WESTWIND 2023 awards ceremony and handover to WESTWIND 2024 host Maschinenhaus Essen in cooperation with Schauspielhaus Essen
To wrap up this year’s WESTWIND, the concluding awards ceremony took place on 17 June at Theater Marabu.
In order to emphasise the importance of equal opportunities for participation and agency at the festival, in the theatre scene and in society at large, the value of the prizes awarded by the children’s and youth juries were matched by this year’s awards jury. Thus, 2023 marks the first time that three equally endowed prizes have been awarded at Westwind festival.
The children’s jury – consisting of Freya Fasting, Hannah Klinkertz, Isabella Krause, Rufus Meuskens, Luisa Änne Riester, Marlene Ringsdorf, Amelie Stenglein, Milena Stiebens, Teo Clavo Tegtmeyer and Matteo Wilhelm – bestowed its award to the Theater Münster production of “Der Katze ist es ganz egal” based on the novel of the same name by Franz Orghandl, adapted and directed by Carina Sophie Eberle. This award is endowed with 4,000 euros.
The youth jury – Noemi Anspach, Bahar Gel, Gustav Hellmann, Mika Koc, Milan Koslowsky, Lizika Schmitz, Ronja Tabea Simon, Lilith Talloen, Sarah Uwimana – awarded its prize to the production “Der geheimnisvolle Fremde” by Junge Bühne Bochum, in co-production with Schauspielhaus Bochum, based on the novel by Mark Twain, adapted and directed by Martina van Boxen. This award is also endowed with 4,000 euros.
The awards jury – consisting of Bahar Gökten, dancer and choreographer from Cologne; Iwona Nowaka, author and translator from Szczecin in Poland; and Elena Philipp, editor at nachtkritik.de and freelance cultural journalist from Berlin – awarded its prize money of 4,000 euros to the production “dÄmonen”, directed by Hannah Biedermann, performed by Nora Vonder Mühll and Ives Thuwis from FFT Düsseldorf in co-production with Theater Sgaramusch Schaffhausen, Theater Liechtenstein TAK Schaan and ROTONDES Luxemburg.
All prizes are sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
WESTWIND 2023 Music & theatre on parade
Music-theatre parade: “Out for a Westwind march”
On WESTWIND’s opening day, Sunday, 11 June, the host theatres from Bonn invite children, families and festival visitors to a music-theatre parade.
The parade will commence at 2 p.m. in the front courtyard of the Bonn Opera House – the so-called Opera Lawn – where François Cys and his Belgian theatre group will be presenting their participatory sound installation “Espaces Cyclophones” from 11 a.m.
The procession will then head across the Rhine bridge to the Beuel side of the city, which is home to further WESTWIND partners Junges Theater Bonn and the festival centre Brotfabrik, a performance venue for both Theater Marabu and the Brotfabrik Bühne. The music-theatre parade will come to an end in Brotfabrik at 4 p.m.
Opening ceremony
Sunday, 11 June, 19:00, Brotfabrik festival centre
To kick off WESTWIND 2023, we look forward to welcoming Ina Brandes, Minister of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Katja Döner, Mayor of the City of Bonn. Brigitte Dethier, President of ASSITEJ Germany, and Julia-Huda Nahes, one of four NRW workgroup spokespersons, will attend the opening ceremony on behalf of ASSITEJ, the international association of theatres for young audiences.
