored. Political ca-baret can be performed perfectlywithout any inner commitment butnot so children's theatre. In the sum-mer of 1971, I wrote TRUMMI KA-PUTT. We had realised that it wasnot enough to try and increase child-ren's self-esteem or show that pa-rents can be at fault or unfair. Child-ren think that they are to blame iftheir parents lose their temper. Sowe have to show children why theirparents behave wrongly. Helpingchildren understand takes away theirfear, makes them freer and moreself-confident, draws them closer totheir parents, and makes them more

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it". Now we knew where to find thedifference: boys and girls were pre-pared in different ways for their rolesin life. I co-wrote a play for the firsttime with Reiner Lücker: MAN-NOMAN!. We needed a new nameas a Company for the opening nightin May 1972. Reiner's suggestion,which had also been voiced by se-

ven sufficient opportunity to talk ab-out the strong impressions these per-formances made on them. StefanReisner, a new GRIPS author, wrotea play for younger audiences in1973. His effervescent RUHE IMKARTON! caused heated debate be-cause it revived early GRIPS traditi-ons and used magical, surreal, ironicand clownlike elements, some ofwhich were "GRIPSized" and someleft as they were. This was followedsix weeks later by the equally suc-cessful première of one of the mostimportant and consequential GRIPSplays ever, EIN FEST BEI PAPADAKIS,a classical five-act play. Here, too,we had reacted to a topic that washigh on the children's request list:foreigners, or more precisely, the

veral children, was adopted and webecame the GRIPS Theatre. For us,GRIPS meant first and foremost thin-king is fun ...With the play DOOF BLEIBT DOOFwe finally got around to writing ab-out the subject that had been sugge-sted most by children: stress atschool. DOOF BLEIBT DOOF was thefirst play that had printed backupmaterial for teachers. We had longsince realised that what happenedafter the performance was just asimportant as the performance itself.The continual reports from surprisedteachers about children who sudden-ly opened up and talked about them-selves after they had seen their pro-blems portrayed on stage made itclear to us that children must be gi-

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EIN FEST BEI PAPADAKIS: Seum, Veit, Bozyel, Glaubrecht, Lehmann, Bliefert

Gastarbeiter ("guest workers") who-se children were now pouring intothe schools. It took years for us tofind the right idea for the plot. Bythe way, the final song in PAPADAKIS"Wir sind Kinder einer Erde" (We areall children of the earth) and thesong "Wir werden immer größer"(We grow bigger/stronger everyday) from RUHE IM KARTON! arethe two most successful GRIPS songsto date. Both have been published inover one hundred schoolbooks andanthologies. As time went on, theidea of performing as a sub-tenant insomeone else's theatre, the ForumTheater, became more and more un-bearable. Then someone gave methe tip to try for the former BellevueCinema at Hansaplatz. After lengthy

night of the youth play DAS HÄLTSTEJA IM KOPF NICHT AUS followed inthe autumn. It was a smash hit.Much to their astonishment, the se-condary school pupils saw themsel-ves mirrored on the stage. They oftenasked what school the kids on stageattended, although the actors weretwice their age. At the interval weheard some "that's even better thanthe movies!" and "when's the nexthalf of the film?" because they wereonly acquainted with the cinema.They even threatened to come onstage and support the teacher againstthe rector. Seventy thousand youngpeople saw this play in which, accor-ding to the Berlin Christian DemocratParty, they were incited via unwhole-some language to acts of violence.

negotiations, the improbable hap-pened: thanks to the Senator forScience and Art, the SPD-dominatedlocal council, and other helpers, wegave our first GRIPS performance inour own theatre (for which we payrent) on 30th September 1974with EIN FEST BEI PAPADAKIS. Wewere allowed to re-style the cinemato our liking, which clearly meantbuilding a thrust arena stage wherechildren in the audience, sitting around three sides of it, would lookdown and not up at the adult actorson the stage and also be able to seeeach other. In 1975, we kept oursel-ves going with Stefan Reisner's se-cond play MENSCH MÄDCHEN! inwhich three girls stick up for them-selves against one boy. The first

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The Steglitz town councillor foryouth, Friedrich, banned a guest per-formance of MENSCH MÄDCHEN! inhis district in May 1975, not becau-se of the play itself but because"members of the GRIPS Theatre mo-ved in the city's communist circles".We found this very funny indeed,and when another Steglitz councillorpronounced us "representatives ofthat whole bolshevist cultural revolu-tion" during a debate, we laughedtill we cried. From now on we wouldhear and read daily reports thatGRIPS was "communist indoctrinati-on" or "left wing agit-prop for child-ren who were mentally ill-equippedto cope with us". The Berliner Mor-genpost wrote that GRIPS plays we-re rearing "a load of political psycho-

The year 1976 began with KANNSTDU ZAUBERN, OPA?, a joint venturewritten this time by Reisner/Hach-feld. It focused on children and olderpeople, those two minority groupsoften so happily linked at the GRIPSTheatre. After many requests - espe-cially from teachers - we finally pro-duced BANANA, a play that focusedon the Third World. BANANA is anadventure play with a lot of excite-ment and subversive wit, written byRainer Hachfeld and Reiner Lücker.

In VATERMUTTERKIND at the begin-ning of 1977, we returned to theeveryday problems of our audience:divorced parents, disastrous family li-ves and the consequences for child-ren. Judging by the adult reaction,

paths, poor devils who would oneday be their own destruction, havingdestroyed other things on the way"(11.2.1976). We were soon ban-ned in all the Berlin districts run bythe CDU.When the latter then claimed thatthe members of the GRIPS Theatrewere supporters of the "Baader-Meinhof" terrorist group, I eventuallycomplied with the wishes of manyBerlin teachers and sued for revocati-on, only to lose the case at theCourt of Appeal. The verdict was ab-surd and made such a laughingstock of the CDU that their smearcampaign in 1978 turned out to beexcellent advertising for the Theatre.

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we seemed to have hit on a taboosubject. Many confused their own re-action to the play with the effect ithad on their children. The main boneof contention was that the child inthe so-called "intact", "decent" fami-ly was portrayed as being worse offthan the two children from single-pa-rent families.

Our first environment play, WASSERIM EIMER, had its première at theend of 1977. This was an educatio-nal play in Revue style with a won-derful set design by Karl-Ernst Herr-mann from the Schaubühne.

