BRECHT UNTER FREMDEN / BRECHT AMONG STRANGERS
16. Symposium of the International Brecht Society (IBS)
19.–23.6.2019, Leipzig
Organized by the International Brecht Society (IBS) and the Centre of Competence for Theatre (CCT) at Leipzig University in cooperation with the Institute for Theatre Studies at Leipzig University and Schauspiel Leipzig
Bertolt Brecht was confronted with the alien throughout his life. He was exposed to it everywhere he lived, and in all venues he inhabited, he was as a stranger among strangers. Furthermore, he made the experience of the alien into the linchpin of his entire artistic project. Brecht’s intensive confrontation with the alien is more relevant now than ever in an era when, on a daily basis, fear and hatred of foreigners continue to demonstrate a fundamental inability to live among strangers even (or especially) in a period of increasing globalization and of societies affected by migration. With Brecht though, we have to work toward a theory as well as a practice of a contemporary "theater among strangers".