The OPEN-PORT-PRIZE 2026 for young directors was awarded for the second time this year by the German Academy of Performing Arts and the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund. It aims to provide fresh impetus for the artistic exploration of theatre in the digital age. The prize was open to students of directing and dramaturgy, as well as those at the start of their careers. The prize is not monetary, but comes with a one-month research residency at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund.
“The number of applications has doubled compared to the previous edition in 2024. So the directing prize has really struck a chord with young theatre practitioners,” says PAD Festival Director Daniela Ginten.
“We support the winner in Dortmund at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality by providing time, space, expertise and equipment, and we look forward to discovering new things ourselves through the inspiration provided by the next generation,” adds Marcus Lobbes, artistic director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality.
This year, three productions have been nominated for the OPEN PORT AWARD for young directors, all of which impress with their innovative approaches to theatre and digital media:
Sonnenstrahl im Kopfsalat by Holger Schober
Flamboyance Collective
The theatre project Sonnenstrahl im Kopfsalat is an immersive sound theatre piece for children aged 10 and over, which seeks to evoke and interpret the condition of ‘dementia’ through sound, and asks: what does it mean to forget? What does it look like inside a mind where memories are slowly fading away? And what remains once all memories, all experiences and everything learnt have vanished? The Flamboyance Collective and Ensemble take the audience on a journey into the mind of David Meiner. Through imaginative soundscapes, whimsical scenes and touching encounters, the ensemble explores what it might be like inside a mind where things no longer function as they once did. Amidst the challenges of dementia, solidarity and care, a sound theatre piece emerges about what defines us – and what remains, even when we can no longer put it into words.
The Flamboyance collective, comprising Rahel Hofbauer, Charlotte Streicher, Paul Meister and Aaron Herold, was founded whilst the members were studying at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.
The Service
Lili Süper
During the festival, the artist will be available as a performer for several hours: during this time, she will walk through the city of Wiesbaden, carrying out tasks assigned to her live by visitors. The only restriction on these tasks is that they must not put either the performer or other people in danger. Lili’s blue skin colour and the live camera feed gamify this intervention in the contemporary urban space. The third-person perspective places the audience in a voyeuristic and powerful position, from which they decide on Lili’s next steps whilst looming over her fate.
Lili Süper is a multimedia artist who creates performative installations for exhibition spaces as well as immersive theatre pieces in which the audience actively participates. She studied at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HFBK) and on the Art and Ecology programme at Goldsmiths, University of London, supported by scholarships from the DAAD and the German National Academic Foundation.
Zones of Simulation
Mel Brinkmann
Zones of Simulation is a dance performance for people with and without visual impairments. It explores the concept of so-called COBs (civilians on the battlefield): extras who, for military training purposes, re-enact the roles of civilians in real conflict and war scenarios on a battlefield. The movements of the COBs during these exercises – which the performers know only from accounts – are transferred via motion capture technology into a digital space: a virtual training village for soldiers and extras. In this way, military technology is used to create a choreography of grief and flight.
The integrated artistic audio description in spoken German guides the audience through the multi-layered narratives, movements and visual spaces. A tactile tour for blind and visually impaired visitors takes place before the performance.
Mel Brinkmann is a choreographer, performer and director. Following her training in contemporary and classical dance at IWANSON international and OPUS Ballet Florence, she studied at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and was a scholarship holder of the international exchange programme CHANGE NOW! with the Akademia Teatralna in Warsaw and DAS Theatre Amsterdam.
A five-member jury, comprising renowned theatre professionals, will decide on the winner of this year’s OPEN PORT PRIZE. This year’s jury is composed as follows:
DANIELA GINTEN, Festival Director and Founder of the PAD Performing Arts & Digitality Festival
MARCUS LOBBES, Artistic Director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality
KRISTINA MALYSEVA, writer, dramaturg and director specialising in AI-based storytelling. She was the winner of the 2024 OPEN PORT PRIZE
LUKAS REHM, artist and musician working in the fields of new media, installation art, documentary, experimental fiction and (musical) theatre
HANKE WILSMANN and JOST VON HARLEẞEM, founder and co-founder of the performance collective F. Wiesel, whose theatre productions and installations combine analogue and digital technologies.
All nominated productions will be on show at this year’s PAD 04 Festival in Wiesbaden. The announcement and award ceremony for the OPEN PORT PRIZE will take place on Saturday 24 October at 8.00 pm at the Wartburg in Wiesbaden.
As the leading German-language festival exploring new possibilities for artistic expression in the digital age – held in collaboration with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund and the Hessian State Theatre in Wiesbaden – PAD 04 once again presents intriguing hybrid formats, often combining live performance with installation or VR immersion. The events span the fields of theatre, opera, dance, sound art, film and digitality.
The PAD Festival of Performing Arts & Digitality is thus the only theatre festival in Germany to present a cross-disciplinary overview of the current state of digital practice in the performing arts. PAD04 will take place from 22–25 October 2026 at various venues in Wiesbaden. These include the Studio and Wartburg at the Hessian State Theatre in Wiesbaden, the Dostoyevsky Hall at the Kurhaus, the crypt of the Marktkirche and the Assize Court at the Heimathafen.
The detailed programme will be published in early September. Ticket sales will also begin then. Further information is available at https://performingarts.digital
PAD04 is funded by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and the City of Wiesbaden, and supported by the National Performance Network for Theatre Touring (Nationale Performancenetz Gastspielförderung Theater), which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the ministries of culture and the arts of the federal states. Media partners are Die Deutsche Bühne and SENSOR WIESBADEN.
The latest information is also always available on the festival’s social media channels at
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/padfestival?igsh=NHI5aWh2enhwdml2
and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/NLgJBMPMeRRvx19r/
INFORMATION on the German Academy of Performing Arts (organiser)
The German Academy of Performing Arts was founded in Hamburg in 1956 as a non-profit association. Its aim is to set the tone and establish standards for cultural life through discussions, statements and events on current topics and developments. This encompasses all disciplines of the performing arts, such as theatre, opera, dance, film, television and radio. With its current membership of around 500, the Academy possesses unrivalled expertise. The President is Prof. Hans-Jürgen Drescher (former President of the August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich), Vice-President Caroline von Senden (Head of ZDF’s Television Drama Editorial Department), Vice-President Marcus Lobbes (Director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality, Dortmund) and Treasurer Barbara Schäfer (former Radio Drama and Feature Producer at DLF Kultur/DLF).
Press contact: Romina Neu | 0174 3901133 | presse@darstellendekuenste.de
Romina Neu
PR and Marketing
P A D 04 – Performing Arts & Digitality | Festival
22–25 October 2026, Wiesbaden
Mobile: 0174 3901133
romina.neu@neu-pr.de
Organiser:
German Academy of Performing Arts
Daniela Ginten (Managing Director)
Kaplaneigasse 7
64283 Darmstadt