Theater for a young audience in particular wants to relate to the reality of children’s and young people’s life. For many theaters, research involving children and youth is therefore an obvious and important tool for having young people participate in theater processes.

Research becomes visible in various ways in theater productions. Entitled “Who Is Talking? Research Orientation in Children’s and Youth Theater,” the expert conference will present and discuss different research methods as part of the process as well as different approaches to the artistic treatment and aesthetic presentation of research and research results. How are “hard facts” presented on stage? Does the production make the research process transparent? Artistic explorations of political and social topics especially raise the question of who is talking. Do research results such as documents, interviews, and images make it possible for viewers to form their own opinion by providing them with different perspectives on a given topic? Does a production about social minorities give voice to representatives of these minorities or are they only talked about? How much “reality on stage” do we think children and young people capable of dealing with?