Curtain up for energetic young people

The programme included, amongst other things, an excursion to the opencast mine, workshops in the rehearsal rooms of the Cottbus State Theatre, and an insight into current energy research at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.

‘Research-based theatre’ combines scientific findings with aesthetic practice and the young people’s everyday knowledge within the context of a school week. Science and theatre thus become methods for gaining shared insights. Researchers from the BTU present current research, whilst the pupils use improvisation, observation, performative actions and role-playing to develop their own questions on socially relevant topics.

“In research-based theatre, it’s about being curious, developing your own questions and engaging personally with a topic,” explains BTU Professor Kiwi Menrath, on the Media Pedagogy and Aesthetic Practice chair in Social Work. “In the process, the young people experience how their perspective can change through shared aesthetic experimentation.”

The pupils were supported in their aesthetic research, observation and reflection by students from a Social Work project seminar as well as by theatre educators.

Insights into energy research

This year, the BTU organised the Tuesday session of the project week. In the morning, the pupils visited the research hall of the DLR Institute for Low-Carbon Industrial Processes in Cottbus. BTU researcher Dr Helen Müller and a colleague gave a clear explanation of how energy, climate change, decarbonisation and more environmentally friendly industrial processes are interlinked. They also showed the pupils the CoBra (Cottbus Brayton) high-temperature heat pump.

The pupils found it particularly impressive to experience these machines first-hand on site, gaining a direct insight into the institute’s research work. The impressions and insights gained were subsequently incorporated into the rest of the theatre work.

A compilation of the documentary footage of the project week, produced by the BTU’s Multimedia Centre, will be shown at the ceremony for the presentation of the 2026 Max Grünebaum Prizes. The event will take place in November in the Großes Haus of the Staatstheater Cottbus. Admission is free; no registration is required.

Background

Since 1997, the Cottbus-based Max Grünebaum Foundation has been honouring emerging artistic and academic talent at the Cottbus State Theatre and the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The Foundation also continues its commitment to culture, education and science through educational projects at schools in Cottbus. The ‘Forschendes Theater’ project combines academic research, artistic practice and the perspectives of young people.