1978 saw the opening of our se-cond youth play DIE SCHÖNSTE ZEITIM LEBEN. We were very conscious

13WASSER IM EIMER: Kausch, Ahrens, Kluge

of our huge success with DAS HÄLTSTE JA IM KOPF NICHT AUS.Many young people, who had seenthis play anywhere from three to fi-ve times couldn't wait any longerand came to see plays for children.They reacted quite strongly whenthey encountered "their" actors play-ing five to six year-old children. Theresearch was easier this time. Mostyoung people had seen KOPF andwere soon prepared to trust us. Wewere inundated with stories and con-fessions and this play is even closerto reality than the first one. In the summer of 1978 I was finallyforced to write a play for five yearolds again. I had always been parti-cularly respectful of this age groupbecause they experience events on

Young People’s Theatre Festival".1980 was a terrific year for GRIPS.We asked Roy Kift to write a play forus about the disabled. The cooperati-on of our Ensemble in further develo-ping the play and adjusting it to Ger-man circumstances helped turn it in-to a worldwide success. With 215performances, STÄRKER ALS SUPER-MAN became the most successfulchi ldren's play at Hansaplatz.

EINE LINKE GESCHICHTE had its ope-ning night two months later. The lastscene was set in the beginning ofMay 1980, the première was twoweeks later in reality. The story ofthe three students who meet in1966 at a Vietnam War Rally andwhose lives we follow up to the pre-

stage more or less as real life. It'sfar easier to write for eight year oldsyou can talk to about everything af-terwards. So I looked for basic situa-tions most children would recogniseand be able to relate to. The firstone was: a child has to go to bedand doesn't want to, and the se-cond: the bigger boy is more frighte-ned than the smaller girl. Anotherone was: a shy boy is bullied by anasty one at the playground. Thesewere images I remembered from myown childhood and thought I also re-cognised in my own son. And thusMAX UND MILLI gradually began to take shape. In 1979 we celebra-ted "ten years of emancipa-tory children's theatre" with our "1st International Children’s and

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sent is also the history of its authorsand of the GRIPS Theatre itself. Andbecause the audience wants toknow how things will progress afterthe play and we do too, the last sce-ne is always set in the present. Thetime gap between the preceding sce-ne (set in 1978) and the final onegets bigger all the time, making itharder to play. To date, I have hadto think up a dozen different en-dings with my co-author Detlef Mi-chel. Year after year the audience co-mes back to see what has becomeof their and our budding dreams,and to see how we can still manageto end the play with the same last li-ne about the "incredibly strong be-ginning" of a new (hi)story of theLEFT.

ALLES PLASTIK: Grabowski, Vollbrecht, Kluge

And yet another success: the premiè-re of HEILE HEILE SEGEN in Decem-ber, which we really owe to co-author Christian Veit's daughter. Herspell in hospital just before the sum-mer break gave her father the idea.Thanks to this hit we could afford toput in nine months preparation forour third major youth play ALLESPLASTIK.

ALLES PLASTIK opened just four daysafter the brutal eviction of squattersfrom eight occupied houses, resul-ting in the death of Jürgen Rattey,one of the squatters. The play verydeliberately takes sides with thesquatter minority who, for the majo-rity of the BILD newspaper-readingsecondary schoolchildren were crimi-

In 1982 we were considering a re-make of our first environment playbut the research soon showed thatWASSER IM EIMER would have beenthe wrong play: children no longerneeded it spelled out. They knewenough about the dangers of a dyingenvironment in the meantime andwanted only one thing from us: ide-as for doing something about it.DICKE LUFT became yet another suc-cess.

Something wonderful happened inthe autumn of 1983. One of Ger-many's most prominent writers as-ked us if she could write a youthplay for GRIPS. It was Leonie Osso-wski. The play VOLL AUF DER ROLLEwas not only the first major youth

nals and no-gooders: But becausethe play portrays them as basicallyvery nice people, grateful teachersmade good use of it to counter thepolarisation in the Berlin school land-scape. A number of meetings cameabout between schoolchildren andsquatters who, to the amazement ofthe kids, turned out to be just decentpeople.

1981 also saw the "2nd Internatio-nal Children’s and Young People’sTheatre Festival". The climax wasthe guest appearance of the Werk-teater Amsterdam, whom we had al-ways admired and made friendswith when we met at the HollandFestival in 1981.

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play about neofascist tendencies(1984!) but became a legendaryexample of cooperation betweenauthor and Ensemble. 1985 broughtthe opening of JULE, WAS IST LOS?with Ilona Schulz as Jule, Dieter Lan-duris as Baby and Dietrich Lehmannas an old Boxer Dog (the first tal-king animal on a GRIPS stage, notcounting the cabaret song "Schwein-chen Plastik" from the play WASSERIM EIMER). Teachers came with theirclasses in very large numbers, sothat we were able to concentrate onpreparing a new venture - our first"Musical".

For a long time I had wanted to wri-te a play made up of lots of littlestories instead of one big one. I fi-

18 LINIE 1: Landuris, Ahrens

nally hit on the idea of the Under-ground train as a dramatic device.From the first moment the Companyheard about the LINIE 1 project, thecast and crew came regularly to tellme of their experiences in the Under-ground (U-Bahn), especially Line 1. LINIE 1 was a tremendous successand a triumph for the whole Theatre:for the Ensemble from A for ThomasAhrens to Z for Petra Zieser, for thedirector Wolfgang Kolneder, as wellas for choreographer Neva Howard,costume designer Yoshio Yabara, setdesigner Mathias Fischer-Dieskau(our set designer for ten years; ourtheatre is difficult because with theaudience on three sides it hardly al-lows space for a set), the band thatnot only arranged Birger Heymann's

In 1988/89, the play AB HEUTEHEISST DU SARA was developedover a period of fourteen months. Itis based on Inge Deutschkron'sbook, "Ich trug den gelben Stern"("I wore a yellow star", published inEnglish under the title "Outcast").We had met Inge Deutschkron in1987. Her political attitude, her jour-nalistic experience, and above all herBerlin straightforwardness andopenness provided the basis for acooperation that was both uncompli-cated and indeed, heartwarming.There were some objections to theproject within the Company.- They hadn't joined GRIPS to play ina historic costume piece. All theplays up to then had been set in thepresent.

music but added lots more themsel-ves and developed into a very creati-ve component, if not the backboneof the Ensemble, and finally thetechnical staff who helped create ashow whose technical requirementsexceeded those of all previous shows at our theatre.

So far, we have been on tour withLINIE 1 in fifteen different countries(the German cast also performs theEnglish version) e.g. to Australia(Brisbane, Melbourne), Denmark(Copenhagen), England (London),Ireland (Dublin), Israel (Jerusalem),the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Rus-sia (Moscow), India (Pune, Mum-bai) and USA (New York).

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AB HEUTE HEISST DU SARA: Lorck-Schierning, Lehmann

- The Nazi period had been rammeddown their throats at school andthey were fed up with it.- We would lose the "kids fromKreuzberg" (especially poor, raciallymixed district of Berlin).

