Project at the Kammerspiele: Writing for the cognitively impaired – Munich

The selection of topics by the new Kammerspiele editorial team is in full swing: there is a lot from tame suggestions like “Together” to unusual titles like “Pearls and Wolves”. It’s the first session: Five editorial staff with and without cognitive impairment will edit texts here. The group of writers is also made up of people with and without disabilities. So it’s an exchange. How does this cooperation work best? And what do cognitively impaired people need in order to be able to work well? These questions are in the room. “Who am I?” someone then brings to the table as a suggested topic. “A pearl!” shouts the participant with the “pearl and wolves” suggestion and makes everyone laugh.

All five members of the editorial team are special characters. Regina Kögler, who works as an actress in the “Pennigparade creative laboratory” in Munich. Matthias Brücker, member of the ensemble at the Hora Theater in Zurich. And Dennis Seidel, actor of the Hamburg collective “My Ladies and Gentlemen”. The three are employed on the second job market, which offers secure jobs with a structured daily routine in so-called workshops for the physically and cognitively handicapped. And Johanna Kappauf and Fabian Moraw, who as ensemble members of the Kammerspiele even work 25 percent of the time on the job market. In order to have a structured routine every day, Johanna Kappauf also works in the workshop system. Fabian Moraw also works at the Kammerspiele alongside his work.

Because structure is particularly important for the everyday work of people with cognitive disabilities, explains Nele Jahnke, director at the Kammerspiele. She manages the project with Maja Polk, artistic production manager at the house, and author Ivna Žic. The directors have already worked closely with the two members of the Kammerspiele, Johanna Kappauf and Fabian Moraw. “Nele, you’re my second mother,” Fabian calls out during the session: In the Kammerspiele production “Dr. Berg,” which Moraw wrote, he and Jahnke play son and mother. “I wouldn’t be here without Nele,” he says, complimenting Jahnke who doesn’t want to hear. But when he says later that he “loves his life here,” she is happy.

The new editorial team will edit texts by writers with and without disabilities

A number of authors will write texts on the chosen topic. Short texts, between three lines and three pages, are the specifications. Well-known authors such as Sivan Ben Yishai, Natascha Gangl, Vedrana Klepica, Alex Fassberg, Julia Weber and Wolfram Lotz. And authors from theaters who specialize in professionalized collaboration with the cognitively impaired, such as Remo Beuggert and Simon Stuber from Zurich’s Hora Theater, Thomas Möller and Lina Strothmann from the collective “Meine Damen und Herren” in Hamburg and probably two members of the Styrian “Griessner Stadl”. The editorial group will then edit the texts.

But how exactly will the search for benchmarks in the duos look like? Basically no different than usual: It will never be about objective standards. You look for themes that resonate, for a structure that persuades, and for something that just touches the reader. And this is where one of the strengths of the texts for the cognitively impaired lies in the fact that they bring an unbiased view of things. And often bring a lot of themselves into their texts without filtering.

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An emotional approach to the world can be felt in many texts by people with cognitive disabilities

Dennis Seidel, for example, wrote lines in his text “Being in Love” that immediately make you think of him and Nieke. Nieke is: a catalog model cut out and glued to cardboard and Dennis’ girlfriend, whom he constantly holds in his hand during the session and caresses. Dennis has a melancholy streak that you can sense as soon as you meet him. And that’s why he doesn’t like it when people also talk about sad things: “Nieke and I, you can’t say anything sad about us,” he gets annoyed when the group briefly talks about the war. And at the same time his loving nature can be found in many places in the lyrics.

On the one hand, the project could therefore stimulate reflection on the possibilities, the working conditions that cognitively impaired, talented people need. And on the other hand, a nice result could emerge: literature that lets the reader find a way back to a more emotional perception of the world. The texts of all authors are to be published in a book at the end.