Miracles happen

Miracles happen! I thought to myself five weeks ago when I found out that Urban Theater, a project so dear to my heart, received financial support from the University Foundation Pro Arte and Center for Commemorative Culture to bring their plays to the University Theater of Regensburg.

Miracles happen! I thought two weeks ago when the Hansa Apart-Hotel Regensburg agreed to host the entire ensemble for free.

Miracles happen! I kept thinking as I watched the plays unfold on stage – and could not help noticing how far everyone has come.

It has almost become a commonplace to lament how integration of foreigners in Germany fails. Today, I would like to present you with a counterexample. And not just any counterexample – one that spans a quarter of a century.

From Spark to Fire

More than twenty-five years ago, Sabine Koller created a theater group at the University of Regensburg with a deceptively simple idea: help migrant children integrate through theater, letting her enthusiasm spark fire in their hearts. Among those children was Witalij Schmidt. Fast forward to today – Witalij is no longer the boy finding his footing in a culture native to generations of his ancestors and foreign to him. He is now the one passing this flame on, as co-founder and driving force behind Urban Theater in Berlin together with the artistic director Natalia Lapina.

And here is what gave me goosebumps: after the performance, a discussion brought together three generations on one stage. The "fire-starter" twenty-five years ago. The "receiver" of this flame, now a theater maker himself. And the actors and directors of today's Urban Theater, taking this fire into the next wave. Three generations, one unbroken thread, and the plot is thickening.

From play to life, from life to play

It has been a while since I last brought you news from my heart project – this small yet brave and proud free collective that has been claiming its right for existence and earning its place under the spotlights for the past three years. And integration – real, tangible integration – is happening before our eyes.

It doesn't happen fast. But it happens steadily. And you can see it, quite literally, from play to play. The actors' command of German grows noticeably with every production. What begins as tentative expression on stage seeps into everyday life – and what is practiced in life flows back onto the stage. From play to life, from life to play, and from play to play. A virtuous circle, quiet but relentless.

The theater gives its actors and artists something precious: the opportunity to stay faithful to their calling. To claim their place under the light of the projectors. To not just survive in a new country, but to create in it. And through creating – to belong.

Heavy topics, light touch

Urban Theater works with heavy, loaded topics. War, displacement, identity, power – the stuff that can keep you awake at night. And yet, as many people mentioned after the performance, the ensemble has found a way to handle these themes with such lightness and beauty that you leave the theater feeling uplifted. Not burdened – closer, more connected, more human, more together, more one with everything.

For me this is not just the mark, but the raison d’etre of true art: it doesn't push you down with the weight of the world. It lifts you up and makes you feel that you are part of it and that the world is full of beauty (Leo Tolstoy smiling at us from wherever he is).

Everyone can do something

This evening in Regensburg proved something I keep coming back to: no one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Sabine Koller could do something – and she did, more than twenty-five years ago. Witalij Schmidt could do something – made room in his life to turn that spark into a theater. Natalia Lapina could do something – and she decided to continue doing theater upon relocation, investing immense volumes of energy. The University Foundation Pro Arte and Center for Commemorative Culture could do something – and they made this guest performance possible. Hansa Apart-Hotel  Regensburg could do something – and they generously opened their doors.

And you? You can do something too. Come see Urban Theater live, share this story with someone who could use a glimpse of hope, or simply remember: miracles don't need to be big. They just need to begin. More about upcoming performances and ways to support: urban-theater.com

Because together, we perform miracles.

^{From left to right: Kostya Novitskiy, Ilya Khodyrev, Oleksandr Kryvosheiev, Prof. Dr. Sabine Koller, Dr. Witalij Schmidt}