Five days before the show opened inFebruary 1989, the "Republicans"(extreme Right Wing party with neo-fascist attitude towards foreigners)polled nearly eight per cent of thevote and were elected to the BerlinSenate for the first time. Stunned,the actors asked me "how on earthcould you have known?". GRIPSnow had the most up-to-date play inBerlin in its repertoire. One of the ni-cest things about the production isthat the "kids from Kreuzberg" were

1990 was a moving and emotiveevent for the audience, both Eastand West. There was also much libe-rating laughter. However, there wasno laughter on the 3rd/4th Octoberwhen, dodging the Reunification rig-marole, we put on guest performan-ces in Dresden. Our play remindedthe Dresdeners once again of the ho-pes they had had when the Wallcollapsed almost one year before. The other half of our cast who werenot in AUF DER MAUER AUF DERLAUER wanted to be in an "impor-tant" play too, one that focused ona major problem. Thus we came towrite our third and final environmentplay HIMMEL ERDE LUFT UND MEER.

not at all put off. On the contrary,during the first four years, sixty thou-sand Berlin schoolchildren followedthe play keenly for its full three anda half hour duration.

Reiner Lücker, co-author of sevenGRIPS plays, wanted to write a co-medy about East-West (Germany).He had hardly begun to write whenthe Wall came down. Thereupon, wewrote a play for twelve year-oldsand over which included New Year'sEve at the Brandenburg Gate, andwhich mostly aimed to give childrenin West Berlin an insight into the li-ves of children brought up in the Ger-man Democratic Republic. We agre-ed on the title AUF DER MAUER AUFDER LAUER. The première in April

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HEIMAT LOS: Nicolai, Hoppe, Kellner, Blum

In 1991 we began our cooperationwith Herman Vinck, one of the foun-der members of Werkteater Amster-dam. We decided to develop a playdealing with the subject of "hatredof foreigners". We researched fortwo or three months until we cameacross a group of youngsters withright-wing tendencies who were re-building and renovating a derelictbuilding with a social worker as aproject. From these and other rela-ted experiences, the Company collec-tively developed the play HEIMATLOS without an author in the tradi-tional sense, which was another newexperience for GRIPS. Just one year after HEIMAT LOS,Herman Vinck's second project ope-ned at GRIPS: KLOSS IM HALS, a

many, which proved to be a hit parti-cularly with young people. Apartfrom the many positive reviews, cri-tics complained - as they have beendoing for the last twenty-five years -that children and young people couldmisunderstand the play and find itmuch too long as well. They can'tseem to stop. What do they thinkwe have been doing for the lasttwenty-five years?Two months later we saw a smallmiracle: BOSANA, an Ensemble pro-duction with three Bosnian and twoGRIPS actors. Again, a play that isvery direct, very authentic and poe-tic, and extremely well received bythir teen year-olds and over.We celebrated our 25th GRIPS anni-versary with a new production of

theatre mosaic dealing with the sub-ject of anorexia and eating disordersin general, illness induced by the ci-vilised world, which we found outthrough our research work to bealarmingly widespread and then had this confirmed through ourclose contact to our audience. Four years after Thomas Ahrens hadperformed the Swedish play ALGOTSTORM (his GRIPS version was cal-led STURM UND WURM), he wrotea sequel called STURM UND WURMUNTERWEGS. It was the first premiè-re of a play for fives and over atGRIPS for eight years.The year 1994 began with DIE MO-SKITOS SIND DA, our elaborate uto-pian-musical comment on the yearof the nineteen elections in Ger-

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Rainer Hachfeld's MUGNOG KINDER!.The play worked for children just as ithad done twenty-five years earlier.

More Space1994 – 2001:A solution at last in the autumn of1994 : the GRIPS Theatre was exten-ded and converted to the tune of fiveand a half million German marks. Thisfinally put an end to the increasinglydisastrous conditions under which fiftyof us tried to run an Ensemble Reper-toire Theatre in a former cinema withno extra rooms. Even the struggle tobe considered eligible for allocation ofGerman State Lottery funds tookyears. Six politicians distribute thesefunds somewhat high-handedly andour case was threatened by fierce resi-

theatregoers that we rewarded withtwo premières. A year later (Septem-ber 1995) we took over the Schiller-Theatre Werkstatt as a second venue,an extra stage belonging to the oldSchiller Theatre building that was clo-sed down. The location seats 90 peo-ple.The Schiller-Werkstatt is a gift and ablessing for GRIPS. When you have tofill a house with 350-460 seats to ca-pacity every day, a base to experi-ment and perform little gems of a mo-re specific and softer nature can be amental lifesaver, not only for the play-ers.New Plays, New AuthorsThirty-two productions have emergedfrom the GRIPS Theatre (including the

stance from one particular individualin Bonn. I finally marched into thelobby of the Berlin Parliament andtold every MP I vaguely knew justhow thrilled I was to be able to chuckthat perpetually underfinanced GRIPSplace to make ten times as much pro-ducing musicals, that it would have tobe run illegally from now on becausethe Senat didn't want to keep itgoing, and that after twenty-five yearsI was fed up with it anyway... and soon. In the end I almost believed it myself. Four weeks later the funding application was approved.The Kultursenat allowed us to use theabandoned Schloßpark Theatre inSteglitz during the three-month reno-vation period. The people in thedistrict were grateful and constant

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Werkstatt) in the last seven years, six-teen of which were premières, and fi-ve German premières. Two new au-thors, Lutz Hübner and Anja Tucker-mann, were each responsible for twoor three premières. Our eternal searchfor new writing talent had been fruit-less up to then except for a few one-offs. We finally scored here too! Un-der our wing, Lutz Hübner, actor, di-rector and established playwright, de-veloped into a successful GRIPS dra-matist for young people and AnjaTuckermann let herself be spiritedaway from writing prose to plays forchildren.Although the up-and-coming drama-tists were not the only ones wearing afeather in their cap. BELLA, BOSSUND BULLI for people over five (De-

„LINIE 1“, called „MELODYS RING“,(central theme: young refugees inBerlin) opened in October 2000 tothe accustomed ovations and will cer-tainly embellish our repertoire formany years to come. The same canalso be said for the „studio produc-tions in the Schiller-Theater-Werkstattabout „GANZ GROSSE PAUSE“ a playabout school truants. (Feb 2001)

Travelling with GRIPSSuitable to the spirit of the times,GRIPS has been drawn towards theEast over the last few years. It beganwith performances of LINIE 1 in theKulturpalast in Prague in 1994 andended with guest performances ofVORSICHT GRENZE! in Eskisehir (Tur-key), Warsaw (1998), Estonia, Lat-via and Lithuania (1999),Russia (2001).

