2011 Impulse Award for Institutet (Sweden) and Nya Rampen (Finland)
>> Goethe Institute Award for She She Pop and their fathers and Andros Zins-Browne / Ditmar N. Schmidt Award for Anna Mendelssohn

With the award presentation in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf,on Sunday, 10 July 2011 the anniversary edition of the Impulse Theater Festival by the NRW KULTURsekretariat has reached its conclusion. The festival took place for the first time in its 20-year history in the summer. Over the course of 12 days a total of 10,000 spectators enjoyed some 70 events at the most important event for German autonomous theatre in the cities of Bochum, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Mülheim an der Ruhr. This includes the 1,100 guests who came to ExtraSchicht on 9 July 2011 at the Ringlokschuppen in Mülheim. 

>> 2011 award winners: Institutet & Nya Rampen, Andros Zins-Browne and She She Pop, as well as Anna Mendelssohn
Conte d’Amour by the two groups Institutet and Nya Rampen and Berlin-based director Markus Öhrn was selected as the best off-theatre production. As a result Conte d’Amour will be shown at next year’s Berliner Theatertreffen and at the Wiener Festwochen. For the first time the production will also be performed during the Polish Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatraine festival in collaboration with Tam'Tam, the 2011-2012 Polish-NRW cultural season. This year’s Goethe Institute award went to two groups: She She Pop and their Fathers for Testament and Andros Zins-Browne for The Host. With the support of the Goethe Institute both productions will set out on an international tour next year. Named after the former Impulse director, the 1,500 Euro Ditmar N. Schmidt award for an outstanding solo artistic performance goes this year to Anna Mendelssohn for Cry Me A River.

This year the jury included the theatre and film actor Caroline Peters; the director of the Kaaitheater in Brussels, Guy Gypens; as well as Matthew Fenton, director of Live at LICA, an interdisciplinary institution for art at the University of Lancaster. Also serving on the jury were the director of the NRW KULTURsekretariat, Dr. Christian Esch; Martin Berg from the Goethe Institute; as well as the festival’s artistic directors Matthias von Hartz and Tom Stromberg.

Here you can download the recent press release.

A collection of press commentaries on Theatre Festival Impulse 2011 you can find here.