On 24 October 2026, the PAD Festival for Performing Arts & Digitality presented the OPEN-PORT-PRIZE for young directors and dramaturgy at a gala awards ceremony at the WARTBUNG in Wiesbaden. The 2026 OPEN-PORT PRIZE goes to the adaptation of Sonnenstrahl im Kopfsalat, to director Rahel Hofbauer, Team Flamboyance and the ensemble.
This installation-style theatre production, aimed at audiences aged ten and over, centres on David, who has dementia. He is constantly misplacing things, forgetting appointments and getting lost in his own flat – whilst in his brain, the two amino acids Tyra and Argi battle against forgetfulness. What might it look like inside a mind where memories are slowly being lost? And what remains when everything one has experienced has been forgotten? An immersive set design, spirited acting and complex sound design interact and together tell a story of the loss of memory, community and, ultimately, identity. In doing so, the production impressively demonstrates how technological means can be used to bring to life the intangible – the struggle with the relentless disease of dementia.
The jury explained its decision as follows: "In their emotional and imaginative production, they expand the tools of theatre, allowing us to experience what it means to accompany a person as they gradually fade away. The mechanisms of an organism affected by dementia serve as the narrative engine - an unpredictable experimental setup that guides us through a brain in the process of decay. The original theatrical text is reconfigured, expanded, and integrated with new technologies. To achieve this, the production creates an immersive stage environment, links performers with three-dimensional sound design, weaves connections between text and scenography, and marries spirited acting with precise technical execution.
We wish to support this approach—this commitment to utilizing every available narrative tool. Through the Open-Port Prize, we therefore invite director Rahel Hofbauer to further explore the potential of technology as an independent agent—a medium capable of conveying the seemingly incommunicable within the realm of theatre."
As part of this award, Rahel Hofbauer is invited to a one-month research residency at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality. There, she will have the opportunity to deepen her artistic work, benefiting from both content-related and technical support within an ideal working environment.
The OPEN-PORT-PRIZE for young directors and dramaturge was established in 2024 by the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund ans the German Academy for the Performing Arts; this year marks its second presentation. The prize aims to provide fresh impetus for artistic engagement with theatre in the age of digitality. Three productions - created by early-career professionals and students from Salzburg, Gießen, and Hamburg - were nominated, each demonstrating compelling, innovative approaches to the intersection of theatre and digital technology.
This year's jury for the OPEN-PORT-PRIZE consisted of:
DANIELA GINTEN, Festival Director and founder of PAD - Performing Arts & Digitality
MARCUS LOBBES, Artistic Director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund
KRISTINA MALYSEVA, author, dramaturg and director with a focus on AI-based storytelling; winner of the 2024 OPEN-PORT-PRIZE
LUKAS REHM, artist and musician working in the field of new media, installation art, documentation, experimental fiction, ans (music) theatre
HANKE WILSMAN and JOST VON HARLEẞEM, members of the performance collective F. Wiesel, whose theatre productions and installations combine analogue and digital technologies
The three nominated productions this year were:
SONNENSTRAHL IM KOPFSALAT – a sound-theatre piece based on the work of Holger Schober, by the collective Flamboyance
THE SERVICE – by Lili Süper
ZONES OF SIMULATION – Choreographies of Civilian Bodies in Military Training, by Mel Brinkmann
All productions were featured at this year’s PAD 04 Festival in Wiesbaden.