cember 1995) became the most suc-cesful children's play since STÄRKERALS SUPERMAN in 1980. Then RainerHachfeld, who hadn't written any-thing new for GRIPS since 1979, lan-ded the biggest coup since LINIE 1with EINS AUF DIE FRESSE (aboutviolence in schools). These triumphsare all the more remarkable becausethey are not the result of the latesttrends but of being close to what tou-ches our audience.Only CAFÉ MITTE experienced a slightdrawback. It simply wasn't quite rea-dy when the time came to present itto the critics. In the meantime, CAFÉMITTE is having a successful run. It isperformed regularly, was chosen forthe "5th Children’ and Young People'sTheatre Festival", and invited to the"Mülheim Theatre Festival". The new

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BELLA, BOSS UND BULLI: Prahl, Giese ASRA – DIE VON GEGENÜBER:Ivanov

CAFÉ MITTE: Blankenburg, Veit, v. Lenski, Schwering-Sohnrey, Schubert, Hanser

Thomas Ahrens darted around Kara-chi, Lahore, Kalkutta and Delhi withSTURM UND WURM and got as far asLisbon with STURM UND WURM UN-TERWEGS. But what really topped thebill was Bombay in autumn 1996.Thomas and I attended the "Comingto GRIPS with India" Festival organi-sed by Sanjna Kapoor's Prithvi Thea-tre to celebrate ten years of the Indi-an GRIPS movement. There were pro-ductions of GRIPS adaptations in fivelanguages, including DICKE LUFT inMarathi, MUGNOG-KINDER! in Kanna-da, as well as the première of a playby Ranga Godbole about the tensionbetween Hindus and Muslims in Bom-bay. The most recent highlight wasour mini-tour of India with LINIE 1 andMAX UND MILLI in March 2001.

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EINS AUF DIE FRESSESchubert, v. Lenski

Awards and AnniversariesThe CARL VON OSSIETZKY MEDAL be-stowed on Volker Ludwig and theGRIPS Theatre at the end of 1994 isthe highest honour we have ever re-ceived. Two years later we were unex-pectedly honoured with a special prizefrom the GERMAN CULTURAL AWARD(20.000,- DM) which we had neverheard of until then (patrons: Kohl andStoiber). It snowballed after that. TheFRIEDRICH LUFT PRIZE from the Berli-ner Morgenpost for the best annualproduction went to „EINS AUF DIEFRESSE“. The BRÜDER GRIMM PRIZEfrom the Land Berlin (the fifth since1969!) went to five productions inthe 1996/97 season: „BELLA, ASRA,NEBENAN, BOXER and FRESSE“. LutzHübner was awarded the GERMANYOUTH THEATRE PRIZE (Federal Mini-stry for Family Affairs) in 1998,

„EINE LINKE GESCHICHTE“ in 1995,ten years of „LINIE 1“ in 1996, the400th performance of „EINE LINKEGESCHICHTE“ 1988, ten years of „ABHEUTE HEISST DU SARA“ in February1999. Not forgetting that GRIPS was30 years old in 1999 and celebratedwith the revue „TRAU KEINEM ÜBER 30“.Finally in April 2001 GRIPS celebratedthe one thousandth performance of „LINIE 1“. The guest of honour wasthe HAK-CHON-Theatre Seoul with theirkorean version of „LINE 1“, which inFebruary 2000 had already celebratedits own one thousandth performance.

From: Volker Ludwig: "Erinnerungen und Anek-doten", in: Das GRIPS-Buch. Theatergeschich-ten. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, and: DasGRIPS-Buch. Theatergeschichten, Volume 2(1994-1999), GRIPS Theater Berlin 1999.

which was followed by the JAN DOR-MAN PRIZE for „VORSICHT GRENZE!“awarded in Poland for the best foreignguest performance. The most recentaward was the annual WORLD THEA-TRE DAY PRIZE from the InternationalTheatre Institute (ITI), presented toVolker Ludwig and the GRIPS Theaterin 1999.Anniversaries, however, are a differentkettle of fish. They just happen orthey're a reward for keeping the ballrolling. As far as people are concer-ned, anniversaries always imply ad-vancing age . However, GRIPS is morethan a community of people thatchanges with time: GRIPS is an idea,a state of mind, a spirit, selfless, time-less and thus ageless. We'd just liketo make that point here. When we ce-lebrate an anniversary there are no re-grets or apologies: fifteen years of

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MELODYS RINGSeidler, Holicki, Hiller, Klink

GANZ GROSSE PAUSEEngelhardt, Holicki

The GRIPS BookTHEATRE STORIESVolume 1 (1969-1994)Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994 20,- C A glimpse behind the scenes...A history of the world-famous theatre forchildren and young people spread over336 pages, it includes hundreds of pho-tographs (some unpublished to date), ca-ricatures by Rainer Hachfeld, memoriesand anecdotes by Volker Ludwig, andcontributions by theatre people from allover the world... The plays, the premières, selected sce-nes, Birger Heymann songs, rave noticesand bad reviews, triumphs and smearcampaigns. A book to browse throughand reminisce, a reference book, andone that will make you laugh and beamazed."This book is one of the best a theatrehas ever produced about itself." (SFB)

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And the supplementary volume:The GRIPS BookTHEATRE STORIESVolume 2 (1994-1999)GRIPS Theatre, Berlin 1999Volume 2 (120 pages) 7,80Volume 1 (336 pages) 13,-Volume 1 and 2 combined 18,-

An illustrated documentation of five ex-citing years of change and the unexpec-ted in the life of GRIPS: new premises,new authors, endless anniversaries anddistinguished awards. And what's more,Volker Ludwig lets out a secret aboutGRIPS on page 49...

