News

If you want to get a first glimpse of طرب / TARAB, you have the chance this weekend, even before the premiere: This Saturday, June 6, the rbb Kulturmagazin will air a segment at 18:30, and the arte Journal at 19:20 about the evening on the “Callas of Egypt”, the singer Umm Kulthum .

Neuköllner Oper is looking for a Technical Director (full-time) at the earliest possible date.

Neuköllner Oper (NO) is a publicly funded independent production house based in Berlin-Neukölln. NO employs 15 permanent staff members across artistic production management (KBB), dramaturgy, communications, technical departments, costume, stage management, administration, box office, and front-of-house services. In addition, NO collaborates with freelance artists on a project basis, as well as with a pool of freelance technicians.

NO operates two performance venues (a main hall with approx. 180 seats and a stage of approx. 120 m², and a studio stage with approx. 50 seats and a stage of approx. 25–30 m²), as well as two rehearsal stages and a workshop for set construction. Each year, NO presents approximately 6–10 new productions and 3–4 revivals in the field of contemporary music theatre. With around 150 performances per year, NO reaches approximately 16,000 audience members.

WE OFFER

• A full-time position at one of the most innovative and exciting venues for contemporary music theatre in Berlin
• A leadership position with personnel responsibility and creative scope within the technical department
• Flat hierarchies, a collaborative working culture, and fast decision-making processes within a small team
• Collaboration with renowned (international) artists

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Professional and disciplinary management of the technical departments. The technical team consists of two technical production managers, one head of lighting, one head of sound, one facility technician, as well as additional freelance technicians
• In addition to supervising the two technical production managers, you will take on the role of technical production manager for 3–4 productions per year. This includes technical planning in coordination with set designers, staff planning and scheduling, construction and realization of stage sets together with freelance technicians, and supervision of rehearsals and performances
• Close collaboration with the management of NO and serving as the main point of contact for all staff regarding overarching technical matters
• Inventory management, maintenance, and procurement of technical equipment
• Acting as safety officer in accordance with the German Occupational Safety Act (ASiG)

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS

• Relevant leadership experience in theatre technology
• Qualification as a stage master (Bühnenmeister) or master craftsperson in event technology specializing in stage/studio, or comparable professional experience
• Flexibility, ability to work in a team, resilience, and an independent working style, as well as the physical capability for heavy lifting and working at heights
• Willingness to work irregular hours, including evenings, weekends, and public holidays

Desirable:

• Completed training as an event technology specialist or a skilled trade qualification (preferably woodworking, metalworking, or electrical professions)
• Basic knowledge of sound, video, and lighting systems
• Driver’s license class B and/or C1
• Basic knowledge of set and stage construction

The salary is based on the collective agreement for public sector employees in the federal states of Berlin. The contract is initially fixed-term, with the option of becoming permanent.

Please send your application documents (cover letter, CV, and references) to: info@neukoellneroper.de

NO is committed to promoting diversity and equal opportunities. We therefore encourage applications from candidates of diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of qualifications.

We’ll be there! Come by and get some reduced tickets for our current productions. Looking forward to meet you.

Visit us with the venue tour NEUKÖLLNER PERLEN this Saturday, 7 March! Theatre, but different: the tour offers the chance to locate the independent scene in its historical and architectural context, meet its makers in person, and watch rehearsal excerpts. Berlin performer Bridge Markland will guide participants through the venues and introduce her colleagues. In Neukölln, the tour will also visit TATWERK | Performative Forschung and Heimathafen Neukölln. The venue tour was created by Theaterscoutings Berlin in collaboration with StattReisen Berlin.

Participation costs €18 / reduced €14 and requires registration. Registration is possible at: reservierung(at)theaterscoutings-berlin.de

MEETING POINT
Saturday, 7 March, 14:00 at TATWERK | Performative Forschung (Hasenheide 9, Gewerbehof, 2nd backyard, entrance 1, 3rd floor, 10967 Berlin Kreuzberg)

SCHEDULE
1. Stop: TATWERK | Performative Forschung
2. Stop: Neuköllner Oper
3. Stop: Heimathafen Neukölln

DURATION
Approx. 3 hours

Half a year ago, in September 2025, the music theatre group glanz&krawall transformed the courtyard of the Neuköllner Oper into an opera arena with BIG IN NEUKÖLLN! In the “Sonnenlichtspiele,” ordinary people as well as fringe and night-time characters from the neighborhood stepped up to the microphone and became opera stars.

