Die Bühne

Die Bühne is an amateur theatre founded in 1956 in Dresden’s Weberbau on the eastern edge of the TU Dresden campus. The building sits inside the university grounds, surrounded by lecture halls and laboratories. Over one hundred members keep the association running, guided by a seven-person volunteer board elected each year. The artistic director since 2020 is Max Schumacher, a Berlin theatre-maker specialising in media-supported, post-dramatic work. Two departments—press and technical—are run by full-time staff, supported by TU Dresden’s finance and space. The theatre’s annual budget exceeds one hundred thousand euros, largely provided by the university. This allows it to invite professional artists for projects and workshops without pursuing commercial goals. Around ten new productions appear every year, alongside roughly seventy performances in total. Productions range from contemporary stagings of modern and classical texts to devised pieces, performances and experimental formats. Regular collaborations with professional artists blur the line between amateurs and experts, while student members write, direct and perform their own material. Visitors find a programme that mixes student creativity with professional polish. Guest groups from other theatres also perform on the stage, and the company tours to festivals such as the Lange Nacht der Dresdner Theater and the International Student Theatre Festival in Brno. Weekly courses in acting, dramaturgy and theatre pedagogy run each semester, open to TU Dresden students and credited within the Studium generale. The theatre’s foyer and auditorium host discussions, exhibitions and public presentations that connect theatre practice with current social and political questions.