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GRIPS-Productionsfrom 1969 to 2001

WP = World PremièreGP = German Première

EP = European PremièreNP = New Production

P = Première

1969 Stokkerlok und Millipilli (WP: 17.5.) by Rainer Hachfeld and Volker Ludwig1969 Maximilian Pfeiferling (WP: 5.11.) by Carsten Krüger and Volker Ludwig1970 Mugnog-Kinder! (WP: 2.5.) by Rainer Hachfeld1971 Balle, Malle, Hupe und Artur (WP: 14.3.) – Ensemble production1971 Trummi kaputt (WP: 18.11.) by Volker Ludwig1972 Mannomann! (WP: 31.5.) by Volker Ludwig and Reiner Lücker1972 Maximilian Pfeiferling (NP: 1.12.) by Carsten Krüger and Volker Ludwig1973 „Doof bleibt doof“ (WP: 16.2.) by Uli Gressieker, Volker Ludwig and Reiner Lücker1973 Ruhe im Karton! (WP: 23.10.) by Stefan Reisner1973 Ein Fest bei Papadakis (WP: 10.12.) by Volker Ludwig and Christian Sorge1974 Die Ruckzuckmaschine (WP: 10.6.) by Reiner Lücker and Stefan Reisner1974 Nashörner schießen nicht (WP: 6.10.) by Volker Ludwig and Jörg Friedrich1975 Mensch Mädchen! (WP: 28.2.) by Stefan Reisner1975 Trummi kaputt (NP: 18.4.) by Volker Ludwig1975 Das hältste ja im Kopf nicht aus (WP: 18.9.) by Volker Ludwig and Detlef Michel1976 Kannst du zaubern, Opa? (WP: 20.2.) by Stefan Reisner and Rainer Hachfeld1976 Banana (WP: 10.9.) by Rainer Hachfeld and Reiner Lücker1977 Vatermutterkind (WP: 4.3.) by Volker Ludwig and Reiner Lücker1977 ... und raus bist du! (WP: 7.6.) by Christian Veit, Wolfgang Kolneder and Ensemble1977 Wasser im Eimer (WP: 16.12.) by Reiner Lücker and Stefan Reisner1978 Mannomann! (NP: 10.2.) by Volker Ludwig and Reiner Lücker1978 Die schönste Zeit im Leben (WP: 24.5.) by Volker Ludwig and Detlef Michel1978 Max und Milli (WP: 3.11.) by Volker Ludwig1979 Ein Fest bei Papadakis (NP: 9.2.) by Volker Ludwig and Christian Sorge1979 Banana (NP: 4.5.) by Rainer Hachfeld and Reiner Lücker1979 Spaghetti mit Ketchup (WP: 14.12.) by Rainer Hachfeld1980 Stärker als Superman (WP: 7.3.) by Roy Kift

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1980 Eine linke Geschichte (WP: 23.5.) by Volker Ludwig and Detlef Michel1980 Heile heile Segen (WP: 5.12.) by Volker Ludwig and Christian Veit1981 Alles Plastik (WP: 26.9.) by Volker Ludwig and Detlef Michel1981 Mensch Mädchen! (NP: 11.12.) by Stefan Reisner1982 Dicke Luft (WP: 23.4.) by Volker Ludwig and Reiner Lücker1982 Friede Freude Pustekuchen (WP: 27.11.) by Reiner Lücker and Stefan Reisner1983 Ruhe im Karton! (NP: 16.9.) by Stefan Reisner1983 Der Spinner (WP: 16.12.) by Volker Ludwig and Henning Spangenberg1984 Voll auf der Rolle (WP: 19.4.) by Leonie Ossowski1984 Medeas Kinder (P: 9.11.) by Per Lysander and Suzanne Osten1985 Der Drück ist los (WP: 14.2.) by Ulrike Haß1985 Die Prüfung (P: 21.3.) by Hans Galli - GRIPS STUDIO1985 Hart im Nehmen (WP: 21.6.) by Peter Huth1985 Jule, was ist los? (WP: 22.11.) by Jörg Friedrich1986 Töchter (P: 26.1.) by Catherine Hayes - GRIPS STUDIO1986 Linie 1 (WP: 30.4.) by Volker Ludwig1987 Max und Milli (NP: 30.1.) by Volker Ludwig1987 Ewig und drei Tage (WP: 3.12.) by Leonie Ossowski1987 Der Messias (GP: 11.12.) by Barlow/Kelly/Hough1988 Schaschlik (WP: 17.8.) by Jockel Tschiersch - GRIPS STUDIO1988 Heile heile Segen (NP: 9.10.) by Volker Ludwig and Christian Veit1988 Verliebt, verlobt, Verbrecherin (WP: 5.11.) by Felix Mitterer, Dieter Landuris a. o. -

GRIPS STUDIO1989 Ab heute heißt du Sara (WP: 9.2.) by Volker Ludwig and Detlef Michel1989 Stokkerlok und Millipilli (NP: 12.5.) by Rainer Hachfeld and Volker Ludwig1989 Sturm und Wurm (P: 9./10.9.) by Barbro Lindgren and Cecilia Torudd - GRIPS STUDIO1990 Auf der Mauer auf der Lauer (WP: 27.4.) by Reiner Lücker and Volker Ludwig

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1990 Himmel Erde Luft und Meer (WP: 8.12.) by Volker Ludwig1991 Rudimentär (P: 27.5.) by August Stramm - GRIPS STUDIO1991 Haben Sie ein I? (P: 12.6.) by Florian Felix Weyh1991 Orlando Nunez oder Die Firma verzeiht einen Augenblick des Wahnsinns (P: 13.9.)

by Rodolfo Santana - GRIPS STUDIO1991 Spaghetti mit Ketchup (NP: 11.10.) by Rainer Hachfeld1992 Heimat los (WP: 29.4.) – Ensemble production1992 Wannecke (WP: 8.5.) by Wolfgang Graetz and Reiner Lücker -

GRIPSBOGEN (formerly known as GRIPS STUDIO)1992 Frank & Stein (P: 12.11.) by Ken Campbell - GRIPSBOGEN1992 Der Papst und die Hexe (GP: 1.12.) by Dario Fo1992 Freiheit und Abenteuer - Die Musiker schlagen zurück (WP: 26.12.) - Ensemble production1993 Sizwe Bansi ist tot (P: 19.3.) by Athol Fugard - GRIPSBOGEN1993 Kloß im Hals (WP: 28.5.) – Ensemble production1993 Stärker als Superman (NP: 3.9.) by Roy Kift1993 Sturm & Wurm unterwegs (WP: 19.9.) by Thomas Ahrens1994 Die Moskitos sind da (WP: 21.2.) by Volker Ludwig1994 Bosana (WP: 28.4.) – Ensemble production - GRIPSBOGEN1994 Mugnog-Kinder! (NP: 17.5.) by Rainer Hachfeld1994 Die geschlagenen Eltern oder: Die Wissenschaft über dem Kind (WP: 19.6.)

