stop teaching!

Children and young people are not only an important target group for theatre productions, they are increasingly asked to contribute to artistic processes with experiences from their everyday lives. When artists incorporate children into their work as equal partners, new theatrical forms emerge whose effectiveness is not dependent on pedagogical objectives. Under the title "Stop Teaching!", a book which was published in 2014, Jan Deck collected a variety of standpoints on the current artistic tendency to challenge traditional perceptions of target group-oriented work and cultural education. This panel discussion provides an opportunity to reflect on and discuss this book together with Anna Eitzeroth (representative of the youth theatre initiative Kinder- und Jugendtheaterzentrum in Deutschland with focus on the field of theatre in cultural education) and Ingo Toben (director).

Jan Deck is a political scientist who works as a freelance dramaturge, director and curator in the performing arts. He additionally serves as an author on artistic and social issues as well as the editor of various publications, including "Paradoxien des Zuschauens" ("Viewing Paradoxes", 2008), "Politisch Theater machen" ("Making Political Theatre", 2012, both edited together with Angelika Sieburg) and "Stop teaching! Neue Theaterformen mit Kindern und Jugendlichen" ("Stop Teaching! New Theatre Forms with Children and Youth", edited together with Patrick Primavesi).