Digital theatre spotlights the human experience
The city of Karlsruhe, known for its UNESCO City of Media Arts status, the ZKM, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is proving to be an ideal location for digital theater. The Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, with its rich history of opera, drama, ballet, and youth theater, has now officially incorporated Digitaltheater (digital theater) as a formal part of its program.
With the arrival of Kevin Barz, the new head of digital theater, and other theater professionals from Oldenburg last summer, the theater is embracing the digital age. The 2024/2025 season promises to be a showcase of digital art transforming the theater space, especially via virtual portals and immersive sound.
One of the notable features of the digital theater is audience participation through digital means. Exhibitions and live digital performances at the theater explore spatial sound, experimental sound techniques, and audience participation in co-creating realities during shows. This approach emphasizes digitalization as an artistic extension rather than just technical support.
Future activity will likely deepen integration of digitalization into live performances based on ongoing exhibits and experimental media art collaborations. The portal installation will be a permanent fixture throughout the 2024/2025 season, and immersive digital art practices within the theater setting are expected to expand.
The digital theater team in Karlsruhe, consisting of Kevin Barz, Anna-Teresa Schmidt, and Frieder Gätjen, is involved in various projects. They have already worked on the German premiere of "Itch" with the opera and are planning a 2026 showing of "1984" by George Orwell with the drama.
Moreover, the team has taken initiatives to create physical spaces, such as setting up raised beds with insect hotels and perennials around the "Paradise Found" station. This project, funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, involves creating small opera episodes at twelve mixed-reality stations in the urban space, based on interviews with Karlsruhe residents about their paradise.
The digital theater team in Karlsruhe operates as a digital competence center, working autonomously but cooperating with other departments. They believe that theater is and remains a live medium that thrives on the coexistence of audience and performers. They aim to make the digital world "tangible" on stage, using various techniques such as LED video walls, in-house computers, AI servers, and mixed-reality stations in urban spaces.
The digital theater project at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe started during the Corona pandemic. It values the direct exchange between audience and performers as a political aspect of theater. The team also aims to engage with the real world and work with conflicts in the world, rather than escaping into a digital world.
The digital theater at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe was established in 2020 as the fifth department. Tina Lorenz moved the digital theater from Staatstheater Augsburg to the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe in 2024. The project began with the Technical Ballroom project in Oldenburg.
In summary, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe is embracing digital theater as a contemporary art form, transforming audience interaction and theatrical space with immersive and interactive environments. The 2024/2025 season is set to be a showcase of this transformation, with audience participation, virtual portals, and immersive sound at the heart of the experience.
The Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, in its transition into a digital theater, integrates technology into its performances, offering a novel blend of traditional stage art and contemporary digital elements.
The digital theater team in Karlsruhe employs various advanced technologies such as LED video walls, in-house computers, AI servers, and mixed-reality stations, making technology an intrinsic part of their performances.