- A Textcollage, selected by Dietrich Lehmann -GRIPSBOGEN1994 Die GRIPS-Revue - Hits from 25 Jahren (WP: 28.6.) by Volker Ludwig, Birger Heymann a. o.1994 Wahrlich, ich sage euch... (GP: 4.11.) by Patrick Barlow - SCHLOSSPARK-THEATER1994 Gestrandet vor Guadeloupe (P: 11.9.) by Hans Zimmer - SCHLOSSPARK THEATER1995 Lotte geht flöten (WP: 3.3.) Ensemble production1995 Vorsicht Grenze! (GP: 19.5.) by Tini Cermak, Andreas Moldaschl, Alvaro Solar - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1995 Die Moskitos sind da (NP: 11.10.) by Volker Ludwig

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1995 Bella, Boss und Bulli (WP: 1.12.) by Volker Ludwig1996 Asra - die von gegenüber (WP: 19.1.) by Anja Tuckermann1996 Nebenan (P: 13.4.) by Michael Ramloese - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1996 Das Herz eines Boxers (WP: 19.10.) by Lutz Hübner1996 Eins auf die Fresse (U. 12.11.) by Rainer Hachfeld1997 Indian Curry (EP: 17.4.) by Chandrashekhar Phansalkar - SCHILLER WERKSTATT1997 Auf der Mauer auf der Lauer (NP: 4.9.) by Reiner Lücker and Volker Ludwig 1997 Valley Song (GP: 21.11.) by Athol Fugard - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1997 Café Mitte (WP: 4.12.) by Volker Ludwig1997 Freiheit & Abenteuer (WP: 26.12.) – Ensemble production1998 Komm, wir knutschen (WP: 13.3.) by Anja Tuckermann1998 Alles Gute (WP: 19.11.) by Lutz Hübner1999 Marie (GP: 25.2.) by Mats Wahl - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1999 „Trau keinem über 30“ (WP: 12.5.) by Volker Ludwig, Birger Heymann a. o. 1999 Kein Feuer ohne Kohle (P: 4.6.) by Peter Hathazy - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1999 Auf der Kippe (WP: 1.10.) by Herman Vinck/Eva Blum - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT1999 Max und Milli (NP: 26.10.) by Volker Ludwig 1999 Projekt Neuer Mensch (WP: 4.12.) by Stefan Fischer-Fels/Dietrich Lehmann2000 David und Lisa (P: 26.1.) by James Reach/Th.I.Rubin2000 Schlag auf Schlag (WP: 28.9.) by Eva Blum/Herman Vinck - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT2000 Melodys Ring (WP:20.10.) Musical by Volker Ludwig/Birger Heymann2000 ... aber bitte mit Sahne! (P: 15.12.) Die Eckart- Hachfeld-Revue2001 Ganz grosse Pause (WP: 22.2.) by Anja Tuckermann & Ensemble - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT2001 Lulatsch will aber (P: 28.2.) by Manuel Schöbel - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT2001 Heile heile Segen (NP: 14.6.) by Volker Ludwig/Christian Veit2001 Hallo Nazi (WP: 9.11.) by Monoblock - SCHILLER-WERKSTATT2001 Flo Co (WP 16.11.) by Thomas Ahrens

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Productions of GRIPS-Plays in other countries:

ARGENTINA (Cordoba, San Juan)AUSTRALIA (Bathurst, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Carlton)AUSTRIA (Bregenz, Graz, Klagenfurt, Vienna, Linz, Villach, Innsbruck, Salzburg)BELGIUM (Antwerp, Brussels, Liège)BRAZIL (Curitiba, Porto Allegre, San Salvador de Bahia, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro)CANADA (Vancouver, Manitoba, Montreal, Alma, Vanier, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Quebec)CHILE (Santiago de Chile)CYPRUS (Nicosia)DENMARK (Copenhagen, Svendborg, Aarhus, Hellerup)ECUADOR (Quito)ENGLAND (London, York, Liverpool)ESTONIA (Tallinn)FINLAND (Helsinki, Lahti, Tampere, Raisio, Pori, Rauma, Kemi)FRANCE (Paris, St. Quentin)GDR (Dresden, 1987; Magdeburg, 1988; Frankfurt/Oder, 1989; Halle 1988; Rostock, 1990)GREECE (Athens, Rhodos, Saloniki)HONGKONGHUNGARY (Debrecen)ICELAND (Reykjavik)INDIA (Haiderabad, New-Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Calcutta, Bombay)INDONESIA (Djakarta)IRELAND (Dublin, Kilkenny)ISRAEL (Tel Aviv)ITALY (Milan, Siena, Brixen)JAPAN (Nagoya)

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(Former)-YUGOSLAVIA (Serbia: Subotica, Novi Sad; Slovenia: Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Kranj; Croatia: Zagreb, Varazdin, Rijeka, Virovitica)KENYA (Nairobi)LATVIA (Riga)LITHUANIA (Vilnius)LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette)MADAGASCARNEW ZEALAND (Wellington, Berlington)NETHERLANDS (Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Groningen, Leiden, Pey-Echt)NORWAY (Oslo, Mo i Rana, Tröndelag, Trondheim)MEXICO (Guadalajara, Mexico City)PAKISTAN (Karachi)PERU (Lima)PHILLIPINES (Manila)PORTUGAL (Lisbon, Porto)SCOTLAND (Glasgow)SOUTH KOREA (Seoul)SPAIN (Barcelona)SRI LANKA (Colombo)SWEDEN (Lund, Stockholm, Hälsingborg, Norrköping, Malmo)SWITZERLAND (Baden, Basle, Berne, Fribourg, Lucerne, Bremgarten, St. Gallen,Zürich, Schlarigna, Münchwilen)TURKEY (Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Levent)USA (Atlanta, Long Beach, New York, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, Northampton) LINIE 1 in Seoul/Südkorea

GRIPS-tours to otherparts of the world

Dresden (1988 / Dresdner Tage der zeit-genössischen Musik 1990, 1994) Dublin (IRL, International Theatre Festival1986)Duisburg (Dusiburger Akzente 2001)Eindhoven (NL)Esch (L)Eskisehir (TR, 4.Eskisehir Festival 1998)Essen (Theater der Welt 1991)Esslingen a. N. (Kultursommer 1993)Frankfurt/M. (Experimenta, 1975)Genoa (I)Göteborg (S)Graz (A)Halle (1988/9. Werkstatt-Tage 1994)The Hague (NL)Hambach (Internationales Theaterfestival,1992)Hamburg (Schauspielhaus, amnesty inter-national, 1995)Hasselt (B)Helsinki (SF)Jekaterinburg (RUS)Jerusalem (IL, Israel Festival 1988)Karachi (PK)Kerkrade (NL)Klaipeda (LIT)

Apenrade (DK)Aarhus (DK)Antwerp (B)Amsterdam (NL, Holland-Festival 1981)Arnheim (NL)Atlanta (USA)Basle (CH)Berlin (Berliner Theatertreffen 1976, Deut-sches Theater 1990, 1st Children’s- undYoung People’s Theatre Festival 1991, 3rdChildren’s- und Young People’s TheatreFestival 1995, 4th Children’s- und YoungPeople’s Theatre Festival 1997, BerlinerFestwochen 1997, 5th Children’s- und Young People’s Theatre Festival 1999)Bergen (N)Bonn (Berliner Kulturtage 1990)Bombay (IND) 2001Bregenz (A)Brisbane (AUS, Expo’88)Brussels (B)Calcutta (IND)Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt, 1988/Begegnungen 1993)Copenhagen (DK)Delhi (IND)Dreieich (Starke Stücke 1994)

