interTWINed — European Youth Theatre Festival

Piccolo Theater Cottbus — Brandenburg's Children's and Youth Theatre

The Piccolo Theater Cottbus at Erich-Kästner-Platz is one of the most important children's and youth theatres in Brandenburg and throughout eastern Germany. The theatre offers its own productions for children and young people, engages in educational theatre work with schools, and is part of an international network of youth theatre houses. The theatre at Erich-Kästner-Platz — named after the German writer who is a central figure in German youth literature — is a venue with both artistic and social roots.

interTWINed — The Biennial Festival Concept

The interTWINed festival uses the concept of city partnerships as its structural principle. Cottbus has had a city partnership with Gelsenkirchen since 2000 — and over the years, close theatre relationships have developed from this. Other European partner cities of Cottbus (in Poland, Turkey, France, Northern Italy, Central Europe) contribute with their youth theatre groups to the festival. "interTWINed" — connected, intertwined — is the programme: the relationships between the theatres and their youth theatre groups shape the festival.

What to Expect

Seven days of theatre programme — productions, workshops, discussions — interspersed with overnight stays and meeting formats for the participating youth groups. The productions are often multilingual or based on physical dance, allowing the audience to follow even without language skills. Topics frequently address current youth issues (identity, climate, migration, fear of the future) — but always from the perspective of young theatre makers, not didactically conveyed by adults. For one week, Cottbus becomes a European meeting point for youth theatre.

Cottbus — Brandenburg's Second-Largest City

Cottbus is located in southern Brandenburg, in Lower Lusatia, and is the state's second-largest city after Potsdam. The city is also a university city (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg), a theatre city (Staatstheater Cottbus), and a festival city (FilmFestival Cottbus, Cottbuser Stadtfest, Sorbian/Wendish Festival). The Piccolo Theater complements this theatre landscape with its specialization in youth theatre and serves as an anchor for an international festival format.