Ballhaus Ost in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg is a venue for independent theater, performance, dance, music theater and music.
As an experimental stage for a wide range of forms of contemporary theater, it invites audiences to experience and discover new ways of artistic engagement with contemporary realities. Both aesthetic approaches and thematic scope are characterized by a socio-critical attitude and the search for alternatives to normative structures. Urbanity and locality, surprises and challenges, history and queerness, narration and documentation are represented in the program as well as a variety of exciting works for non-German speakers.
Located in the former celebration and assembly hall of the Freireligiöse Gemeinde Berlin, that was built in 1907, Ballhaus Ost shelters many established, mostly Berlin based, theater groups and artists. At the same time, it offers lesser-known acts from Berlin’s vital independent theater scene space to present their work and develop new aesthetics. The program is complemented by guest performances from German-speaking countries and beyond.
Ballhaus Ost was founded in 2006 by the directors Uwe Moritz Eichler, Philipp Reuter and the actress Anne Tismer as a self-managed artists’ stage, after the hall had been used as a »casino of crafts« in GDR times and as a billiard salon and night club after the reunification. Tina Pfurr and Daniel Schrader have managed the venue since 2011 and developed it into an anchor institution for the independent performing arts in Berlin. The principles of the programming, in which Anne Brammen has also been significantly involved since 2016, are curiosity about new artistic forms and collaborations and the visibility of diverse, often international artistic communities. Following the leave of long-time co-director Tina Pfurr at the end of 2023, Anne Brammen, Ozi Ozar and Daniel Schrader currently form the Ballhaus Ost program team. Anne Brammen, Daniel Schrader and Björn Stegmann are responsible for the administration – and the entire team works together to lovingly put the weekly shows on their feet.
Ballhaus Ost is funded by the Berlin Senate Department für Culture and Social Cohesion.
