Photo: Yannick Tiques
They are founders and heads of the Munich theater. What is special about this theater?
Theater Limitless dares to focus on artistically demanding projects that focus on the loss of home and the search for belonging. We create a protected space in which life stories find a form and fainting turns into action. Our productions are language -free: poetic pictures that invite the audience to their own interpretations.
How did you get the idea of founding such a theater?
Due to the previously years of work in residential groups with striking young people, I was also curious about the young people who came to us at the time. In an arrival house in Munich-Freimann, many 15-year-olds looked at me-falling out of the nest, suddenly on their own. This look got under my skin. My answer to the question of how to help them was specifically: integration with the means of the theater, in the neighborhood, in direct contact with local students. So the theater was born limitless.
Interview
Viktor Schenkel (70) In 2015 in the Munich Mohr-Villa, the Theater Grenzlos e. V., which he has headed full -time for four years. The ensemble consists of young, unaccompanied refugees. Before that, he worked as an actor and clown, as a graphic artist and as a model for advertising films.
What were the first contacts with the young refugees?
I knocked on many doors – arrival houses, carriers, advice centers. Sometimes more, sometimes fewer young people came. My doubts were whether that was wearing. Then it spoke around. The group grew through word of mouth and I was able to build a continuous, intercultural theater work.
How did you inspire the young people for your project?
In the beginning there were getting to know each other, trust games, a real welcome to a “theater family”. It was about being seen and valued. With interpreters, those who wanted – escape stories heard, often drawn of loss and death. Some were silent, others told tears. Our empathy and the clear attitude that a future is possible and we work on it has created confidence. In the game we expanded borders together – and brought talent to light that many were not aware of before.
How many people does the theater ensemble consist of today?
From eight people. They come from Uganda, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
What topics does the theater deal with?
Initially: arrive, collide, orientation. Today: reconciliation in the family, bridges between value systems, encounter and learn, overcome loneliness and trauma, social balance, love – and finding a home abroad. Everything that our ensemble is concerned with finds its way onto the stage.
Do traumatic experiences sometimes hinder work?
The past is there, but not everything. Our ensemble wants to look ahead: grasp, stay, stay, dream. We look at today’s life: opportunities, hopes, responsibility. And we ask: What do young people bring with what our society can also learn from?
What role do language barriers play?
No. We deliberately work non-verbally- with body and mimatic play, dance and rhythm. Traumas often show up in the body. We solve blockages through movement. In a multi -year process, a real game creates this in which laypersons show an authentic picture of her person and history. Our wordless theater is a counter -design to the chatty of our time.
Her own curriculum vitae was anything but straightforward: they worked as an actor and clown, had appearances in the television series “Café Meineid” and “Circus Roncalli”. Does some melancholy resonate when thinking about a missed actor career?
I played for 20 years of supporting roles – a lot of waiting, many hopes. This was a key moment that helped: I felt deep satisfaction in passing on. It became clear to me that my real talent lies in developing and staging ideas. So I switched “to the other side”. Today I can bundle everything I have learned – acting, clowning, graphic design – in directing, stage and communication. This is not a loss, but a logical development.
How do you see theater and cultural business today?
Our theater work has been carrying two forces for a decade: love for people and the will to enable successful integration. For us, theater is the space to share these worlds. We do not discuss daily politics on stage – we don’t want to exploit anyone. Our work is not comparable to the professional cultural company: small structures, fragile financing, a lot of idealism. But she is honest – and she works where people meet each other.
They are funded by the Mohr villa, the Munich cultural department and the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. What does this kind of recognition of your intercultural work mean to you?
We are very grateful for that. We could not survive without funding. This note does not appear to us insignificantly for the external impact and perception in society.
Your theater production for 2025 is devoted to love. What can the audience expect?
A piece of theater and dance with poetic pictures that aims deep into the heart: a young woman full of joie de vivre meets a lonely society. Due to their immediacy, heart opens up, sense. Together everyone goes in search of the lost feeling of closeness. Our invitation: fall in love with – into life, in people, in yourself.
Her theater is carried by an association that celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. How should it go on?
We want to further develop our style of true, language -free theater – with new projects, new minds, new cooperation. In Munich, a meeting room is to grow, open to people from all over the world who are looking for theater and cultural exchange: a refuge and experience. And: We want to go on tour more, beyond Munich.
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