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Director of the Coburg State Theater: New procedure required!
Coburg discusses the tender for the directorship of the State Theater. The city council recommends transparency and discretion.
Director of the Coburg State Theater: New procedure required!
The Coburg State Theater is facing significant upheaval. The city council has made a recommendation to the theater committee to advertise the theater's directorship again in the future. This reports np-coburg.de. During the meeting it also became clear that both the city and the Free State of Bavaria bear responsibility for the Coburg State Theater. However, the exact modalities of the artistic director election are not easy, as they require a balance between discretion for the candidates and transparency towards the public and theater staff.
Last year, the German Theater Association presented a new model for finding directors that promises to ensure both discretion and transparency. A recommendation from the Cultural Committee of the German Association of Cities underlines the importance of this model as a helpful orientation in the process of choosing an artistic director.
Questions about the artistic director’s contract extension
The future of Neil Barry Moss, the acting director, is currently up for debate. Twelve members of the Coburg City Council have made a cross-party inquiry about the possible extension of Moss' contract. Mayor Dominik Sauerteig (SPD) then answered seven questions on this topic. He made it clear that no personnel policy decisions are made publicly in the theater committee. This could sow doubts about the legitimacy of the decisions, said Sauerteig. Franconian day.
The mayor's answers were received differently, especially by CSU politician Antoinetta Bafas, who expressed dissatisfaction and rejected the accusation that they wanted to cast doubts about the legitimacy of the decisions. Their intention is to bring more transparency to the processes.
Challenges in the director's system
The topic of directorship is not only locally important, but also raises larger questions about theater operations in German-speaking countries. How nachtkritik.de reports, the Karlsruhe State Theater recently experienced a demonstrative confrontation when over 300 theater employees protested against grievances in the management system.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland the internal power structures in theaters could be comparable, but there are important differences in the political and cultural contexts. The supervisory bodies in particular play a central role in monitoring and protecting against abuse of power. The introduction of standards for so-called “cultural governance”, especially in the Benelux countries, could one day also spread to Germany.
In this area of tension, the future direction of the Coburg State Theater will be crucial. The upcoming decisions could not only influence the direction of the theater, but also provide information about the collective trust in the entire system of theater management and supervision in Germany.