Theater in Saxony before: Where is the urgently needed funding?

Theater in Saxony before: Where is the urgently needed funding?

Zwickau, Deutschland - The Saxon theater are fighting for survival: The Plauen-Zwickau Theater is about to go bankrupt. Managing Director Sandra Kaiser explains that "the minimum has been reached". The merger of the theater from 2000 did not want to be given up, but now there are significant restrictions on offer. The house is not alone with that. The Saxon stage association reports that in addition to Plauen, theater in Freiberg-Döbeln, Annaberg-Buchholz, Bautzen, Görlitz-Zittau and the Saxon Philharmonic are also on the brink. The main cause is not only increasing energy costs, but above all the increased personnel costs, which cause unforeseeable stress due to regular tariff increases. As MDR reported, the theater managers have fixed financing quotas, but these do not cover the actual additional costs.

danger to the Saxon cultural landscape

The new chairman of the stage association, Daniel Morgenroth, calls for changes to the cultural area law. He criticizes the fact that the funding is stagnating and no dynamic adjustment is made, which brings the theater into an even more precarious location. 104.7 million euros are made available annually for cultural funding in Saxony, which should enable an improvement in income for theater and orchestras, as described Kulturland.sachsen.de . However, it remains to be seen whether the legal adjustments will come in time to save the endangered facilities. A reform of the Cultural Area Act is planned for 2025, but external votes suspect that it is too late to support the theater concerned.

Gastronomy is of central importance in performance houses and the financial pressure on theater is getting bigger. In Görlitz, for example, the district no longer has any funds available. The part of the household, which belongs to the cultural area distribution law, must be evaluated in the coming year in order to cope with the future challenges. The coalition agreement offers hope for more support, but concrete measures have so far been unclear, and the theater currently enjoys little planning security. Time is forced: 2025 could be a decisive turn of the year for many Saxon theater.

The ongoing pressure on the cultural scene in Saxony requires urgent, sustainable solutions to preserve the diversity and wealth of the Saxon theater landscape. The stage association warns: "Otherwise it is not ensured that the funds will arrive there", if not consistent measures will be taken soon.