FRATZ Encounters

The festival and symposium are embedded in the FRATZ Encounters, a workshop program lasting several months with twelve kindergarten groups in six Berlin districts. Artistic encounters between children, parents, teachers, theater educators and artists are an integral part of the overall concept of FRATZ.
The concept of FRATZ Encounters is based on belief that theater is extraordinarily well suited to developing awareness of one's own potential effectiveness. The Encounters open up artistic spaces. These are rooms where children and adults can play and experiment, in which everyone can try out possibilities for action and expression and test how well they fit. In these protected spaces, children can experience real participation as well as aesthetic enjoyment.
FRATZ is holding multiple artistic encounters with children. One program highlight is a guest performance in their own neighborhood during the festival. Shortly beforehand, the children get to know »their« artists during a visit to their kindergarten, which includes a workshop related to the production.

FRATZ Atelier

We see the Atelier within the FRATZ framework as experimental spaces at the interface of watching and participating. The artists give impulses and make offers, initially inviting the children to watch. Distinct participative phases are woven directly into the performance or just afterwards, during which children can play with the physical and aesthetic materials used and try things out.

This combination of watching and activity situates the Atelier particularly well for establishing contacts with new daycare centers and sparking interest to participate in more intensive programs, like our FRATZ Encounters or other offers, such as TUKI or TUKI ForscherTheater.
The educators have the opportunity to observe their children and ideally, to see the potential that theater offers them. After the Sound Laboratory visit in 2017, one educator said: »Something like this should basically happen in the kindergarten every week.«

In 2020, the FRATZ Atelier took place at Podewil in Berlin Mitte..