Last week, the children’s musical ‘Der Dachbodenzauber’ celebrated its revival to thunderous applause at the sold-out Theaterlabor Bielefeld. The specially developed piece, which premiered at the Gütersloh Theatre in May 2024, was created as part of the ‘Kulturbrücke Cantara’ project, an initiative of the Liz Mohn Foundation and the association ‘Gesellschaft in Bewegung’, which promotes cultural participation by children and young people. For the revival, the children’s musical was slightly revised and re-cast: around 20 children from the Ummeln primary school and, for the first time, 15 young people from a new out-of-school youth group ‘Kulturbrücke Cantara Youth’ performed together on stage. The young talents delighted the audience with their enthusiasm and creativity.
Becoming aware of one’s own strengths and abilities as a young person is also at the heart of the piece ‘Der Dachbodenzauber’. Seven boys and girls independently visit the attic of their school during a break. A place that, in the children’s eyes, is sometimes a place of refuge, sometimes a chamber of horrors. Soon after, Cara, the mysterious new classmate, finds some mysterious books in the attic. Curious as children, they take a look at each one in turn – and each time they end up in a different mysterious world where the boundaries between reality and fantasy are blurred. What’s more, each of them suddenly possesses a kind of superhero ability that reflects both their strengths and their weaknesses. On their magical journey, they learn to deal with these abilities and embark on an emotional rollercoaster. In the end, they discover that each of them is unique and that together they can make a difference in the world.
Another highlight of the evening was the dance theatre piece ‘Lichtblicke’, a project by the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Spiel und Theater NRW. Six young people put on an impressive performance under the direction of Canip Gündoğdu and Delia Kornelsen. The piece is dedicated to the beautiful moments in life and aims to encourage young people to express their feelings through dance. After successful performances in Gütersloh, Minden and Herford, the group performed for the first time together with the participants of the ‘Kulturbrücke Cantara’ project at the Theaterlabor Bielefeld.
Under the title ‘Kulturbrücke Cantara’, the Liz Mohn Foundation and the Bielefeld-based association ‘Gesellschaft in Bewegung’ offer children and young people from the region equal opportunities for cultural and social participation. Over the past three years, the project has established successful and sustainable partnerships with four Gütersloh and two Bielefeld schools. Since September, ‘Kulturbrücke Cantara Youth’ has supplemented the offer with extracurricular, weekly meetings for children and young people aged 10 and over in Bielefeld, where they can immerse themselves in various cultural areas such as dance, theatre, film and singing. The meetings take place every Friday from 14:30 to 16:00 on the premises of the theatre association ‘Theaterimpulse’ in Bielefeld. New faces are always welcome!