founded in 1995 as a free drama group at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany.
This group is a collective of self-employed people who work in theatre and get together in order to develop concepts and production ideas for current projects. All members of Theater Triebwerk also work in other art related positions, as the group do not have own premises or regular funds at their disposal.
Productions so far were aimed at children as well as young people and adults. All those productions are linked through their focus on the use of live music on stage as a theatrical element, the interest in making narrative theatre more vivid and exploratory space for improvisation in which elements of linguistic, musical and choreographic nature can be found.
Theater Triebwek is working collectively and tries to realise new projects on the one hand with project related funds of the Kulturbehörde Hamburg and on the other hand through co-productions with other theatres. They neither get basic funds nor other main financial support and they are member of the ASSITEJ Deutschland and the KITSZ e.V. Hamburg.
2008 The Journey to Ugri-La-Brek, a co-production with the Theaterwerkstatt Hannover premieres in March, is represented on international festivals in Okinawa, Osaka (Japan) and Seoul (Korea) and is being awarded the Preis für Freies Kinder- und Jugendtheater der Niedersächsischen Lottostiftung; in June a co-production with Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel called The Hour of Beauty premieres at Kampnagel.
2007 Sounding suspicious, a new musical crime story, sees its premiere at the Fundus Theater and on July the 8th wins the Hamburger Kinder- und Jugendtheaterpreis. In summer, Moby Dick gives a guest performance in Vienna at the Theater der Jugend for two months, after that, rehearsals for the second co-production with Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel called The Hour of Beauty begin. It is premiered in May 2008.
2006 Odysseus is wrong is the first co-production with Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel and premieres in summer in the Hamburger Kammerspielen; another three weeks of giving guest performances of Moby Dick and A Friend for Boltan the Lion throughout the U.S.A.; development of A Christmas Carol at the Hamburger Kammerspiele in winter based on the book by Charles Dickens.
2005 Supervox is being produced in collaboration with Jan Pusch; Moby Dick is touring North America for the third time (Washington, Chicago); Little Werewolf by Cornelia Funke is brought to life at the Hamburger Kammerspiele.
2004 Moby Dick is on its second North American tour throughout Canada and the U.S.A., including the highlight of a two week stay at the New Victory Theater on Broadway, New York.
2003 Invitations for Moby Dick to London, the U.S.A. and Canada; in co-production with Theaterwerkstatt Hannover and Kampnagel Hamburg and amongst others the support of the Kulturbehörde Hamburg, Apt Pupil is developed, the first German theatre production based on material by Stephen King. The production is played at numerous German-speaking festivals in 2004. A Conspiracy of Stories is developed in 2003 as an Indian-German co-production with support of the Goethe-Institut Chennai (India) and the Kulturbehörde Hamburg. A third tour through India sees the play in Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore.
2002 Moby Dick and A Friend for Boltan the Lion follow the invitation of the Goethe-Institut for a journey through Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
2001 Invited by the Indian Government and the Goethe-Institut, The Life of Henry the Fifth and A Friend for Boltan the Lion are on a four week journey to play in India; Moby Dick and A Friend for Boltan the Lion travel to Belfast, Edinburgh and are on tour in Scotland; Macbeth is developed in co-production with the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater.
2000 Moby Dick is awarded the Traumspiele-Preis von Nordrhein-Westfalen accompanied by a recording by the ZDF (a major German TV station, broadcast in early 2001 on the channels Kinderkanal/Arte); The Story of the Tree by Swedish author Ingegerd Monthan is developed in co-production with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus; Moby Dick wins the Bayerischer Theaterpreis.
1998 A Friend for Boltan the Lion is awarded the Traumspiele-Preis von Nordrhein-Westfalen accompanied by a recording by the ZDF (broadcast February 20 1999 on Kinderkanal/Arte).
1997 The Life of Henry the Fifth is considered one of the ten most remarkable events in theatre of 1996 and as such is invited to the 4th Deutsches Kinder- und Jugendtheater-Treffen in Berlin.