A pirate radio broadcast in the restricted zone of the GDR transmits Sinti voices at night. Inside the station, a clandestine transmission develops over the years. Conversations, songs, and fragmented memories layer over one another. While outside the restricted area and the death strip shape the landscape along the inner-German border, a radio transmission emerges that never became part of the official archives.»Mitternacht. Transmission from the Restricted Zone« is a lyrical drama about Sinti life realities in East Germany during the Cold War. The production is based on interviews, archival material, and family memories, from which documentary as well as poetically fictional scenes are developed. Out of voices, sound, and archives emerges a theatrical evening about resistance, community, and remembrance. CAT Jugravu and the Rom*nja Theatre Collective / Kelipen e.V. create theatre at the intersection of performance, archival work and memory culture. Their work centers Sinti and Romani perspectives through documentary and performative forms, spoken and sung predominantly in Romanes.

A cultural policy encounter salon in two parts At the latest since the first sudden and drastic cultural funding cuts announced by the Berlin Senate for 2025, the financial situation of funding for the Berlin performing arts has become increasingly unclear. The volatile negotiations surrounding the 2026/27 double budget have added to the general uncertainty, and the discontinuation of several funding programs at the federal level has hit the Berlin scene particularly hard, as it has traditionally benefited strongly from federal funding. 4:00–6:00 pm: Impulses on the current situationFirst Round:Cilgia Gadola und Paul Hess (BFDK – Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste)Nicola Stillfried (Dachverband Tanz)Marie Henrion (Tanzbüro Berlin) Second Round:Dagmar Domrös (Arbeitskreis der Kinder- und Jugendtheater)Luise Würth (FAIRSTAGE)Daniel Brunet (Koalition der Freien Szene)Lars Zühlke (LAFT Berlin) Jannik Rodenwaldt (GDBA)  Third Round:Carolin Huth (AG Barrierefreiheit)Grischa Schwiegk (Gob Squad) Anne Brammen (Ballhaus Ost) Sarah Stührenberg (Berliner Kulturfördergesetz) Franziska Stoff (BerlinIstKultur) 6:00–7:00 pm: Table conversations over a shared mealA communal meal offers everyone present ample opportunities for follow-up questions, exchange, and encounters. From 7:00 pm: Open discussion with speakers and audienceTogether, we will summarize the current state of affairs and, along with our observers Arne Vogelgesang and Theresa Schütz, look for solutions and possible courses of action. An open discussion format invites both the speakers and visitors to take part. The bar will be open, and moderation will be by Alisa Tretau. FAIRSTAGE advocates for discrimination-free and fair working conditions for all permanent and freelance employees at publicly funded Berlin theatres. The goal is to pool expertise and take a targeted stand for a fairer Berlin performing arts sector. FAIRSTAGE runs various programs, including participatory formats, an annual conference, recommendation papers, and publications. In practice, diversity-sensitive work at FAIRSTAGE also means calling for and supporting continuing education, qualification, and exchange opportunities for institutions, while strengthening marginalized stakeholders in these contexts.

Back on a casual Thursday in April, YETZE Casino Nights returns for its second installment – an intimate musical treat with a focus on female voices from Berlin: Introducing her RIP Swirl-produced new EP entitled »Taste«, Maresz & band will headline this low-key Blurry Records Special that also features ronja (Roomer), who presents her recently released EP »Up With The Sun«. Additionally, Blurry founder RIP Swirl is going to play a special DJ set.  >> YETZE Casino Night #1: A Good Year (Escho / CPH) feat. Late Verlane | 21.3.

The Shimmy Shake Show is the graduation performance for the students and teachers of the Shimmy Shake School of Burlesque in Berlin. After learning from our premiere instructors, these students are dancing the art of the tease for you—some of them for the first time! Come join us for our spring special featuring go go dancers, love rituals, and more. For over 15 years the Shimmy Shake School for Burlesque has been fostering burlesque education in Berlin through emphasizing the diverse queer history of the art and its importance as a form of self expression. Through dance, striptease, and storytelling, the Shimmy Shake School has brought countless artists to the stage to enjoy and share the art of the tease.