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Konstanz (Triangel 1997)Lahore (PK)Lisbon (P)London (GB)Los Angeles (USA)Ludwigsburg (Internationale Festspiele 1997)Luxemburg (L)Lyon (F)Maastricht (NL)Milan (I)Malmö (S)Melbourne (AUS, Spoleto-Festival, 1988)Moscow (SU, 1991)Mülheim (Theatertage 1987, 1998)Munich (Schauburg 1998)Nanterre (F)New York (USA, Pepsico-Summerfare, 1988)North Rhine Westfalia (Traumspiele 1997)North Rhine Westfalia (Traumspiele 2000)Odense (DK)Omsk (RUS)Oslo (N)Paris (F)Perm (RUS)Philadelphia (USA)Poona (IND), 2001

Prague (CS)Recklinghausen (Ruhr-Festspiele, 1986)Rheinland Pfalz (Kultursommer 2000)Riga (LET)Rome (I)Rotterdam (NL)Sittard (NL)Stockholm (S)Stuttgart (Theater der Welt, 1987)Tallin (EST)Tampere (SF)Tartu (EST)Tingleff (DK)Tondern (DK)Trieste (I)Turin (I)Turku (SF)Turnhout (B)Utrecht (NL)Valmiera (LET)Vienna (A, Vienna Festwochen 1987,1990)Vilnius (LIT)Warsaw (PL, Korczak 1998, 1999, 2000)Weert (B)Zurich (CH)

Gastspiel LINIE 1 und SARA in Moskau

What is GRIPS ? needs, problems and desires of its audi-ence and create sensitive lively playswhere audiences see themselves mirro-red. The plays can help them to developtheir social imagination, and better un-derstand their environment with a viewto changing it.Today, GRIPS performs for children, young people and adults. GRIPS has pro-duced 60 new plays which have seenover 1500 productions in 40 languages- it seems that the basic problems ofchildren and young people are the sameall over the world ...

GRIPS is...... Hope:"Not to give up, always have faith inthat last grain of common sense, and -hardest of all - try and develop somekind of positive outlook." (Volker Ludwig)

The word „Grips“ in the northern Ger-man dialect means "ability to understandquickly". „Grips“ is reason that incorpo-rates wit; it is a way of thinking that isfun, enjoyable; ("nous" is a similar ex-pression in the north of England).

GRIPS is...... also the name we gave our theatre. Itall started during the student movementwith a children's theatre, an innovationat the time in West Germany because itperformed realistic plays "for people of 5and over" set in the present. After yearsof animosity from critics and conservati-ve politicians, GRIPS managed to esta-blish itself on the German stage and isnow internationally renowned.The GRIPS Theatre did not invent a newaesthetic style. Elements of its style ran-ge from folk theatre to political cabaretof the twenties and Bertold Brecht. Whatmade it unique was the method:GRIPS tries to recognise and grasp the

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"... not to let children leave the theatrefeeling defeated with no way out. We al-ways try to instil some hope without ha-ving to lie at the same time. As long aspeople are still interested in a problem,there's hope..." (Rainer Hachfeld)

... Hermann„Hermann is my favourite character in LINIE 1. He's eighty years old, fourth floor, no heating, six marks a day to liveon; six marks for food, drink, clothes,shaving stuff, education, luxury goodsand a little something for the future.When he gets a fit of coughing, a fif-teen-year old girl asks him, „Does it hurtall the time?“, and he replies: „Mychild, if you wake up in the morning andnothing hurts, you're dead!“. Then hesings „It's Wonderful to Be Alive“.“ (Ivan Nagel)

high standard of perfection. Martial lawwas lifted and the theatre opened again.Something quite unusual happened atthe very first performance. AlthoughMORMOLIS had passed the censor with-out any difficulty as a harmless child-ren's play, it turned out to be the mostpolitical of all our productions. The woo-den box with the funny name became asymbol of resistance. Both children andadults reacted very strangely: they prote-sted, they screamed and they clappedjust as if they were at a demonstration.When the General came and tried to de-stroy the box, the children yelled: "Gene-ral, where are your tanks?". Each perfor-mance provoked incredible outbreaks ofanger and enthusiasm." (Xenia Kaloge-ropoulou)

... Contradiction:"The most appealing contradiction I haveever found in a theatre: GRIPS is entirely

... Revolution"The first play was MUGNOG-KINDER!(M0RMOLIS in Greek). That was in No-vember 1973 when the military Juntawas still in power. The students occupiedthe Polytechnical College a few days be-fore the première. An appeal broadcastfrom an underground radio station forpeople to take a stand against the Juntareceived an enthusiastic reaction in Athens. On the 17th November the streets were thronged with people andbarricades were built. Tanks attacked theCollege during the night and the revoltended in a blood bath. Martial law wasimposed and the theatre was closed. Allwe could do was continue rehearsingwhile the tanks rolled past the theatreoutside. Now and then we heard shotsbeing fired and people soon came loo-king for refuge in the auditorium. Wewent on rehearsing in front of this audi-ence that had sought safety and the per-formance began to take on an unusually

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Volker Ludwig and yet each individualmember of the GRIPS team seems to bethe whole theatre too. Or to romanticizeit in a childlike way: all for one and onefor all." (Manuel Schöbel)

... Totally naiv:"We began very simply, knowing thatthe principles of the theatre are the sa-me for people of all ages. Our cabaretbackground left us no other choice but todeal with the real world and the pro-blems of our public." (Volker Ludwig)

... Laughing and crying:"Laughing and crying in the audienceshould be as normal as it was in Shakes-peare's time. The audience must be ableto recognize themselves with all theirproblems, fantasies and dreams, all their

de down" (Dietrich Lehmann)... Weapon:"Art as a dart not an apple tart" (Dietrich Lehmann)

... Mutmach-theatre:"'Mutmach-theatre' (theatre that instilshope and inspires courage) is my favou-rite term for GRIPS." (Volker Ludwig)

... Dialogue:"GRIPS has introduced a new element tothe world of children's theatre that putschildren themselves at the core of the ac-tion, takes the contents of the play fromthe world of children, and creates a po-werful dialogue between the stage andthe auditorium. The GRIPS performanceshave just reconfirmed that. It's the samewith our productions in Israel." (Razi Amitai)

anger and desires. Performances shouldbe an event - like a football final if youlike. Everyone knows the rules, the ten-sion is at fever pitch, the audience laughand shake in their shoes, spur the play-ers on, jump for joy and bite their nails.The arena-like stage heightens this sha-red experience, since the spectators seeboth the players and each other."(Volker Ludwig)

