Stadt. Land. Bühne.
Where people would normally be shopping, strolling or enjoying an ice cream, a theatre bus suddenly pulls up. The doors open – and public space becomes a stage.
Building on the Studiotour initiated by the Kooperative FUTUR OST, LFTS developed and realised Stadt. Land. Bühne. in 2026: a mobile mini-festival bringing current productions and artistic work from Saxony’s independent performing arts scene into public spaces.
From April to August, the project stopped in Görlitz, Zittau and Chemnitz. Theatre, dance, performance and circus encountered different urban spaces and festival formats. The programmes were selected and developed together with local artists and cultural practitioners, incorporating different perspectives from each city.
Review
Görlitz
Stadt. Land. Bühne. kicked off on 23 April as part of the 13th Saxon Theatre Meeting, on Demianiplatz in front of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater in Görlitz. As a showcase of Saxony’s theatre landscape, the Saxon Theatre Meeting brings together venues and theatre professionals from across the state.
Stadt. Land. Bühne. added a mobile perspective on the independent performing arts to the festival. For one day, the theatre forecourt became an open space for performances and encounters, featuring short performances, excerpts from productions, experimental scenes and participatory formats.
Zittau
Just one day later, the project continued to Zittau. This stop was also linked to the 13th Saxon Theatre Meeting. On the Theaterring in front of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater, the theatre bus invited visitors to spend an afternoon and evening discovering different approaches and ways of working in the independent performing arts, getting involved themselves and exchanging ideas.
Chemnitz
For its final stop, Stadt. Land. Bühne. joined the Verband der Freien Darstellenden Künste Chemnitz e.V. at KOSMOS Chemnitz. The large-scale cultural festival brings together music, art, sport and civic events, attracting around 75,000 visitors to Chemnitz in 2026. Stadt. Land. Bühne. marked the first time the independent performing arts from Saxony had their own dedicated stage at the festival.
The converted vintage bus once again became a temporary venue for theatre, dance, performance and contemporary circus from Chemnitz and across Saxony, while also building on the tradition of Chemnitz’s 10 × 10 Minutes showcase of the independent performing arts.
Selection & Collaboration
An important part of Stadt. Land. Bühne. was working with people and cultural practitioners from the respective local communities. For the stops in Görlitz and Zittau, the programme was selected together with Christiane Hoffmann (Project Manager, ViaThea / Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau), Rosalind Masson (dancer, choreographer and lecturer, and founder of TanzRaumGörlitz), Olaf Bretschneider (actor, director and writer at Dronte Theater), Anja Christina Carstensen (artist and spokesperson for the Görlitz branch of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and Ute Wunderlich (city councillor and President of Rotary Club Dreiländereck).
For the Chemnitz stop, the programme was curated together with Gabi Reinhardt (artist and board member of the Verband der Freien Darstellenden Künste in Chemnitz e.V.), Alexander Müller (former employee of the Chemnitz Youth Welfare Office and volunteer with the Chemnitz 2025 European Capital of Culture volunteer programme), Mira (young member of the Komplexkids theatre group at Taupunkt e.V. Chemnitz) and Sebastian Reichelt (Chair of the Board of Das Ufer e.V. and Chair of the Chemnitz SPD).
This brought a range of social perspectives into the programme development, making the specific local contexts an integral part of Stadt. Land. Bühne.
Perspective
The project opened up new ways of engaging with the performing arts and made their presence visible in a range of urban contexts. It created opportunities for artists and audiences to meet on equal terms, while fostering new connections between local practitioners and networks at state and national level.
As a mobile mini-festival, Stadt. Land. Bühne. also looks ahead: the project tests formats, collaborations and ways of working that could, in the future, feed into the development of a state-wide festival for the independent performing arts in Saxony.
The project is funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the Cultural Office of the City of Chemnitz, the Chemnitz-Mitte Citizens’ Platform as part of the Citizens’ Budget (funded from tax revenues of the City of Chemnitz), and the Carl & Marisa Hahn Foundation.
The Landesverband der Freien Theater in Sachsen e.V. and this project are co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.