05/26/2024 – 5:26
At the helm of Ballhaus Naunynstrasse since 2013, Wagner Carvalho was elected one of the most influential names on Berlin’s cultural scene. In his post-migrant theater, he stages stories from a non-white perspective. “I still have a million things to do,” says Wagner Carvalho, artistic director of the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse theater in Berlin, just hours before the evening premiere.
Wagner is not only responsible for the artistic direction of the house – the only black theater in Germany, according to the German newspaper FAZ. In the absence of manpower, Wagner is also the one who makes bank transfers, writes applications for grants, prepares budgets and, when necessary, vacuums the rooms of the old building in the Kreuzberg neighborhood. “Sometimes it even bothers me,” he says, smiling.
The importance of the house’s financial issues is highlighted by a calendar of notices on the wall, which extends over countless post-its. The Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, a small theater that has existed in a former ballroom since 1982, depends on external resources to survive.
“The history of this house is one of great achievement,” says Wagner. “Sometimes it happens that we have many projects financed. And there are times when we don’t have money, and then we have to make do.”
From Belo Horizonte to Berlin
It was this talent of knowing how to “get by” that brought Wagner to the theater and from Belo Horizonte to Berlin, in the 1990s. The Minas Gerais native started doing theater and dancing ballet at the age of 12. At age 20, he was already directing the Núcleo de Estudos Teatrais, a free theater school in Belo Horizonte. As a result of this work, Wagner won a scholarship to study German at the Goethe Institute.
Still during the military dictatorship, Wagner realized that, for him, theater is political. “Theatre brought me political awareness and awareness of my existence as a black man in Brazilian society,” he says.
Its politicization process began with the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose work aspires to social transformation and equality through theater. It was because of him that Wagner traveled to Germany for the first time, in 1991, with a scholarship from the Goethe Institute. “I came to Germany to meet Brecht,” he says.
Post-migrant theater
In 1992, Wagner decided he wanted to stay in Germany. In his early years, he taught dance, singing and theater while studying theater at the Free University of Berlin. In 2003, he organized the first Brazilian contemporary dance festival in Berlin, Brasil Move Berlin.
He started working as a freelancer at the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse in 2009, which at the time was managed by Shermin Langhoff. A year earlier, Shermin had introduced a new artistic concept to the house, for which it is now known on the German cultural scene: post-migrant theater.
“Post-migrant theater is the theater where we stage stories that have not been told before, from a non-white perspective”, explains Wagner.
“The term draws attention to what has been here for decades – which is the case of the stories of descendants of Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian immigrants, etc. –, so that there is the possibility of leaving the role of antagonist and assuming the role of protagonist, saying: ‘we are on stage telling our stories.’ That’s what transforms.”
An award-winning project in times of insecurity
Since Carvalho took over as director of the theater in 2013, the house’s program has focused on mainly black and queer stories. Perspectives that are still rare in Germany: Carvalho and Afro-German Julia Wissert, who has directed the Theater Dortmund since 2020, are to this day the only black theater directors in the country in a market where white men are still the majority, according to the newspaper German Die Zeit.
This is why Wagner understands the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse also as a space of resistance. The slogan on his shirt, the title of a theater festival that takes place once a year at the house, confirms this: Black Berlin Black – Resistance.
Wagner’s effort to maintain a space dedicated to marginalized experiences has been recognized. The Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, chosen as a space that “honors democracy”, won a national theater award at the beginning of the year, the Theaterpreis des Bundes, endowed with 200 thousand euros. In April, Wagner entered the German newspaper Tagesspiegel’s list of the 100 most influential figures on the Berlin cultural scene.
For Wagner, the awards are very significant, as they come at a time when marginalized people are increasingly threatened in Germany, due to the political context. Current polls show that support for the ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is growing, reaching 19% of voting intentions in the most recent polls.
“Our theater is diverse”
The awards also show the importance of a diverse society, argues Wagner. “It is necessary to have a space like this to highlight stories of people who have been excluded from the role of protagonists in their own stories and other stories for centuries.”
The director dreams of a theater in which anyone can take on any role, regardless of appearance. “My desire, the desire of the house, is to become superfluous, in the sense that it will no longer be necessary to say that we are doing post-migrant theater. We are doing theater – anyone can do theater”, he says.
On the night he spoke to DW, Iemanjá Day, Wagner brought to the Berlin public the work Caminho das Águas, by Bahian choreographer Fernanda Costa. The audience watched the dancers from above, who moved to the sound of the waves under blue lights and a stage decorated with white cloths.
At the end of the play, Carvalho, who has followed Candomblé since childhood, came down to the stage for the final words, addressed in English to the audience, along with a greeting in Yoruba to the orixá: “Today I would like to say: Odoyá Iemanjá.”
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