4 + 1 – young authors‘ meeting 2022

It’s happening again in the summer of 2022: For the fifth time, Schauspiel Leipzig will welcome budding dramatists to the festival 4 + 1 – young authors’ meeting. Over four days, we will read, experience and discuss new texts for tomorrow’s stages at Schauspiel Leipzig’s Diskothek.
Since 2013, the festival has seen itself as a platform for emerging theatre authors at the start of their careers as artists. Students from various writing academies and literary institutes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been invited to present their work in Leipzig.

Scenic readings following by public conversations will introduce the audience to authors and excerpts from their texts. True to the concept of 4 + 1, there are no competition and no winners – instead, we will take a curious look at diverse contemporary writing styles. The workshop-style of the events, an opportunity for exchange and new ideas, is a strong focus of the festival. Therefore, there will not only be public readings of the texts, but the authors will have the opportunity to take part in discussions and workshops on selected topics from the festival’s programme. These will give a platform on which to exchange ideas about various writing styles and approaches, to discuss the presented theatre texts and to start creating networks.

At the Diskothek venue, Schauspiel Leipzig puts contemporary texts front and centre. The world premieres and adaptations produced here secure new drama as a fixed constant of the theatre’s programme. Therefore, the festival 4 + 1 – young authors’ meeting intends to open our views towards the wide spectrum of current writing for the theatre. We want to give writers an opportunity to present new styles and to try out new forms without external pressure.

Following the online edition of 4 + 1 in 2020, we are excited to see what 2022 will bring and where we will meet this time, whether in real life or online once again – but one thing is sure: We can’t wait!