36 angehende Künstlerinnen und Künstler aus 20 Ländern nahmen an dem „Next Generation“ Programm von „Augenblick mal!“, dem Festival des Theaters für junges Publikum vom 21. bis 26.4.15 in Berlin teil. Die folgenden Statements bringen die Haltung der Nachwuchskünstler zum Kinder- und Jugendtheater zum Ausdruck.

I love TYA because it allows me to be part of painting a better picture for our grandchildren to live in.
(Mthokozisi Zulu, 24, South Africa)

I want to continue working in TYA to give the audience the experience I’ve had as a child when I visited a theatre with my mother.
(Nishna Mehta,19, India)

What makes me work in TYA
love!
love for art.
love for young people.
love for my environment, my country, my world!
love for words.(written or spoken)
love for change, for growth, for developments
love to listen and be heard.
love that transcends time.
(Momodu Ehizua Innocent, 21, Nigeria)

What makes me work in TYA? That it is a huge challenge because young audiences are the hardest recipients of theater you can get. They can show you best if your theater work works out or if it doesn’t. Besides I think it is an enrichment because they open you new perspectives of thinking.
(Anabel Hogefeld, 24, Germany)

My dream for TYA: The perfect TYA would be accessible to anyone, regardless of the nationality, age and social class. It should be intelligent, interactive, thought-provoking as well as widely respected and supported by the society.
(Lucas Franken, 23, Germany)

I love TYA because it is a great opportunity to communicate with children and young people from a different perspective. Create new codes and trespassing the limits of the obvious.
(Josefina Piñeirúa, 26, Uruguay)

My dream for TYA is … that there will be the same respect and appreciation for it than there is for the „normal“ theatre.
(Meike Hedderich, 24, Germany)

My wish for TYA is that it’ll improve its status at the opera houses. Beyond the traditional fairy-tale-like operas, such as „Hänsel und Gretel”, or simplifications of masterworks (for example „Der Ring für Kinder“), there are plenty of new forms to find and lots of stories to tell!
(Joanna, 22, Germany)

I love TYA because it contributes to emancipation of a young audience.
(Jean Jacques, Cameron)

I love the challenge of communicating with an audience whose world is growing every day. I love getting to know the specifics of what it means to be two or nine or 15. I love finding new ways to think about childhood and children. I love challenging adult’s perceptions of what children are capable of. I love getting lost in the imagination and logic and sensibility of children. I love sharing my work with an audience who are so open to new experiences.
(Joanna Evans, 25, South Africa)

I love TYA because…it is sincere, enchanting, thrilling and identity-forming.
(Anja Ruschival, 26, Germany)

What makes me work in TYA? In Brazil, we face the reality of children and youth rights not being respected – the rights to integrity, equality of treatment, health, a non-violent education. It is urgent to develop artistic forms which value the perspective of youth. An exchange program like this brings new questions and make it possible for us to see the world and theatre in different ways.
(Carolina Chmielewski Tanaka, 28, Brazil)

What makes me work in TYA? I want to push and to develop TYA as an artistical research between different generations, cultures and individuals as a way to experience and to express its own feelings, dreams and stories, to bring people together and to make it available for everyone, not important from which place or position this person comes from.
(Petra Jeroma, 24, Germany)

My Dream for TYA is… That everyday at least one child in the world could get enough hope and confidence for a Big smile.
(Karina, 24, Mexico)

My dream for TYA is to be equally valued as theatre for adults and to be taken seriously, receive the appreciation it deserves everywhere in the world.
(Bojana Babic, 24, Serbia)

My dream for TYA is to create a platform in Nigeria where young people all over the country can have access to the theatre, its surroundings and opportunities. Where there would be a specially dedicated TYA in every state in Nigeria.
(Jeramiah, Nigeria)

I would like to work towards building stronger networks of young artists. Encourage festivals like ‚Next Generation‘. Allow the culture of discussions after performances to grow, so that the coming generation can create and live in an environment which constantly stimulates them to break further barriers which divide humanity.
(Ishu, India)

My dream for TYA is to change positively my society through the theater and to inspire young people in theater domain.
(Ernest Ndagijimana, 25, Rwandese)

I love TYA because of the magic that happens, when there is something happening on stay and the young audiences is totally into it. I love the immense energy, the focus, the openness, the love, the curiosity and all the other big and little things.
(Nina, Germany)

I love TYA because it is absolutely fun. (Both of making and doing shows!) My Dream for TYA is to make the show for everyone could see it happily. What makes me work in TYA? – Interest and impression.
(Jungeun, South Korea)

I can talk about two dreams for Theatre for Young Audiences in my country. For some of the theatre workers in Argentina TYA is considered as a lower, easy form of theatre. My dream would be to make up for this, and show that working for younger audiences involve a lot of work and research. On the other side in my city there are lots of plays for children and adults, but there is almost nothing for teenagers. It seems that this audience almost doesn’t exist. It is very uncommon for a teenager to go to the theatre by himself, so my other dream would be to create a form of theatre that is atractive for teenagers, so they can have theatre as an option.
(Fransisco, Argentina)

I work in TYA because I feel there’s a lot of work to do in Argentina. TYA is still considered a lower discipline in the arts, despite it‘ enormous potential. It has practically no presence at universities and research forums, and no recognition or prestigie in the theatre field. I believe that experiences such as forums, international festivals, workshops and exchange projects are huge contributions to the development of the field, because they allow theatre workers to see and compare their work and specially learn from other experiences.
(Martina, Argentina)