ABYSMALLY INNOVATIVE

"Abysmally innovative" is how the two composition students Felix Stachelhaus and Philipp Krebs from Prof. Gordon Kampe's class wanted to "battle it out" for the better Master's degree. A staged competition in various disciplines was to determine "whose artistic work would develop the greater innovative impact". Then came Corona and spoiled all the plans again and again and again.

The concert evening then became a master video. "Of course, as composers, we couldn't just film the originally planned performance. We developed a cinematic concept from a compositional point of view and in a team with Elli Neubert (director, HfMT), Saskia Kruse (dramaturgy, HfMT) and Ruxin Liu (video, HFBK)," reports Felix Stachelhaus. For example, the aesthetics of a split screen illustrate the lonely competitors fighting side by side, who initially act simultaneously or alternately, but gradually overlap and become more and more intermingled.

The two composers, who are artistically on the same wavelength, can also be experienced as musicians and performers in the 25-minute work, which is well worth seeing. We will present the streaming premiere on March 18 on our youtube channel.

Against abuse of power and for more transparency, diversity, queerness and justice at the HfMT in particular and in the music and theater landscape in general!

"A crisis can also help to tackle things that have been simmering for a long time," says Viola Bierich - a first-semester music theater directing student. She is one of currently twelve members who came together as an awareness team in December 2020 as part of a future workshop. The "for" is more important than the "against". "If need be, we'll also go out on a limb, but we don't want to work in a lack-oriented way. We want to initiate and actively shape processes, create awareness, stimulate discussions and make offers."

At the new theater location on Wiesendamm, the group was able to work with the artistic operations office to install gender-neutral toilets and checkrooms. And together with the HfMT's equal opportunities officers, a monthly lecture series was conceived, whose kick-off event on 24 February was very well received and set the desired sensitization in motion.

With a noticeably positive attitude and a desire to network across the university, the awareness team aims to bring students, teachers and staff together. The groups already active at the HfMT against discrimination and abuse of power demonstrate an openness to the topic. With the initiative by students for students, it is now to be brought even more into the center of the university.

The Theater Academy and the Institute for Culture and Media Management (kmm) are reinventing themselves spatially during the semester break starting today. And that means new beginnings and finding a new home - at last! What both departments have in common is that they have been working in different locations for years without a fixed and secure home. Now their vagabond existence has come to an end. Together with the Junges SchauSpielHaus, they are moving into the specially converted halls of a former machine tool factory in Wiesendamm in Hamburg Barmbek.

Sitting on packed boxes, Prof. Sabina Dhein - Director of the Theaterakademie and Vice President of the HfMT - goes into raptures at the possibilities waiting there: "We finally have our own house with two stages including trains, a tension grid, complete technical equipment and space for 170 and 80 guests respectively. In addition to the stages, the rehearsal stages, the entire teaching operation and the offices are also located under the same roof, which means that everything can mesh much better. The theater stage is the center of our training. Everything runs towards it. For far too many years, we didn't have our own stage. This intolerable situation has finally come to an end!"

After the move and the first semester of rehearsals, official performances are expected to begin in October 2021.

We wish you all a wonderful start to spring, relaxing and well-deserved breaks or successful relocations and are looking forward to the innovation boosts to be expected in the coming summer semester.

Your HfMT