At the NRW KULTURsekretariat in Wuppertal: almost the entire feXm jury this year. From left to right: Christian Esch (feXm), Søren Schuhmacher (Darmstadt), Rainer Nonnenmann (external juror), Michael Schulz (Gelsenkirchen), Kirsten Uttendorf (background; common voice with S. Schuhmacher), Brigitte Heusinger (Bremen). Not to be seen: Moritz Lobeck as another external juror, who could only be connected via Zoom. © Roland Quitt
Two jury meetings are needed to decide on the next NOperas! project based on the applications. As always, a group of finalists was selected in the first session, who then had a month to contact the participating theatres, ask more detailed questions about the opportunities available there, and concretise their own plans in more detail, in order to then face each other face-to-face in a more in-depth discussion in the second session.
As is almost always the case, this time the decision remained difficult until the last moment. “Oper Otze Axt” is the name of the project that won the race. The collective responsible for the production is called “Dritte Degeneration Ost”.
“Oper Otze Axt” is inspired by the life of Erfurt punk musician Dieter “Otze” Ehrlich and his band “Schleimkeim”, which was part of the musical underground of the GDR. The team convinced the jury, among other things, by placing its particular view of the German-German problem against the backdrop of the reunification years, provocatively generalising the question of the nature of freedom beyond this context and thus making an intelligent thematic contribution to pressing contemporary issues within the framework of musical theatre.
“Dritte Degeneration Ost” is not only the largest collective (eight people share artistic responsibility), but also the youngest to be awarded the feXm contract. The name satirises the attempts to come to terms with German-German history by the “Dritte Generation Ost” (Third Generation East) network and association. Almost all of the team come from the “new federal states” and link their project to coming to terms with their personal experiences. But even more than the “Third Generation”, the “Third Degeneration” belongs to the post-reunification period, looking at the time from the perspective of an experience that is still close enough to be of personal interest, but distant enough to create a new historical perspective.
