There you go! While two listed halls a few hundred meters away have been waiting for years to be used for the cultural scene, at Dachauer Straße 110d things are being done without further ado. The Pathos Theater has always resided at this address on the ground floor, while on the floor above there was a possibility room in a deep slumber. Around 600 square meters, previously used by the health department as an archive, are being handed over to the Freie Bühne München (FBM) without any noticeable fanfare.
Nothing has been renovated yet, and yet Angelica Fell proudly guides us through her future domicile, in which, in addition to a huge main rehearsal room lined with windows, several smaller ones are to be used for scene studies, as an office, kitchenette, meeting, media and retreat rooms . Not a luxury, because the FBM is an inclusive ensemble and trains actors with various physical and cognitive impairments and special needs. For example after a personal approach, a fixed daily structure, privacy and quiet.
Five students were brought up to stage maturity, four now belong to the ensemble of the Kammerspiele
“In October we will be adding a student with an autism spectrum disorder,” says Fell. And the mother of a theater-loving son with Down’s syndrome, who founded the non-profit association Freie Bühne München/FBM eV in 2013 with like-minded people, knows that he needs other things than a colleague who is in a wheelchair. Since 2015, a number of in-house productions have been created and five students have been brought up to stage maturity, four of whom have been part of the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele since the 2020/21 season.
The unique cooperation – the “Munich Model” – is now being funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. And the FBM itself is now recognized as an institution by the city and receives 120,000 euros a year. And since the topic of inclusion has also arrived in film, the FBM can hardly cast its protégés for its own productions. A success story – which almost came to an abrupt halt when the repeatedly extended spatial provisional in Neuhausener Kult 9 finally came to an end.
The current ensemble of the Freie Bühne is happy about the new rooms.
(Photo: Johann Miedl)
The search for new rooms always ends at the latest “when we’ve said what we need,” says Fell. And the archive rooms only became an option when culture officer Anton Biebl said he wanted to see people instead of paper in them, says Marcus Streck from the culture department, who, as a kind of good spirit of the house, was working with the actors Dennis Fell-Hernandez and Frangiskos Kakoulakis set up a clothes rack in the rehearsal room. The matter became a top priority, the municipal department went along with it, as did deputies from several town hall parties. And then quick, unbureaucratic help can sometimes work.
It is one thing that the local building commission responds to an application for a change of use more promptly if the cultural department reports priority. But even a market rent would have broken the neck of the project. The Münchner Gewerbehof- und Technologiezentrums GmbH (MGH) would have asked for around 103,000 euros per year as the owner of the rooms. They have now been declared urban cultural promotion areas and can be used rent-free. “That cost us,” says Streck, “a few curves.”
The rooms are to be occupied by October 1st
On the other hand, the mission “a roof over your head and a ground under your feet” (Streck) is remarkably pragmatic and straight ahead. static? Check! Fire protection? Check! Substances hazardous to health in walls and pipes? Check and countercheck! The rest can grow. “Not a luxury, but a start” is the motto – “and a perspective”.
The rooms are to be occupied by October 1st, and the first premiere of “Romeo and Juliet” is scheduled for the 15th. But as before, it will take place elsewhere, because a theater open to the public will not be the first real home of Freie Bühne München. In order to get that approved, you would have had to tweak completely different things, Streck confirms, while Angelica Fell is looking forward to inviting more students and potential partners to the “inspiring premises” in the middle of the creative district and “gradually testing them out what we need for inclusive artistic work” – as a kind of laboratory for the Kammerspiele and everyone else who wants to venture into this open field.