Die Erfindung des Sitzens

In the organizer's words:

At work. At school. In parliament. On the train. At the theater, cinema, concert. In the café. At the dining table. Relaxed on the sofa. Alone or together. We sit and sit. On average up to 15 hours a day. And it's so comfortable, but it's bad for our bodies. Can sitting be different - and healthier? In a show workshop surrounded by a wide variety of seating options, a four-person research team is working feverishly on inventions and findings about sitting: a materials expert, a body and movement expert, a philosophical sitting enthusiast and a person responsible for community seating research. When one of the researchers wants to abolish sitting, a dispute arises. The four realize that their different views and research interests, combined with suggestions from the audience, have the potential to develop lively ideas for the future of sitting together.

With drama, dance, object theater and audience participation, sitting is examined in terms of its future viability in terms of cultural history, philosophy and posture.
In addition, with the production DIE ERFINDUNG DES SITZENS, the TDJW is testing what it takes to make a theater production more sustainable. An accompanying exhibition in the theater foyer encourages active participation, documents and symbolizes the sustainability-oriented artistic processes surrounding DIE ERFINDUNG DES SITZENS for all young spectators and their families or teachers. Thanks to funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation in the Zero - Climate Neutral Art and Culture Projects program, the TDJW is able to receive professional advice and support in this rehearsal process. Our aim is to produce in a resource-conserving way and to recycle as much as possible, to compensate for unavoidable environmental costs in a sensible way, to consider delivery routes and to determine CO2 emissions from both the theater and the audience. As a theater for young audiences, the TDJW thus contributes to education for sustainable development and actively participates in the efforts of the city of Leipzig to achieve the goal of a climate-neutral city administration.

Funded by the Zero - Climate Neutral Art and Culture Projects program of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

We would like to thank cultural scientist Hajo Eickhoff for his inspiring texts on the subject of sitting, which influenced our concept and text version. We would also like to thank him for his inspiring rehearsal visit and for allowing us to integrate selected text excerpts into the exhibition accompanying the production DIE ERFINDUNG DES SITZENS.

PREMIERE: Saturday, February 24, 2024