We’re happy to have you here!

You are reading the newplays blog, a new online platform of the festival New Plays from Europe. This biennial takes place every two years at the Federal Theatre of Hesse in Wiesbaden and at the Federal Theatre Mainz, the forthcoming festival from 17 to 27 June 2010. Please find more information about this most important international festival for contemporary European drama on the official festival website.

The special feature of the biennial is the inclusion of the so-called patrons, playwrights from 41 European countries, which give professional advise about regional theatre developments to the artistic festival directors Tankred Dorst, Ursula Ehler, Manfred Beilharz and Yvonne Büdenhölzer. All official biographies of the patrons can also be found on the festival website.

Perhaps you’ve never read a blog before and ask yourself: What is this thing? A blog is a website that hosts articles by one or many authors. The most recent post is the first one on the main page. Each post is tagged with key words, but you can also use the search box (in the upper right corner) if you are looking for specific topics. The word “blog” is an abbreviation of the neologism “weblog“, coined from the English words “web” and “log” (log-book). A ship’s logbook “provided as accurate an account as could be gleaned in real time”, the US American blogger Andrew Sullivan writes. The newplays blog will therefore try to reflect today’s European theater debates as accurate as possible: Where are the patrons working? Which topics are they dealing with, and what are the major discussions in their countries?

Taking part in the discussions is quite simple. You only need to write your name and email address in the indicated fields above the comment box and write down your thoughts. Then send your comment. Don’t worry, your email address will not be published, it is only necessary in order to send you an email in case your comment has provoked responses. You can, of course, also contact us directly. For more legal information please read the imprint.

Via the calendar on the right frame the patrons post interesting events around Europe related to their work.

One characteristics of Europe is its language diversity. We speak many languages, some better, some worse. This is why this blog will not define one standard language, although the navigation and the menu is running in English. Instead, we hope to see the co-existence of several languages. The variety of languages should not refrain us from talking with each other, but rather open up new opportunities for conversations about distances. Like the internet.