V. Children's Theatre Marathon

On 3 and 4 July, the association "Münchner Dionysien e.V.", the Egyptian Museum Munich, the Collection of Classical Antiquities and the Glyptothek invite children, adults, young people and families to join in the celebration of the theatre. We would like to look at the mask duty from a different perspective. Today we protect ourselves and our fellow human beings by putting on a mask. It helps us to draw a line between the human world and the dangerous cosmos of bacteria and viruses.

From a historical perspective, a mask is much more than just an object that covers the face. As an important attribute of ritual acts and theatre performances, it has a long history.
Munich owes the name "Isar-Athens" to the Königsplatz with its museums. It is in this wonderful place that the new theatre year can best be celebrated. This holiday is intended to help explain ancient cultural traditions and to build a programmatic arch from the theatre of antiquity to the immediate present:

Reports, lectures and museum exhibitions will explain and show rituals, as well as the path from a funerary mask to a European portrait and much more.
• Artists wearing original Italian Commedia dell'Arte masks present the news of the day in the tradition of these cheerful archetypes.
• In the museum rooms, among the exhibits and showcases, you can experience small dramatic performances and concerts where artists, musicians and the audience meet under the same conditions - all in masks!
• Children make animal masks and try to transform themselves into these animals like prehistoric people at a special workshop.
• For teenagers, there is a workshop with emoji masks and body language training in Commedia dell'Arte masks. There they will learn how we convey what content to fellow human beings through our behaviour and movements.
• Short films are shown that were made online with children based on Aesop's fable (The Raven and the Fox).
• Films for adults will also be shown and accompanied by live music.
• A children's choir will demonstrate how choirs sang in linen masks in the time of Aeschylus.
• Students from the Ballet Academy of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater bring the sculptures of the Glyptothek to life through dance.
• Young crime fiction lovers will be introduced to a new novel set 130 years ago in the Glyptothek. The plot revolves around the ritual mask of the god Anubis.
• The author, Roxane Bicker, will read samples from her novel and will be supported by artists and shadow theatre.

A detailed programme with details of the starting times and locations of the individual events will soon be available on the → homepage of the Children's Theatre Marathon.