Theater Willy Praml

Two people in striking costumes stand on a forest path, surrounded by dense green foliage.
Foto: Seweryn Zelazny
Current events
Three performers inside an old rusty bus: a woman in a red bathrobe stands, a barefoot man in a black suit sits, and a man in a striped undershirt stands beside him.
Theatre
Theater Willy Praml

THE PAIN. Marguerite Duras

Infos & Tickets
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In 1991, theater-makers Willy Praml and Michael Weber founded THEATER WILLY PRAML as an independent theater company in Frankfurt am Main, initially without a permanent venue, performing in a nomadic existence in a cinema, a discotheque, an underground car park, the Paulskirche, a harbor forge, theaters such as Gallus, Philanthropin or Mousonturm.

THEATER WILLY PRAML was founded as a theater that is one hundred percent rooted in independent theater work, committed to its intentions and fueled by the continuity of this kind of experience.

WE ARE FREE—WE DO WHAT WE WANT AND HOW WE WANT.

In a chain of traditions of work developed over decades, it brings together such diverse currents as

– a theater of emancipatory, political educational work,

– project work on the most diverse focal points of historical and social issues,

– experimental theater that is as committed to the possibilities of modern art as it is to the traditional forms of the performing arts.

 

With the connection of this theater work, developed and grown in time and space, to a fixed location since 2000, the architecturally remarkable and aesthetically challenging Naxoshalle in Frankfurt, THEATER WILLY PRAML has gained new possibilities, but also additional responsibilities.

 

The theater’s location at the intersection of three densely populated districts, the addressing of subjects from the site-specific history, the collaboration with other artists and arts as well as experimentation with materials, forms and language have significantly influenced the contours of this theater’s work.

 

The place has left its mark on the theater, and the theater on the place. Since then, large-scale productions have been created that have been shaped by the history, the spatial development possibilities and the former spirit of work.

Gallery
Theater scene in a large industrial hall with hundreds of red plastic cups on the floor; several performers in costumes move among them.
Three men in orange-brown knitted sweaters and long skirts sit on a white cylinder in an industrial hall. Behind them stands an old, rusty bus.
Theater scene in an industrial hall: Many performers rhythmically sweep the floor with long brooms, while musicians play on a gallery in the background.
Three performers in white bathrobes sit or lean in the window openings of an old brick façade with glass blocks.
Stage set with costumed figures: a woman in a pink dress, an astronaut, a soldier, and a person with a U.S. flag in front of a projection of Earth.
Three people in costumes with red capes stand on the shore of a lake, above them an airplane flies through the cloudy sky.