theater katinkaspringinsfeld (D)
When My Father Became a Bush
For ages 8 and up | Duration: 60 min, 15 min follow-up discussion
STADTTHEATER WELS
Thursday March 13, 2025
|
2:30
p.m.
With these words begins the adventurous story of the girl Toda, in whose homeland a war begins. Her father, originally a pastry chef, must leave and learn how to become a bush to camouflage himself and defend one side against the other. Toda is sent alone to ‘Somewhere Else,’ to a neighboring country, to be with her mother. She must escape across the border. But what does a border look like? On her journey, she encounters, among others, a money-grubbing smuggler, a commander who cannot command, and suddenly people are speaking strangely, and there is no one left who understands Toda. But Toda does not lose courage and finds a new home. Using chalk and puppets, Toda’s story of escape is told from her perspective as a young girl. The staging is based on the children’s book “When My Father Became a Bush” by Joke van Leeuwen, recommended by the UN Refugee Agency, and invites the audience to cheer along with this strong young heroine, develop empathy for her situation, and actively engage with the stage action. “(…) What van Leeuwen accomplishes in the book, is achieved on stage: an exciting, moving, funny, and enlightening perspective on a dark subject—war and flight. (…) In a roundabout way, Toda will find a new home. And we will once again find a poetic home in the theater.” (Michael Helbing, Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung, 15.2.2016)“When my father became a bush and I lost my name, we were living somewhere else. Back then, I didn’t think of it as ‘somewhere else.’ Everywhere was ‘somewhere else,’ but certainly not where we were living…”
About the Group:
Kathrin Blüchert, known as theater katinkaspringinsfeld, was born in Berlin. She initially focused on dance and street theater before training as a puppeteer at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. From 2012 to 2022, she was a member of the ensemble at Theater Waidspeicher in Erfurt. Since then, she has worked independently as “theater katinkaspringinsfeld,” based in Nuremberg, and tours with “Thalias Kompagnons” and “die exen.”
In 2023, as part of the “figuren.theater.festival Erlangen Nürnberg Schwabach Fürth,” she curated the showcase “HIN UND WEG - Puppetry and Painting Theater by Joachim Torbahn.” Her production “When My Father Became a Bush” by Joke van Leeuwen has already toured internationally and was invited to the festival “Augenblick mal! – Theater für junges Publikum” as one of the 10 most outstanding children’s theater productions of the year in Berlin.
“How little or how much is needed to spark the audience’s imagination? From the stage, I make an ‘offer,’ and the rest happens in the minds of the audience. Everyone inevitably brings in their own experiences, making what seems like the same experience different for each person. I consider this a gift of my profession!”
