The PAD Festival (Performing Arts & Digitality), organised by the German Academy of Performing Arts, is the most important German-language festival for the new and fascinating possibilities of artistic expression in the age of digitality.
It addresses the fundamental challenges that the digitisation of all areas of life poses for the performing arts and presents projects at the interface between theatre, opera, dance, acoustic art, film and digitality. Award-winning productions by national and international artists, in which performative and digital elements merge into completely new theatrical formats, are accompanied by a specialist conference that offers theatre professionals a platform to exchange knowledge and experiences and discuss the significance of digital developments.
For the fourth edition of the PAD 04 festival from 22 to 25 October 2026, the German Academy of Performing Arts, together with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality, is awarding the OPEN PORT Prize for young directors and dramaturgs. Collectives and students of directing and dramaturgy, as well as young professionals (max. 2-3 professional preparatory works) who deal with theatre production in the age of digitality in their work are eligible to apply. This year, there will be a special focus on confronting or highlighting the potential and dangers of using AI technologies in aesthetic contexts.
Society and individuals experience the digital revolution as a daily challenge: from algorithmically controlled information flows to machines that seem to simulate empathy. What does community mean when public debates are shaped by platform logic? What does it mean to be human when creativity is increasingly produced by machines? And what does theatre mean when artificial systems themselves act performatively? The Open Port Prize invites young directors and dramaturgs to explore these questions artistically, expand on them and make them tangible.
Links to application videos of maximum 5 to 10 minutes in length with a brief description of the project/work and a short introduction of the participants can be sent to openport@darstellendekuenste.de by 31 March 2026.