Theatertage am See

The venue of the Festival

The Theatertage am See is one of the most significant international amateur theatre festivals and has been held in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance since 1984.

History

The festival is among the largest events for European school, youth, and amateur theatre. Each year, participants gather at the Bodensee-Schule St. Martin in Friedrichshafen for several days of workshops and courses. Amateur theatre productions from across Europe are invited to compete. In recent years, the festival has also hosted justBW, the Youth and School Theatre Days of Baden-Württemberg.

In November 1984, the city’s youth department invited amateur theatre groups to a meeting at “Die Molke,” where groups from the Lake Constance district and even a patient group from Bad Schussenried performed over a weekend. Fifteen months later, the event moved to the Bodensee-Schule St. Martin under the name “2nd Häfler Theatertage.” In 1987, it was first called Theatertage am See and has since developed into a leading international amateur theatre festival. The 40th festival was held in 2025. Since its founding in 1984, it has featured 745 performances with around 10,000 actors and approximately 150,000 spectators. There have been 915 theatre workshops with about 12,000 participants and 20 teacher training courses in theatre education, resulting in more than 300 trained teachers. Over time, an estimated 20,000 students from all school types have taken part in theatre projects.

The Theatertage am See Friedrichshafen e.V. association organizes and supports regional school projects, language support programs, theatre courses, performances, and teacher training in theatre education. Since 2009, the association has had its own ensemble, Theater Oberschwaben-Bodensee (TOB), and the youth variety troupe Kraball. In January 2013, the improvisation theatre group Utobia (Umwerfende Teutonisch Oesterreichische Bühnen Initiativen AG) was founded under the association’s umbrella. During the 30th festival in April 2014, a new circus project, the Circus Academy, was introduced.

For its youth theatre movement European Theatre Adventure, initiated by the association, the organization received the Innovation Award from the Fonds Soziokultur, funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, in 2008.[1]