Open Call: KASSANDRA – A new project by Marta Górnicka
19–23/June 2025
Info
The Maxim Gorki Theater is seeking participants for a new modern theatre chorus project, KASSANDRA. Polish director and author Marta Górnicka will bring together contemporary voices of the ancient prophetess Cassandra. Persons between 9 till 99 years old can apply to become part of the KASSANDRA choir. Regardless of theater experience, age, or German language skills, the choir aims to speak many languages, so experiences with multilingualism or migration are very welcome.
We believe that children, adolescents, and young adults in particular are the Cassandras of our time. Especially if they have already experienced racism or other forms of exclusion. Therefore, this open call is specifically aimed at them — but we invite all interested people to apply.
Auditions
When: 19–23/June 2025
(A preferred date can be specified in the application)
Where: Maxim Gorki Theater, Am Festungsgraben 2, 10117 Berlin
Language: The castings will be in German and English
Please prepare the following:
– Your favorite song or love song
– A magic spell or a nursery rhyme from your childhood
– Recipe for your favorite world / recipe for your future
– Two sentences of your own about the future, two sentences from the media about the future
– An answer to the question: What would you like to say to the next generation?
– Complete the sentences: We must… We need…
Rehearsals
The participants will be selected during the castings.
Workshops: September, October, November, December 2025, three-days a month.
Rehearsals: Winter – Spring 2026, maximum two and half months in total.
Participation in workshops, rehearsals and performances will be compensated.
Application
Please send us your application, together with a:
– letter of motivation
– photo
– short CV
– completed questionnaire
– signed consent form
to: kenk@gorki.de
Application deadline: 8/June 2025, 23:55 (Berlin local time)
From the applications received, a selection of individuals will be made to invite them to the casting. Please understand that we cannot invite all applicants.
About the Project
NO FUTURE BUT SONGS!
Hear Cassandra speak, in many languages
How she sees the world today
How she reads from the flight of birds and clouds
How she sings songs more powerful than war
How she meets darkness with light
What does she have to say?
Until the glaciers and icebergs melted before our eyes, we weren't ready to believe in climate change. It wasn't until George Floyd was suffocated in front of the world's eyes that the issue of racism entered public consciousness.
Unwanted truths have no chance of being heard for a long time – and that is why all the things happen that make us rant about the »incomprehensible« in retrospect.
The »Cassandra Syndrome« continues to dominate our everyday lives – and those who issue warnings go unheard, or at least not understood. That is the fate of the ancient clairvoyant Cassandra: She foresaw the fall of Troy. And no one believed her.
What do young adults, teenagers and kids see when looking into the future? What do we see when we face the future all together?
About Marta Górnicka
»There is revolution in the voice. It's always about finding a voice.«
Marta Górnicka is a theatre director, author and rediscoverer of the chorus principle. The chorus in her plays is always both a critical instrument for examining modern mechanisms of control, exclusion and violence, and a collective agent. In her works, Górnicka often examines the relationship between the individual and society. She experiments with new forms of collective voices. In 2019, she founded the Political Voice Institute (PVI), a social laboratory for a modern choral theatre at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, where she developed the Chorus in its formal and political dimension. Her performances have been presented and invited to over 90 of the most important international theater festivals worldwide.
To learn more about her work, visit : https://gornicka.com/
Foto © Rafał Milach