Theater News

Goethe-Institut Announces Transatlantic Theater Project Exploring the Value of Privacy

”The Plurality of Privacy Project in Five-Minute Plays (P3M5)” features five minute plays written by playwrights from across the United States and Europe.

An image from Clemens J. Setz's film Leitgeb.
An image from Clemens J. Setz's film Leitgeb.
(© Schauspielhaus Graz)

The Goethe-Institut has announced plans for The Plurality of Privacy Project in Five-Minute Plays (P3M5), a transatlantic theater project initiated to explore the value of privacy. In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Washington, theaters across the United States and Europe have commissioned playwrights to write five minute plays themed around the question, "What does privacy mean to you in the digital age?"

P3M5 examines the idea of privacy through the cultural landscape of different countries, exploring the history, politics, economy, and art of each country that shapes how privacy is perceived. Between January 2017 and June 2018, these plays will receive public performances, staged readings, and community forums at various venues.

Commissioned playwrights for P3M5 include Clemens J. Setz (Schauspielhaus Graz, Austria), Rachida Lamrabet (KVS, Belgium—Flanders), Alex Lorette (Théâtre de Liège, Belgium—Wallonia), Felicia Zeller (Saarländisches Staatstheater, Germany), Mihaela Michailov (National Theatre "Marin Sorescu," Romania), Simona Hamer (National Theatre Nova Gorica, Slovenia), Paco Bezerra (Spain Arts and Culture), Marioan Hosseini (Unga Klara, Sweden), David Greig (Birmingham Repertory Theatre, United Kingdom), Sarah Gubbins (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, GA), Kenneth Lin (Center Stage, Baltimore, MD), Philip Kan Gotanda (American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, CA), Rebecca Gilman (Seattle Repertory Theater, Seattle, WA), and Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby (New York Theatre Workshop, New York, NY).

Additional American partners for P3M5, who will engage with the commissioned plays through performances, staged readings, and other events, include Silk Road Rising (Chicago, IL), Syracuse Stage (New York), B Street Theatre (Sacramento, CA), People’s Light (Malvern, PA), The VORTEX (Austin, TX), City Lights Theater Company (San Jose, CA), The Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts (University of Maryland), University of Virginia, College of William and Mary (Virginia), Middlebury College (Vermont), Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (Ohio), the University of South Carolina, California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Southern California.

The concept for P3M5 was originally developed by Russell Miller, Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA), Gillian Drake, Theater Curator for the Goethe-Institut Washington and the Zeitgeist Project, John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington, D.C.), and Wilfried Eckstein, Director, Goethe-Institut Washington. The theatrical curators of the project on the American side include James C. Nicola (New York Theatre Workshop), Kwame Kwei-Armah (Center Stage, Baltimore), and Gillian Drake.

For more information, click here.

Featured In This Story