Masterclass "Wort und Spiel" mit Johanna Kappauf und Nele Jahnke (Münchner Kammerspiele)

The masterclass "Word and play"

Date: June 14 and 15, 2025 (Saturday and Sunday) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day

Number of participants: max. 15 participants

Language: German spoken language

Website: Un-Label

Description:

"Why is it so hard to sort your thoughts? Because my thoughts work far too much. If it's difficult to make my own decisions, for example which cake to have, then others usually decide for me.

Language is inside me. It doesn't want to get out (...) I can't stay with one thought. My brain and my language go on a journey and I want to go with them."

-Johanna Kappauf-

The two-day masterclass "Words and Play" with speakers Johanna Kappauf and Nele Jahnke combines intuitive writing methods with playful improvisation and invites you to rediscover your own languages.

In the first part of the masterclass, we will focus entirely on inspiration. Johanna Kappauf and Nele Jahnke will present texts by authors with different ways of learning and focus on Johanna Kappauf's intuitive writing methodology. Starting from this basis, we will begin to approach our own languages. It's about finding the courage to think and write beyond orthographic norms. Or, for those who prefer not to write, perhaps even to paint.

The resulting texts are reflected on together in a feedback session. It is based on a methodology that the speakers developed together with artistswith and without other learning opportunities as part of the publication of Perlen und Wölfe. This reflection does not serve as a critique, but rather opens up new perspectives for understanding one's own language and the language of others. The resulting texts serve as a starting point for joint improvisations, which are developed with the help of scores (instructions).

On the second day, the focus is on playful improvisation. We want to immerse the participants uninhibitedly in the game and develop the courage to discover new poetic spaces - without fear of failure in improvisation.

Using simple techniques, the participants explore their relationship to the space and to each other. Scenes emerge from "nothing" - a technique of zero improvisation.

What can participants expect?

- Enjoy experimenting: no previous knowledge is required
(but a willingness to play! 😊 )

- From play to play: Simple theater games create encounters that lead us to improvised scenes.

- Text methodology: Inspired by Johanna Kappauf's intuitive writing methodology, the participants develop their own texts or, if desired, images on a given topic.

- Nullimprovisation: Respect and acceptance for the ideas of others create a space for creative development. It is precisely at the moment of supposed failure that scenic moments arise that nobody could have thought up. The methods of free improvisation are taught in a playful way, tried out together and combined with the texts created in the workshop.

The masterclass is aimed at professional and semi-professional artists with and without disabilities from the performing arts: directors, dramaturges, performers, actors, dancers, choreographers, musicians, authors as well as cultural workers and interested parties.

Johanna Kappauf

Johanna Kappauf worked at SWW München Weberei after finishing school and played in the theater group "Die Blindgänger". She took part in inclusion workshops at the Otto Falckenberg School in 2019 and 2020. She was first engaged as a guest at the Münchner Kammerspiele for the production "Heidi weint". She has been a permanent member of the Münchner Kammerspiele ensemble since the 22/23 season and continues to work part-time at the weaving mill at her own request. She has performed in "Amerika" (dir: Charlotte Sprenger), "Anti-gone - Sophokles in Leichter Sprache" (dir: Nele Jahnke), "Oh Schreck" (dir: Jan Christoph Gockel), among others. In September 2022, she was awarded the Therese Giehse Prize for her acting performance in the production "Wer immer hofft, stirbt singend" (directed by Jan Christoph Gockel). In July 2023, she was awarded the sponsorship prize of the Verein zur Förderung der Münchner Kammerspiele e.V. Johanna Kappauf also writes poems and texts.

The Münchner Kammerspiele is a pioneer in the German-speaking theater landscape: the Kammerspiele is the only municipal theater in Germany to employ actors* with other learning opportunities and physical disabilities in its ensemble.

Nele Jahnke

Nele Jahnke studied theater directing at the Zurich University of the Arts. She then worked for many years as an artistic assistant and artistic co-director of Theater HORA in Zurich, trying to strengthen the visibility and co-determination of artists with disabilities in the theater and in public perception. She directed various projects with the HORA ensemble and initiated mediation and audience formats. Together with Michael Elber and Marcel Bugiel, she conceived and directed the long-term experiment "Freie Republik HORA", in which the ensemble realized its own directorial works. In 2019, she was awarded the Canton of Zurich's Cultural Promotion Prize.

Since 2020, she has been part of the artistic management team of the Münchner Kammerspiele as a dramaturge and director, where she is responsible for the development and implementation of the All Abled Artsdepartment and is trying to make the municipal theater more inclusive step by step. In 2023, for example, she staged"Anti∙gone " based on Sophocles in plain language and developed a relaxed performance format for the Kammerspiele with "Hamlet meets The Lion King".

Language: The masterclass will be held in German spoken language.

Accessibility:
All event rooms are barrier-free. Assistance dogs are welcome.

• Accessible for wheelchair users, at ground level
• Barrier-free bathroom with shower and toilet incl. a hoist for wheelchair users
• Barrier-free access to the garden possible thanks to stairlift for wheelchair users
• Automatic door opener
• 3 dedicated disabled parking spaces in front of the door
• 1 additional disabled parking space of the city of Cologne around the corner
• Public transport: The barrier-free "Lenauplatz" stop on line 5 is 100 meters away

If required, we can provide the following assistance, please indicate this when registering:

• Interpreting into German sign language (DGS)
• Work assistance or mobility assistance on site (provided by Un-Label if required)