Karlsruhe as "capital of the radio play"

Julia Gonchar, dramaturge, playwright and scholar at the Badisches Staatstheater Karslruhe, about the ARD Hörspieltage 2015 in Karlsruhe.

Last week I could experience an audio Garden of Eden for playwrights in Karlsruhe: after a long working day I was thrown into the ocean of sparkling sounds and refreshing tones.

This year we could hear twelve plays in the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Remarkably, the festival takes place not only in Karlsruhe, but also worldwide thanks to the online broadcasting. We enjoyed the video live streams of the Festival multimedia reportage and events, even those which took place in Austria or Switzerland.  Via online voting tool Hörspiel motivated audience to choose our favorite play and vote, thus determining winners of the ARD Online Award 2015.

Competitions were underpinned with a unique blend of radio drama performances, live performances, discussions and lectures, concerts and a spectacular "Night of the Winners".

Each year the radio play festival attracts around 10,000 radio play fans from Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) and in the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Karlsruhe. For five days once a year Karlsruhe is turning into a "capital of the radio play" (Jochen Hieber, "FAZ"). The festival is considered to be the largest German-language event around radio play and sound art and takes place in 2015 for the 12th time. I had a great opportunity to talk to radio play directors and eat some German sausages at the “Ear worm stand”. Unbelievable!

P.S. I also got this super cool green bag J