Open Call | OUTNOW! Festival from The Schwankhalle and Theater Breme, Germany
Festival period: May 21–25, 2026
Application deadline: September 15, 2025
The Schwankhalle and Theater Bremen will once again host the performing arts festival OUTNOW from May 21 to 25, 2026! Founded in the Schwankhalle in 1994, the festival has been held biennially since 2013 in cooperation with Theater Bremen.
OUTNOW! presents artists, groups, and collectives from across Europe who are at the beginning of their professional careers. No prior educational background is required. Individual artists, directors, groups, and collectives who have been producing their own work for less than five years are invited to submit their current productions for the OUTNOW! Festival 2026. Contributions from other disciplines such as media art, visual arts, and music with a performative or theatrical focus are just as welcome as performances in public space and site-specific projects, works for young or mixed-age audiences, and productions that artistically address issues of participation.
The jury for OUTNOW! 2026 consists of Anna K. Becker and Johannes Schürmann (Artistic Director OUTNOW!), Janna Schmidt (Communications Schwankhalle), Canan Venzky (Dramaturgy / Direction), and Mable Preach (Direction / Choreography / Author).
As a forum for young international theater talent, OUTNOW! 2026 offers invited artists the opportunity to be on-site throughout the festival and participate in the accompanying WHATNOW? lab. This first-ever, multi-day lab offers inspiration, lectures, panels, workshops, and experimental formats for engaging with members of the regional independent theater scene on practices of contemporary, solidarity-based, and sustainable theater creation.