After stops in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and most recently Frankfurt am Main, the Theater der Welt festival is coming to Chemnitz from 18 June to 5 July 2026. Since 1981, the festival has travelled to a different city every three years - the only edition in Saxony to date took place in Dresden in 1996. An individual programme is created at each location. For the upcoming edition, Chemnitz Theatre, Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH and the Festival Academy Brussels are responsible for the programme.
Over the past few months, nine international curators have been travelling on behalf of the festival management. They come from Australia, Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Greece, Jordan, India, China and Senegal. They have tracked down the currently most exciting plays in their regions in order to bring them to Chemnitz in summer 2026.
How does a festival programme like this actually come about? What can the audience expect over the three festival weekends? And how do the city's theatres prepare for the numerous guest performances?
This monthly series of talks takes a look behind the scenes, tells of artistic discoveries, encounters and preparations - and arouses curiosity about a unique festival. The next event is on Tuesday, 24 February 2026 at 6pm in the Hartmannfabrik.
Theatre of the World is a festival of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute e.V. and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Free State of Saxony and the City of Chemnitz.