... Imagination:"The performance should, of course, con-tinue to affect people afterwards and firetheir imagination - not an illusory fantasythat compensates but a subversive socialimagination that gives them couragewhen they need it." (Volker Ludwig)

... Standpoint:"Take the children as they are, takethem on a journey and turn things upsi-

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... Responsibility:"We address a specific audience and ha-ve an enormous responsibility. We haveto take into account that children leavethe theatre with very strong impressions,which means that we must take them in-credibly seriously." (Volker Ludwig)

... Utopia:„If we can't give children and youngpeople any hope, we should not be writing plays for them that deal with pro-blems. We try to be honest and not du-pe them. Nor do we say anything wedon't believe in ourselves. It would nor-mally be a paradox for a realistic play tohave a positive ending but that's precise-ly the balance we have to strike in eachplay. We call this kind of ending "concre-te utopia": momentary solutions that,although not always put into practice,are possible in the real world, and get

... Continue:"People are constantly being confrontedwith dreadful new problems. This is whe-re our material comes from. No matterwhat problems arise, we will continue toaddress them and create new plays. Aslong as there are children and youngpeople, we will be there in the theatrefor them...". (Volker Ludwig)

... Interference:"What's going to happen next? Whoknows? What we'll be up to in the futu-re is much easier to say: we'll continueto interfere with every possible means atour disposal, regardless of what happensnext." (Volker Ludwig)

children and young people to activatetheir own imagination and pluck up theircourage.“(Volker Ludwig)

... Fun:"A visit to GRIPS is not just an excitingexperience for children and young peo-ple, or indeed for the teachers who areobliged to accompany their pupils. Not atall, sharing this experience in GRIPS atten o'clock in the morning with schoolclasses can be double the fun. You canenjoy the play and the lively performan-ces of young actors and actors still young at heart, and at the same timeexperience how the GRIPS Ensemblestrikes the right chord in the youthful au-dience, sensing their feelings like a seis-mograph." (Petra Haffner)

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☞ GRIPS THEATER✍ Altonaer Str. 22 / 10557 Berlin (District: Mitte)

e-mail: info@grips-theater.de / Homepage: www.grips-theater.deDirectly at Subway stationHansaplatz (U9), 5 Min. on foot from S-Bahn Station Bellevue, Bus 123 and 341Administration: ☎ 030 397 47 40

☞ GRIPS-Studio Stage: The SCHILLER-THEATER-WERKSTATTBismarckstr. 110, Berlin-Charlottenburg5 Min. on foot from Subway Station Ernst-Reuter-Platz (U 2)Ticket Reservations for performances in the SCHILLER-THEATER-WERKSTATT should be made directly at the GRIPS box office or GRIPS-Administration:

☞ Reservations for Morning performancesAdministration: ☎ 030 397 47 40 (weekdays from 9.00h - 17.00h)

☞ Reservations for afternoon and evening performances should be made at the GRIPS box office: ☎ 030 397 47 477 Box office opening times: Monday to Friday 12.00h - 18.00h Weekends: 11.00h - 17.00h

☞ Reserved tickets should be picked up one day before the show; more than ten tickets, three days before the show. Wheelchair users should give advance notice. Further Information on ticket prices, play contents, age groups can be found in our printed programmes.

☞ Extensive information about all aspects of GRIPS is available on our website: www.grips-theater.de.

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The GRIPS Shop

Programmes, Playscripts, Posters, are available for all currentGRIPS plays (and partly for older pro-ductions)

MCs / CDs / LPsMC / CD: WIR WERDEN IMMER GRÖSSER - The nicest 25 GRIPS children’s songs(Wagenbach Berlin)MC / CD:All songs from MAX UND MILLIand BELLA, BOSS UND BULLIMC / CD: LINIE 1MC / CD: CAFÉ MITTECD: MELODY’S RING (INDIGO)MC: cildren’s radio play: HEILE HEILE SEGENLP / MC: AB HEUTE HEISST DU SARAMC / CD: DIE MOSKITOS SIND DA

VIDEOSLive recordings from GRIPSThater in VHS.BELLA, BOSS UND BULLI (from 6) HIMMEL ERDE LUFT UND MEER (from 10) KLOSS IM HALS (from 13) EINS AUF DIE FRESSE (from 13)AUF DER MAUER AUF DER LAUER (from 13)MAX UND MILLI (from 6)

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Der SchriftstellerVolker LudwigKabarettautor Liedtexter

Stückeschreiber

Twenty-two theatre people, au-thors and academics describe andinterpret the literary works ofVolker Ludwig from the begin-nings to today and portray animage of a person and his surro-undings. A „workshop conversati-on“ with the author and an exten-sive bibliography complete the es-say collection. Edited by Stefan Fi-scher-Fels, published by Alexander-Verlag Berlin 1999 (ISBN 3-89581-041-X)

Photographers: Baltzer (p.2, 27, 28, 29, 31)Berger (cover draft p.47 (Photo: Kneidl)Breustedt (p. 18)Frank (cover draft p.32/33)Hachfeld (p. 3, 5, 9, 35, 36, 38, 40,41,45)Herken (p. 25, 27)Horn (p. 20, 22)Roland-Beeneken (p.10, 13, 16)Riebner (Poster for EINE LINKE GESCHICHTE)Weidtmann (p. 7)

BOOKSSheet music: LINIE 1(Echo Musikverlag, Berlin)Sheet music: CAFÉ MITTE

(peermusic-Verlag, Hamburg)Sheet music:The GRIPS-songbook(Alexander Verlag, Berlin)Reader for EINE LINKE GESCHICHTE

Das GRIPS Buch THEATRE StoriesVol. 1: 1969 – 1994 (Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994)Vol. 2: 1994 – 1999 (GRIPS Theater, Berlin 1999)

The Author Volker LudwigKabarett author-songwriter-playwright(Alexander Verlag, Berlin 1999)

All GRIPS-items can be bought at GRIPSTheater, and partly in book- or music shops.We will also send out our articles by mailwith an invoice. (except posters).

Publisher: GRIPS Theater Berlin, Altonaerstr. 22, 10557 Berlin. Telephone: 397 47 40 (Administration), 397 47 477 (box office) Edited by Stefan Fischer-Fels, Odile SimonEnglish Translation: Sunniva Greve/Pete GilbertLayout design: Bernd Frank, Printer: AGIT-Druck

Everything worth knowing about one of

the most famous (children’s) theatres in

the world - with innumerable photos and

information about the plays and productions,

tours both in Germany and abroad and

a short chronicle by Volker Ludwig