22 July 2021

Programme for the Berlin Audio Play Festival 2021 now finalised

33 productions have been nominated, and the call for entries to “MikroFlitzer” runs until 1 August

After record participation of more than 250 submissions, 33 audio plays have made it to the competitions of the 12th Berlin Audio Play Festival. The festival of the independent scene is being staged for the 12th time from 12 to 15 August 2021 at the Akademie der Künste in Hanseatenweg with additional live streaming. The call for entries for the “MikroFlitzer” audience award continues until 1 August.

The Berlin Audio Play Festival covers the broad spectrum of the acoustic arts, from narrative audio plays to documentary and sound art works. The range of themes and aesthetics extends from the comical to the creepy, from the self-reflective to the worldly. 26 children from the Helios School in Cologne say “Corona Ciao” in a collaged sound play, for instance, while Blixa Bargeld goes in search of himself as a patient in a psychiatric clinic in the play Tollhaus.

Of the 250 submissions, 80 are debuts or second productions competing for the first-ever “Das zündende Mikro” award. The Studio for Electroacoustic Music of the Akademie der Künste will assist the winner in the production of an audio play that will be performed outside the competition at the next Berlin Audio Play Festival. Winners of all the other audience prizes and the jury prize will receive high-end audio equipment.

In addition to the competitions, there is an extensive supporting programme. There will be a live audio play every day. As part of his #drcprologe, visual artist Armin Chodzinski will open the festival with the lecture-performance Freiheit II. The multi-channel sound performance Lake Vostok by the Liquid Penguin Ensemble will transport us to an Antarctic lake beneath the eternal ice. From “racket makers” Berner & Schültge we hear Die Phantome des Türquälers, while Carsten Schneider continues his deconstructions of radio station Deutschlandfunk with Im Anfing fang der Deutschlandfung.
The 20-channel audio installation Der Absprung by Paul Plamper centres on a theatre in provincial East Germany whose main actor comes from Cameroon and whose origins cause division among the town’s citizens. There will also be the audio walk AliceD – Through the Looking Glass by Bruno Pilz, as well as workshop talks, discussions, creatively acoustic childcare and a short audio play challenge.

In a countdown starting on 11 July, trailers of the competition plays (in alphabetical order) are being released daily on the festival’s social media channels and the Akademie der Künste’s YouTube channel.

The Berlin Audio Play Festival is being held in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste and is being funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Its media partner Deutschlandfunk Kultur will broadcast the entire festival on its event and documentation channel “Dokumente und Debatten” via DAB+.

Event details
12th Berlin Audio Play Festival
12 – 15 August 2021
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
For live streaming and further information: www.adk.de 
Broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s digital radio channel “Dokumente und Debatten”

Media partner: Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Further information:
www.berliner-hoerspielfestival.de 

Audio play trailers:
www.youtube.com/c/Berlinerhörspielfestival 
www.youtube.com/user/akademiederkuenste 

See press release from 31 May 2021

Press contact on behalf of the Akademie der Künste:
Anke Beims, Tel. 0178 5481682, Anke.Beims@berliner-hoerspielfestival.de