The outgoing director of the Tiroler Landestheater, Johannes Reitmeier, who is handing over the reins to Irene Girkinger after around ten years after the 2022/23 season, wants to achieve increasing audience rejuvenation in the remaining time. “In any case, we have to win more young adults for our cultural institution,” said Reitmeier in the APA interview.
“Big names” may also be helpful in attracting this young audience to the state theater, says Reitmeier. He emphasized that the music education programs and concepts of the house should definitely be followed. “You have to ask yourself, now and in the future, what kind of theater this target group expects and wants,” he said.
It is also increasingly topical and general in the Tyrolean state theater business that young people are also part of a discussion process. “Fortunately, that’s already the case for us,” he stated unequivocally. What he definitely does not want, however, is a “pandering” to young people and young adults. That wouldn’t be “authentic” for the traditional house, said the native of the Upper Palatinate. He is also still convinced that young people are “interested in stories that the theater tells”.
In this matter, it is important to bring the “analogue live experience of a theater evening” closer to this segment of the audience,” said Reitmeier. It should also be conveyed to this audience that state theater productions “can both entertain and educate,” he deleted Personally, he would prefer it not only to succeed in the game plan balance in the seasons as a whole, but also to show it in the individual plays and works themselves.
Despite this ideal of a staging, he stands up for “artistic diversity” and therefore refuses to speak of a “Reitmeier signature” that he has established over the years. “I don’t govern into artistic concepts,” said the 59-year-old. He doesn’t want to “impose” his aesthetic ideas on the divisions of the house. He preferred to be on hand with advice and action during his time as director and also “reinforced some good approaches”.
He doesn’t really want to give his successor Girkinger any advice regarding an attitude at home, game plan and divisions. “She’s experienced enough to know what she’s doing and how,” emphasized Reitmeier. In any case, he expressly welcomed the desire you had already expressed to want to work “more interdisciplinary”.
Finally, he allowed himself to be carried away by a small recommendation for the soon-to-be director of the Tiroler Landestheater: “She shouldn’t be deterred and go her own way”. However, his path was clear: After the end of the directorship, he would move towards directing and freelance work, because he no longer wanted to be tied to a house for years, said Reitmeier.