Kinder- und Jugendtheaterzentrum in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Germany)
Since the foundation of the Children’s and Young People’s Theatre Centre, promoting playwrights has been at the heart of its work. This involvement in supporting authors and their work is based on the fact that the artistic quality in children’s and young people’s theatre corresponds closely to the quality of its dramatic literature. With writing workshops, the Paul-Maar-Stipendium (Paul Maar Grant), the Deutscher Kindertheaterpreis (German Children’s Theatre Prize) and the Deutscher Jugendtheaterpreis (German Young People’s Theatre Prize) or the exchange with other European playwrights, the Centre has developed a range of promotional activities which is crowned every year by the Frankfurter Autorenforum für Kinder- und Jugendtheater (Frankfurt Playwrights Forum for Children’s and Young People’s Theatre).
In the 20 years of its existence, the Playwrights Forum has moved away from being a marketplace for playes to becoming a forum for intense dialogue on themes and contents of writing and producing for children’s and young people’s theatre. In this way, the real need of theatre practicians to be stimulated and inspired is taken into account, not only through the presentation of new dramas and the introduction of authors, but also through the discussion of the particularity of authorship within the field of children’s and young people’s theatre and the intense debate of new trends in its dramatic literature..