From 5 to 7 February 2026, the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” will hold a conference entitled “Strukturwandel des Publikums? Konsequenzen des digitalen Wandels für den Zugang zum Theater” (“Structural transformation of the audience? Consequences of digital transformation for access to theatre”, in German).
Venue: Studiobühne at the Philosophical Seminar (Philosophikum) of the University of Münster, Domplatz 23, 48143 Münster.
Registration: If you would like to participate, please register by 15 January 2026 at kfg.zugang@uni-muenster.de.
Scientific Organisation: Lisa-Maria Meier and Finn Marz
Programme: The programme will be available here shortly.
The conference will focus on examining the transformation of theatre in the present day. Audiences and performers no longer always share the same physical space; immediate co-presence is being transformed by digital formats. New media forms of reception such as theatre streaming, hybrid performances, immersive spaces and interactive performances are not only changing the relationship between stage and audience, but also raising the question: Who does make theatre? And for whom? ‘High-class theatre’ for an audience in suits or evening gowns is increasingly being replaced by low-threshold, experimental formats in which the audience sometimes becomes part of the action itself – for example, VR productions such as Die Wand (360°) by Schauspiel Essen or participatory plays by the German-Swiss group Rimini Protokoll.
These developments motivate the conference’s central question: How is digital transformation changing the conditions of access to theatre? The focus is on new opportunities for participation as well as on potential challenges for theatre. We want to examine how the aesthetics and social functions of theatre are changing as a result of digital transformations and what consequences this has for the relationship between the stage and the audience. Regardless of the increased use of digital technologies, is theatre still an independent medium or form of art, or is it increasingly moving closer to film and gaming?
Speakers
- Lukas Baueregger (State Theatre Augsburg)
- Prof. Pablo Dornhege (University of Applied Sciences Berlin)
- Dr. Nicolas Kleinschmidt (RWTH Aachen)
- Prof. Dr. Heidi Liedke (Goethe-University Frankfurt)
- Marcus Lobbes (Academy for Theatre and Digitality, Dortmund)
- Lisa-Maria Meier, M.A. (University of Münster)
- Nina Mühlemann, Prof. Dr. Yvonne Schmidt and Thubten Jonas Shontshang (Bern University of Applied Sciences)
- Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker (University of Münster)
- Improvisational duo from Momentum (Christian Berlin and Dr. Laura Berkemeyer)