TO THE EDGES | Mannheimer Sommer 2026

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Nationaltheater Mannheim Roadshow 2026

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28 June 2026

Mannheim / Germany

Platform Members, Roadshow

TO THE EDGES: New Voices in Music Theatre

Nationaltheater Mannheim brought four emerging artistic teams to Mannheimer Sommer 2026 with TO THE EDGES, presenting four new works that challenge conventions and explore new possibilities for contemporary music theatre.

The project began as a competition inviting artistic collectives to explore and redefine the boundaries of music theatre, using Mozart as their point of departure. Around 80 proposals were submitted, with four projects ultimately selected through a multi-stage selection process.

The selected artists represented contrasting approaches to experimental music theatre: Armando Navarro’s Paris-based collective Teenage God, Lucia Wunsch and Bendrik Grossterlinden, Isabella Sedlak, Vidina Popov and Thomas Moked Blum, and the German-Argentine duo Frederico & Wenzel Vöcks de Schwindt.

Each selected team received a production budget and a performance venue to transform their concept into a fully realised work. Between 18 and 28 June, all four productions premiered at Mannheimer Sommer and were performed several times throughout the festival.

From youth-driven perspectives and immersive spatial concepts to political interventions and autobiographical explorations of identity, TO THE EDGES demonstrated the diversity of artistic languages emerging within contemporary music theatre.

The initiative provided four emerging artist groups with the opportunity to develop their ideas into productions and present their work to a wider festival audience.