Tickets for the performances and events of the fringe ensemble are available at the respective venues and at known advance booking offices.
Or you can inquire by mail at the fringe ensemble.
info@fringe-ensemble.de
Frank Heuel founded the fringe ensemble in 1999. Since then, over 100 productions, projects and project series have been created – at home and abroad. The current core team – consisting of artistic director (Frank Heuel), set designer and video artist (Annika Ley), production manager (Svenja Pauka), dramaturg and PR officer (Claudia Grönemeyer) and production manager (Jennifer Merten) – works on the conception of the projects, orientation of the profile, development of the playbill and realization as well as the follow-up of the productions. In our self-image as a free ensemble, we are committed to continuity in the artistic personnel. Especially through our international projects of the past years, which were and are always real collaborations between artists of the participating nations, the meaning of ensemble has expanded for us.
AT HOME AND ON THE ROAD AT HOME AND ABROAD
Starting from our home base at the Theater im Ballsaal, we establish and continually expand local, regional, national and international partnerships for the production and presentation of plays:
Locally, there are, for example, artistic alliances with St. Helena – Dialograum für Kunst, Theater Bonn, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn or, more recently, with the Stadtmuseum Bonn and in inter- and socio-cultural projects with Bonn citizens (Internationaler SprechChor Bonn).
Regionally, the fringe ensemble is networked in partnership with the studiobühneköln, the Orangerie Köln, the FFT Düsseldorf and the Pumpenhaus Münster.
Nationwide with the theaterdiscounter as well as the TAK, both Berlin, and recently with the Boat People project in Giessen.
Internationally, co-productions with various theaters and ensembles in Istanbul/Turkey, the Dailes Teātris and the Dirty Deal Teatro, both in Riga/Latvia, the University in Cape Coast/Ghana as well as the Centre Espace Culturel and the Collectif Qu’on Sonne & Voix-ailes, both in Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso, have been and are being created. The international orientation of the artistic work is based on the desire to reflect society and the effects of globalization in the artistic debate. The exchange and joint development of plays and projects in an international team – with authors, actors, musicians and video artists – provides the necessary multinational foil.
DIGITAL SPACE
For several years we have been working on projects using digital techniques in different forms and intensities. Starting with digitally controlled video technology and live connections to our international partners, the pandemic led to the development of interactive and participatory formats in addition to live streamed performances. Of particular note is “Map To Utopia” – a project on the future viability of urban living spaces – in which we use a wide variety of digital elements (app-driven tour/gaming elements/AR) and bring participants as well as performers into exchange with each other in different digital spaces. “Map To Utopia” has been awarded in September 2021 at the international festival A Maze./ Berlin in the category “Human Machine” because of this interactivity.
We are interested in digitality in relation to the connection and expansion of different spaces, in relation to a transfer between them and where the use of digital tools can lead to an exchange on an analogue level, such as in “Citizen Map”, a project in public space.
HOMEBASE BONN
Our home is the Theater im Ballsaal in Bonn. Here we produce, from here we start to work with international partners and bring here the productions made abroad. Since October 2017 we have a large space with adjoining rooms for workshop and storage in Bonn Bad-Godesberg, where we can rehearse and experiment, invite to discussions and workshops, and realize events ourselves.
GUEST PERFORMANCES AND INVITATIONS
We show the productions created in international cooperation in Bonn and, among others, in Münster, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Leipzig, abroad as well as at festivals, most recently, for example, at the Performing Arts Festival in Berlin, URBÄNG-Festival in Cologne, İstanbul Tiyatro Festivali in Istanbul, Internationale Kulturtage Karlsruhe, Internationales FigurenTheaterFestival as well as A MAZE./Berlin-Festival.
PROMOTER
City of Bonn, Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Fonds Doppelpass), Beethoven Jubiläumsgesellschaft BTHVN 2020, Fonds Soziokultur, Fonds Darstellende Künste, NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste. Since mid-2019, we have been receiving top funding from the state of NRW.