Now you can watch impressions from the event online here:

In September/Opening
HUNTER
A game with hearts and basketballs by and with Liesa van der Aa and Kat Frankie/BODIES inspired by Björk’s album HOMOGENIC

BIG IN NEUKÖLLN
Glanz&krawall’s SUPER OPERA unites voices, songs, and sounds from the neighborhood and transforms the Passagenhof into an operatic arena.

STUDIO 66
Six individual artists and collectives, who will appear in various productions during the 2025/26 season, will offer insights into their work in short miniature formats, thus offering a preview of the upcoming season.

In October
CRIME OF PASSION
Why do Carmen, Violetta, and Salome have to die on stage again and again? Anthony Hüseyin and his team dare to reckon with femicide – not only on the operatic stage.

1000 AIRPLANES ON THE ROOF
Paige Eakin Young and her team transform Philip Glass’s 1988 science fiction opera into the present day.

In November
BAM!
The festival for contemporary music theater in Berlin, for Berlin’s international scene of musicians of musical theater beyond the traditional operatic form, will also be held for the first time at the NO.

In December
THE SECOND CHERRY ORCHARD
Wolfgang Böhmer and Martin G. Berger’s musical about a garden on which so much depends – and which is still to be sold.

In January 26

GENEVIEVE MURPHY BAND
A band on stage: singing, guitar sounds, body movements in time with the music… What is that? A concert, a gig, of course. Or perhaps more? Theater? Scottish composer and performer Genevieve Murphy and her band explore the theatrical dimensions of pop concerts.

In February 26

SELEMO A SPRING OPERA
South African composers and performers Sbusiso Shozi and Nhlanhla Mahlangu from the Johannesburg Center for the Less Good Idea approach the concept of spring anew with their chamber opera SELEMO, using body, sound, and voice. African rites of passage meet baroque splendor, Vivaldi’s string concerto The Four Seasons meets Umkhosi woMhlanga, the ritual reed dance of the Swazis. In co-production with the Komische Oper Berlin.

April 26

NOISE. AN ANTI-FASCIST OPERA
The Dutch music and performance collective Club Gewalt seeks to deal with our collective fears in a kind of music-theatrical group therapy. With noise music, Club Gewalt attempts to do justice to the “noises” in our society.

LAST EXIT EUROPE
Europe – a continent, an idea, a center of power, and simultaneously a kidnapped king’s daughter. What has become of her, after more than two thousand years held hostage by various ideologies? Peter Cora Frost provides answers, personifying Europe at the table dance pole of a truck stop, on the side of a highway to freedom.

June 26

TARAB. An operatic ecstasy with music by Umm Kulthum
Little known in the Western Hemisphere, singer Umm Kulthum is one of the greatest icons of classical Arabic music. Composer Nesrine Belmokh and director Sjaron Minailo dedicate an evening to Umm Kulthum, revolving around the recurring theme in her songs: love.

On the arrest and trial of Ekrem Imamoglu on April 11 – Round tables on 9. and 15.4.

A lot has happened in Turkey since we performed HAYDAR TANZ/ HAYARD’IN DANSI – from February 2024 and now again from February to the end of April 2025. Our play combines the fate of the earthquake victim Dr. Mehmet Yildirim with the culture and music of the Alevis and names the unscrupulous power politics of Erdogan’s government. His violent regime now appears to be collapsing, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets since the arrest of Istanbul mayor Imamoglu on March 19. The police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against the people and thousands were arrested. But even former Erdogan supporters seem to have joined in. How courageous: to raise your voice for a finally liberated and democratic country despite all the violence!
As a sign of our support, we are offering talks with the artists of Haydar on April 9 and April 15 after the performances, during which you will gain very personal and concrete insights into the current situation and into the experiences of the Turkish artists involved. On April 26 we invite artists who have fled from Turkey to Berlin.
PS: This note from the Federal Foreign Office shows the force with which Erdogan is acting and that this can also affect Germans: “Be aware that expressions of opinion and actions taken in Germany, such as signing petitions with Kurdish concerns, could be perceived as critical of the government in Turkey and could therefore lead to criminal prosecution there. The same applies to statements critical of the government on social media and the mere sharing or liking of someone else’s post.” Non-public comments could also be forwarded to Turkish law enforcement authorities through “anonymous denunciation”.

Bernhard Glocksin, Artistic Director

At the end of the last season of Bernhard Glocksin and his teams: on Midsummer Night, the longest day of the year, we invite you to a two-day celebration with music, cometogether and a music theatre world premiere triptych.

Eine neue Veranstaltungsreihe mit dem Museum für Kommunikation Berlin

Experience Berlin´s art and cultural community in all its diversity and join us in a demonstration at Brandenburger Tor(Ülatz des 18. März, from 10 AM to 1 PM on 13 November 2024.