Dear All,

It’s almost 2 weeks left until we meet in Cologne! You are by now able to get creative in our Conference-App: The Speakers’ portal is allowing you to personalize your profile; you may add practical details, also info’s on your academic career that you deem relevant for IFTR2025. Don’t forget to add a picture and start connecting with fellow scholars! We have prepared a How To guide – be sure check it out!

With not so many days and left, we want to focus here on your overall experience whilst being Cologne. We highly recommend visiting one of the many performance spaces, theatres, opera houses or museums nearby. A general overview is on our website but following we want to point out: Check out the Zeche Zollverein, the once largest colliery in Europe, renowned for its Bauhaus Style architecture; it has now transformed into a cultural space in the city Essen (a city whose name literally means ›eating/food‹, what can go wrong there?). Or you might want to visit the Theatre Museum in Düsseldorf (TMD), a gem close to the (also highly recommended) theatre, the D’haus. Our former colleagues Sascha Förster and Sophie Totz are currently presenting an exhibition on »Changing Scenes«, showcasing graphics and paintings from their collection while simultaneously offering a diverse, dazzling program transforming TMD into a discussion forum, performance venue and open space for creative expression. Surely you don’t have to travel far to be inspired – Cologne offers many opportunities: we recommend booking tickets for »Everyone’s joy, nobody’s sorrow« at the FWT! Through a choreography combining dance, culinary art, mask play and conversation, Simone Gisele Weber is exploring carnival as a space of possibilities. On Wednesday, Thursday or Friday evening you are invited to join them in that space and conclude a long conference day with a somatic encounter of Performing Carnival. On Monday the Schauspiel Köln invites to a special event in commemoration of the NSU terrorist attacks near the theatre, followed by the play »Die Lücke (2.0)«. Both are tied to the paper presented at the WG Theatre and Migration by our delegate Dr. Azadeh Sharifi. You may contact her for further details. 

Next week a travel kit with further tips on food, performances, going out for a drink will follow.

CC: A noteworthy representative of Cologne’s vivid festival culture is ›Africologne Festival‹ – a celebration of contemporary African theatre, dance, ritual performance, and party. The festival joins artists from across the African continent and the diaspora, creating empowering moments of cultural exchange and dialogue. It takes place across various venues in the city. One being the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum‹, where I have experienced many spectacular performances over the past years: i.e. »My Tanzania« – acrobatics and dance performance by artists from the Kigamboni Community Center (KCC). The program ticket prices vary; some events are for free. Be sure to check the instructions on their website. Whether interested in thought-provoking plays, breathtaking performances, engaging discussions, or a chill evening with Afrobeats and Afrohouse music; Africologne offers an inspiring perspective on global theatre-making. (Janne Bierwirth)

FOW: Our fool of the week comes in many forms. They are the Clown*esses, contemporary feminist clowns who question the practices of clowning and emancipate themselves from patriarchal structures. The filmmaker Jana Rothe followed two of them and made a beautiful documentary which I had the pleasure of encountering at the ›CircusDanceFestival‹. Maybe you’ll encounter your new favourite clown*ess there too. It takes place the weekend before our conference and the meeting location for the informal New Scholar’s Meet and Greet on Sunday, June 9. Don’t miss Mélissa Guex’ performance Rapunzel, a trash-punk-one-woman-show followed by an artist talk led by the dramaturge, theatre scholar (clown expert and IFTR delegate) Ariane Gros. (Anna-Lu Rausch)

We are exiting to meet you here and share exciting academic and performative days, evenings and nights!

Alaaf – meaning as much as au fou de partout, to fools everywhere, we greet you!

Sona Petrossian

On behalf of the Cologne Team