“Chiselled art of perfection was and is not how life works for me. Against the cliché of the lonely genius who, withdrawn from life, creates an unchanging masterpiece and ruthlessly monitors its performance, I set a form of collective creation. The pieces of THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE are created in an intensive process with the ensemble. Only feedback, ideas and questioning make the artistic quality possible”.

JÖRG U. LENSING, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The THEATER DER KLÄNGE

Contemporary music and dance theatre

Since its foundation in Düsseldorf in 1987, THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE has offered a free, contemporary cultural programme that is developed with passion for an interested audience and aims to provide aesthetic, intellectual and sensual pleasure. As a professional artists’ theatre, the ensemble has dedicated itself to the development of innovative, multi-media stage forms.

The ensemble’s way of working is characterised by the interdisciplinary, collective creative process: dancers, actors and musicians work together with the director, choreographer, composer and media artists on a daily basis over a period of at least two to three months. This integrative, intermedia approach creates unique theatre experiences with a clear focus on music theatre.

In its artistic work, THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE deals intensively with cultural heritage. Numerous productions have been dedicated to the Bauhaus heritage, but theatre forms from the Baroque period, medieval mystery plays and ancient comedy have also been reinterpreted. In the modern era, the Piscator Theatre, the 1920s revue and the theories of the architect Le Corbusier inspired the ensemble’s experimental productions.

Since 1987, THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE has developed 30 different plays, which have been seen by over 100,000 spectators in more than 650 performances. Guest performances have taken the theatre company to 70 cities worldwide, including Berlin, Munich, Rotterdam, Paris, Avignon, Salonika, Tel Aviv, Moscow and New Delhi.

Since 1997, the theatre has expanded its work into other media and has published three books, thirty video documentaries, one feature film, four documentaries, six dance films, three music CDs and three audio books. Major solo exhibitions at the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf (2012) and the ACC-Galerie Weimar (2019) honoured this diverse artistic work.

THE THEATER DER KLÄNGE has been continuously supported by the Cultural Office of the state capital Düsseldorf since 1987 and by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 1991. Since 2014, the ‘Klangtheater e.V.’ association has also supported the productions financially. The artistic office, workshops and rehearsal studio have been located in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort since 1991.

Productions

Years of existence

Contributors

Spectators

Venues worldwide

Shows

Jörg U. Lensing: Founder, artistic and organizational director of THEATER DER KLÄNGE

“The canvas is white, ready to be painted!”

With the THEATER DER KLÄNGE Jörg U. Lensing has developed a three-phase model. As soon as the theme, the thematic challenge, the formal solution and possible inspirations for forms are available, an ensemble is put together, which almost always consists of a mixture of musicians / composers, actors and dancers. Everything starts with improvising, talking and visioning. This also includes watching videos from one’s own work, as well as from the work of others, whose formal solutions seem useful for the topic. Otherwise the room, the stage and the director’s book are empty.

Jörg U. Lensing is a composer and director from Düsseldorf. He studied “Composition” at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and further “Music Theater” at the Musikhochschule Köln. Founder and chairman of the board of THEATER DER KLÄNGE e.V. and artistic and organisational director. Works full-time as professor for sound design for the study course Film&Sound at the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund. In addition to teaching and theatre activities, he is also active as a film composer, author and publisher/translator of French professional literature.

“To found our own theatre means: This is us, it belongs to us, we do what we have taken this profession for.”

Trained as a professional dancer through a ballet school in Athens and further dance studies in France, Jacqueline Fischer worked as a dancer in Geneva before coming to Essen for further studies in contemporary dance at the Folkwang Hochschule.

In addition to engagements at the Wuppertal Dance Theatre, the Folkwang Dance Studio, the Ballets Atlantique (La Rochelle) or the Basel Theatre (Joachim Schlömer), as well as at the Salzburg Festival, Jacqueline Fischer has also repeatedly been active as a dancer and actress in productions of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE. Since the end of her dancing career in 2003, she increasingly took over the choreographic responsibility for pieces of the THEATER DER KLÄNGE.

In addition to her full-time work for THEATER DER KLÄNGE, Jacqueline Fischer also works as a dance teacher (Diplome d’Etat – Pedagogical Degree – Minstère de la Culture (Paris)) and has been an active member of the Düsseldorf Theatre Advisory Board for many years.

Jacqueline Fischer, Choreographer, dancer. Founder and vice-chairwoman of the board of directors of THEATER DER KLÄNGE e.V. and thus also second artistic director.