SIGNUP IS CLOSED DO YOU WANT TO BE PART OF OUR SHOW?? If you have an idea for something new, something you always wanted to try but never dared to or maybe you’re just tired of trying to be perfect and happy to share something you’re bad at and your vulnerability with us – WE HAVE A STAGE FOR YOU! »The Untalented Show« is a cabaret-style performance, disguised as a talent show. The show gradually turns as audience members are drawn in and become part of the action! Drawing on the nostalgia of early 1960s and early 2000s TV game shows, »The Untalented Show« combines live camera footage with in-person voting, culminating in a final cheer-off to choose the winner from the two finalists—one judges’ favorite, and one audience pick. Immersive, unpredictable, and full of playful tension, anything can happen, and often does. By the end, you feel part of a shared adventure where mistakes are celebrated, absurdity is king, and the joy of connection and risk is fully realized. Everyone is invited to participate, fail gloriously, and improvise alongside the performers. In a culture obsessed with polish, screens, and curated identities, this show offers a space to be messy, silly, and daring, all while building community. »The Untalented Show« began at the Palace Arts Residency in Poland and have since sold out two editions at 90mil in Berlin, with over 200 people attempting to attend the first night alone. Backed by an off-beat, absurdist, word-of-mouth campaign, The Untalented Show is quickly gaining traction thanks to its community and their shared urge against perfectionism and in favor of silliness.

Facts don’t have it easy on social media. That’s where we step in. »Fun Facts« is a new entertaining news format that uses humor and well-known personalities to give facts more reach. Well-known fact enthusiasts present—humorously and constructively—what really matters. In this way, we give facts a boost and get people off the couch. The hosts change daily, because Fun Facts is a collaborative project.With no broadcaster and no corporation behind it—launched and supported by the artists themselves. Instead of agitation, hypocrisy, and hate, Fun Facts offers humor, integrity, and hope. Our research and journalistic analysis are carried out in cooperation with CORRECTIV. At Ballhaus Ost, Raúl Krauthausen presents a special focus episode of Fun Facts in front of a live audience. For the rest of the evening, Marc-Uwe Kling reads from The Kangaroo Rebellion.

The theater project »Black Box« is based on a play by Belarusian playwright Pavel Pryazhko and explores the complex intertwining of past and present in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. »Black Box« addresses nostalgia, the longing for a childhood free of responsibility, and the disturbing repetition of behavior patterns shaped by a legacy of violence and oppression. The characters in the play exist on two time levels: 1986 and 2016. 1986 is the second year of perestroika, and in 2016, Belarusian President Lukashenko is in his fifth term in office. In 1986, Alexey, Marina, Sergey, and Valery are twelve-year-old schoolchildren. In 2016, they are forty-two years old and seem to have been transported back to their former boarding school, where everything—except themselves—seems to have stood still in time.The production explores the intersection of two realities: the filmed past and the immediate, lived present. Analog video formats explore on stage how visual material influences the perception of reality. Musician and composer Dmitrii Vlasik, known for his work with experimental sounds and electronic textures, is developing a composition for »Black Box.« aliveduo is a creative partnership between Alena Starostina and Ivan Nikolaev, who emigrated from Russia to Dresden in 2022, where they had been among the leading figures of contemporary theatre. In Germany, they continue their practice in the field of time-based media. In their projects — whether theatre or film — they work with analog material, which they value for its tactile, physical imprint of time. After both performances, a post-show discussion with the audience will take place.

In Horseland, the Lesbian Law states that any contact between femmes and butches is strictly forbidden – except for the highly commercial cow handover! But when the Butches forget a screwdriver after a trade with the Femmes, Sandy has to leave the Femme Farm for the first time to take the tool back to the Butch Barn. There she meets Corky – one touch is all it takes to ignite a blazing desire that threatens to end everything in chaos… Sandyatemyheart is DIY, show, and glamour. The artists transform queer-feminist theory into humorous entertainment, searching for stories that they themselves feel are missing on stage. With shows in Munich, Halle, Leipzig, Giessen, and Heidelberg, they thrilled lesbian audiences, their allies, grandparents, and bourgeois theatergoers.

WHISTLE is a duet at the uncomfortable intersection between the demand to perform and the need to rest. Centered on the experience of tinnitus as well as the idiom »whistling in the dark«, the work treats the »whistle« as both a divine wake-up call and a sedative to mask fear. Amidst alarms and lullabies, the performers tap into heart-opening movements as unstable choreographic states, where opening holds both the promise of connection and the threat of exposure.  Miguel Witzke Pereira approaches the body as a psychosomatic archive, exploring the politics of affect through dance, choreography, and embodied forms of superstition. His work engages with practices of protection and care to unsettle the »masculine armor« imposed by patriarchy. This research approaches the body as the whistleblower and unfolds in close collaboration with dancer Dasha Belous and musician Angelo Harmsworth. 

Four fresh, cheeky, dashing drama graduates from the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna have joined forces and developed a crisp Schubert evening. He would probably be angry if he knew he was being presented unshaven. The ground remains Schubert; his three-day beard—on which they dance—consisting of jazz and folk, transitioning to rock, and finally into brand—er, boundlessness.