TaO! - Theater am Ortweinplatz

Theater for Young Audience and Center for Young Art in Graz

The Theater am Ortweinplatz is a theater for young audiences and hotbed of young art in Graz. It was founded in 1992 by Manfred Weissensteiner and offers in addition to regular game operation a diverse range of theater education for children and young people (from 8 years), as well as extensive supporting program for school classes.

The TaO! offers regular playing with new pieces of young authors or topics and forms that are relevant and challenging for a young audience. Care is taken to use young artists (musicians, designers, set designers, assistant directors, etc.) for the productions. The young players who are trained in the in-house theater workshops, through their immediacy, stage presence and playfulness, make it possible for the young audience to meet their identification figures. It is important to us that the productions are developed with great care and are led and accompanied by a professional team. The combination of experienced and (still) less experienced artists for a project proves to be very fruitful and dynamic for our work. Productions such as "The Holy Child", "Kick & Rush", "How Light Tastes", "Stones", "The Killer in Me the Killer in You" and "Sisters" have come into existence and have been and will continue to do so shown at international festivals. To maintain the quality of the work, the TaO! great emphasis on international cooperation and contacts. International exchange projects such as the "Oh my God" youth-in-action project, a Kafka project with the Czech Republic and Germany, co-productions and participation in EU programs offer the opportunity to exchange and work together with similarly working groups abroad.

The TaO! organized in collaboration with the mezzanine theater spleen * Graz, an international theater festival for a young audience that takes place every two years in February. Next event spleen * graz 2014.

In the weekly theater workshops for children and adolescents about 180 participants in the different age groups are currently receiving a basic drama training (body, voice, improvisation) based on their own theatrical pedagogical concept. In the TaO! They are offered a concentration room where they playfully explore their possibilities and limitations, where they engage with theater and art, and what that can have to do with them and their lives. Each course concludes with a presentation, mostly showing improvisations, short shots or scene collages.

Orders or competitions (such as "Jungwild" or "short cuts") are intended to promote up-and-coming artists.

In 2010, the TaO! made a big development step. Every week, children from the age of 8 and young people of all ages and now also students in a special format, the "umSCHLAGplatz" and adults, train in the new theater workshops. The TaO! It has evolved beyond its core target audience and has expanded its theatrical (educational) work for those who have long been looking for a place to live their creativity. With the additional rehearsal room in the Schießstattgasse, it is now also in a position to be able to offer the resources appropriate to the requirements.

The TaO! intends to make greater use of synergies with other free (local) groups who have also committed themselves to demanding art for young audiences. 8 premieres per year are part of the program - in the next few years the TaO! become the focal point for alternative theater for young audiences.