Theater director Irisz Kovacs, a member of the German State Theatre Timișoara, has been selected and invited to participate in the International Forum – Berliner Theatertreffen 2026, one of the most important international programs dedicated to emerging theatre makers.
The selection followed an extensive and highly competitive process, with over 800 applications submitted from around the world. The organizers selected approximately 30 fellows, and Irisz Kovacs is among the artists invited to take part in this year’s program.
The International Forum takes place within the prestigious Berliner Theatertreffen festival, scheduled from May 1 to May 17, 2026, in Berlin. The program brings together emerging artists from different countries and offers participants the opportunity to engage in creative workshops, meet leading figures of the European theatre scene, attend performances, and take part in thematic excursions, fostering exchange and international collaboration.
During the festival, participants will attend the ten productions selected by a critics’ jury as the most outstanding performances from the German-speaking theatre landscape (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and will participate in discussions with the artists involved. The program also includes workshops focusing on the relationship between cohabitation and theatre, conducted in an interdisciplinary setting that encourages artistic experimentation and intercultural dialogue.
The program will also feature the public event “The Forum’s Forum”, where fellows will have the opportunity to present their artistic concerns in a performative format.
Participation in the International Forum represents an important recognition of director Irisz Kovacs’s work, as well as an opportunity to strengthen international artistic dialogue in which the German State Theatre Timișoara is actively engaged.
At the end of the program, participants will have the possibility to continue their professional experience through mini-residencies at state theatres in Germany, thus developing new collaborations and artistic projects.
The presence of director Irisz Kovacs at the International Forum – Berliner Theatertreffen 2026 confirms the growing international visibility of the artists and projects developed within the German State Theatre Timișoara.
Irisz Kovacs is a theater director and photographer. She was the winner of the festival-competition D-butan-T 2021 and director of the Fresh Start residency at Reactor of Creation and Experiment, where the performance "A child on a liter of gasoline" was born, performed in the framework of the Festival "Șerban Ionescu", Fest FDR, Undercloud. She was nominated for the UNITER award for debut for the show "8 fathers" at the Constanta State Theatre, selected in the National Theatre Festival. In 2023 she received a new UNITER nomination for directing TSCHICK. Why We Took the Car, a stage adaptation by Robert Koall of the novel by Wolfgang Herrndorf, a TGST production. She was also awarded the "Iulian Vișa" Prize at the Sibiu International Theater Festival (FITS) in 2024, which is given to young theater creators. In 2025, she directed Girlbosses by Werner Schwab at the German State Theatre Timișoara. The production attracted the attention of the Romanian Theatre Union jury, which nominated actress Ioana Iacob, part of the cast, for the UNITER Award for Best Supporting Actress.
More details here:
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/theatertreffen/das-festival/internationales-forum/forum-stipendiatinnen-2026
Congratulations, Irisz!
