Profile

The international figuren.theater.festival was first held in Erlangen in 1979. Nuremberg joined in 1981, followed by Fürth in 1983 and Schwabach in 1989. Every two years, the festival is collaboratively planned and presented by the cultural offices of all four cities. Key venues include the Markgrafentheater, the Redoutensaal, Theater in der Garage, the Glocken-Lichtspiele, and the Experimentiertheater in Erlangen; the Tafelhalle, Künstlerhaus, and Theater Salz+Pfeffer in Nuremberg; the Kulturforum and Stadttheater in Fürth; and the Stadtmuseum in Schwabach. Featuring around 60 different theatre companies, the international figuren.theater.festival is now one of the largest theatre festivals in Germany.

Since its inception, the festival has been dedicated to showcasing contemporary puppet theatre to encourage artistic encounters between different genres. Today, our understanding of Figurentheater includes many forms of puppet, visual, object and physical theatre, dance and new media. Almost anything can act as a ‘Figur’ – puppets, objects and materials, video projections, machines, robots, artificial intelligence – even a beam of light, a sound or an image that emerges in one’s mind. The human body, too, is central to this expanded definition, as seen in mask theatre, shadow play, or contemporary dance. This interdisciplinary understanding of Figurentheater has become widely accepted and is reflected in academic programmes and among other festival presenters. Nonetheless, the festival in Erlangen, Nuremberg, Fürth, and Schwabach continues to play a pioneering role in this evolution.

In recent years, the festival has continued to transform. Interventions in public spaces and participatory formats are gaining prominence; the boundaries between performance and visual art are increasingly being explored; and there is a growing interest in global perspectives on theatre and society. The international figuren.theater.festival is constantly evolving—and must continue to reinvent itself as the world around it changes.