09/10 season

In the Kulisse

Curtain up!

A theatre or house of culture should ideally be a place where people who are interested in culture and the arts can exchange views and ideas. This undoubtedly applies to Bayer’s house of culture, the Erholungshaus, when visitors come to see performances on the main stage or studio stage, or attend the official openings of art exhibitions. We would now like to encourage this interaction even more, so we are launching a new series of events under the heading In the Kulisse to give arts enthusiasts the opportunity to talk to one another, to the artists and to the Bayer Arts & Culture team both before and after an event.
Starting this season, our colleagues from the technical team will transform the Kulisse into a cosy bistro with a stage on at least twelve occasions a year. You will be amazed at the fantastic atmosphere that can be created with a few round tables, a red theatre curtain and professional lighting!
The series, organized in cooperation with Bayer Gastronomie, Bayer’s catering service, will be divided into three sections: Readings in the Kulisse is intended as a literary contribution to the theme of the season, with well-known authors being invited to read from their latest publications. Our Jazz in the Kulisse concerts, with optional brunch for all the family, are the ideal recipe for a “swinging” Sunday morning. During the concerts, there will be theatre activities on offer for children. Finally, Michael Vogt, Bayer Arts & Culture’s press officer, will conduct stimulating and no doubt entertaining Conversations in the Kulisse with well-known actors, theatre personalities and musicians. So make sure you’re there when the curtain goes up in the Kulisse!

Conversations in the Kulisse

Close encounters with the stars

Conversations in the Kulisse, conducted in the relaxed atmosphere of our theatre bistro, is a new series of events designed to give the public the opportunity to “rub shoulders” with some of the celebrities appearing in the Erholungshaus. Well-known stars of stage and screen, musicians, choreographers, dancers and directors will be invited to sit down on our sofa for a chat. These are the artists who make Bayer Arts & Culture what it is, and through our conversations with them we want to highlight the variety of our offering in the four sections MUSIC, DANCE, THEATRE and ART.

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Jazz in the Kulisse

Sunday morning jazz for all the family

With its Leverkusen Jazz Days and numerous other offers, Leverkusen is undeniably a centre of jazz. Our Sunday morning Jazz in the Kulisse concerts are not intended to compete with these events, but to complement them. As Sunday is normally a family day, we have arranged for experienced drama teachers to keep the children occupied during the concerts so that parents can relax and enjoy the music. The cost of this service is included in the price of the concert ticket. From 10 o’clock onwards, Frank Weiss and his team will provide a delicious brunch in the Kulisse for hungry jazz fans.
Brunch costs €11.50 for adults and €5.00 for children in addition to the concert ticket.

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Readings in the Kulisse

Mood of change

1989 marked the dawn of a new era in Europe and a fundamental change in the political landscape that resulted in a shift in the relationship between The Arts and Power, and not just in east European literature. The collapse of the Soviet satellite states, the disintegration and loss of everyday culture as it existed under the various socialist regimes, which were notorious for their mixture of restrictive cultural policies and favouritism, and the peaceful revolution in the former East Germany brought new challenges affecting work, life and literature. The spirit of optimism that prevailed at the time has been channelled into a process of realignment and reflection that has provoked widely differing reactions and many different forms of criticism, resistance and assimilation.
In our new series of Readings in the Kulisse, we have invited authors to present texts which, in their view, deal with central aspects of the developments that have taken place in the 20 years since the collapse of the Berlin wall. Our starting-point was the observation that, in this age of globalization and the Internet, literature and theatre, too, are affected by a radical change in values and functions. Traditional ways of life and aesthetic models are absorbing influences from all over the world, so that we have to ask ourselves what the future of our national heritage looks like.

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