JENA, WILL IT BE LOVE OR WILL IT BE FRIENDSHIP?

We, namely the performers Saba, Mona, Ioana, Thato, Luana, Jonathan, and Florian, and the directing and set design assistants Thomas and Lenni, are the new ensemble. For our joint start to the new 24/25 season, we took an hour at the beginning of September to talk about how we’ve settled in, what we’ve experienced in Jena so far, and how we view the time ahead here.

Ioana: What are you guys excited about in Jena, what are you looking forward to?
Thato: I’m hardly ever here.
Ioana: But we’ve only just started, and once you start rehearsing...
Thato: Yeah, exactly, then I’ll know what’s cool in Jena and what’s not so much. But Thüringen in general… the landscape, I think. I mean, I find the nature in Thüringen really beautiful, it’s really amazing. And also, how do you say...
Florian: Hilly.
Thato: Yeah, Jena is very hilly.
Florian: Almost mountainous, even.
Jonathan: When I said that, someone told me those aren’t high enough to be mountains.
Florian: For real?
Jonathan: Yeah! I mean, I’m from the coast, so anything that’s a bit elevated seems like mountains to me!
Lenni: Mountains are probably only considered mountains when the height difference is about 500 meters?
Florian: So, it’s obviously not the Alps.
Saba: Nah.
Lenni: The surrounding area is more of a plateau anyway, so maybe we’re in a valley here without real mountains...
Ioana: I went up the Jenzig again this weekend. That place at the top, the restaurant that was closed when we all went on that hike, it was open. The food was sooo good! I had a wild mushroom cream soup and plum cake with cream.
(General excitement)
Ioana: The portions were really generous too. And everyone was so nice, even joking around – we asked for another spoon, and they were like, "No, that’ll be 50 cents" (laughs). And the sun was shining, it was just lovely.
Thato: Yeah, the portions in Thüringen—well, I can’t speak for Jena yet—but the portions in Thüringen are really huge. Everything is mega-sized XL.
Florian: Yeah, I had that the other day too. I got a portion and thought, wow, for that price it’s really good.
Saba: I lived in Baden-Württemberg, it’s so expensive there! You hardly ever eat out as a student.
Ioana: Oh right, you said you plan to eat out a lot more now!
Saba: Yeah, I have to get used to it. I was at a Korean restaurant recently, it’s somewhere around the corner here. And it was... amazing. They also had beer from Thailand, which was so refreshing! It was really good. I went with my mom, and I’ll go again with a friend when she visits.
Luana: Where is it?
Saba: It’s 5 minutes from here. They even have a garden where you can sit outside—if you’re not cold, that is. And the portions are big too!
Mona: I had dumplings the other day, and the portion was so big I could take half of it home with me.
Florian: Awesome.
Jonathan: I love how that’s our main criterion right now.
Saba: How much food you get is important to me! (laughs)
Mona: And the dumplings were just perfect, bringing back all those nostalgic grandma memories. Oh, and they had great vegan sauces!
Saba: So, maybe we’ve talked enough about food for now.
Florian: Well, I’ve made it my mission to check out the museums here in Jena, and the planetarium.
Ioana: I just went to the planetarium!
Florian: Carl Zeiss was a pioneer here with the planetarium, wasn’t he, globally for... something?
Thomas: Optics and lenses and stuff.
Jonathan: I read somewhere that because of all the workers in the Zeiss factories, a lot of people here voted for the SPD, and there was also a lot of resistance against the Nazis here. I wondered if that’s why Jena is such a left-leaning city today. Oh, I want to visit the city history museum, and Florian and I want to go to the... phyloto...
Mona: Phyletic Museum.
Florian: Yeah, with the dead animals.
Jonathan: I find dead things kind of fascinating. They were all alive once, some of them ages ago, and now they’re still here, looking so fragile.
Mona: I still want to get a yearly pass for the Botanical Garden!
Lenni: Me too! This weekend, I spent ages sitting under the palm trees in the greenhouse. It was like a mini vacation. I think the city is really easy to enjoy.
Thomas: So, how do you see your time in Jena unfolding?
Mona: Personally or professionally?
Saba: You can say anything, and if it’s not professional, we’ll cut it out.
(Laughter)
Ioana: No, of course we won’t cut anything out, everything you are reading right now is authentic, dear reader.
Luana: Honestly? It’s hard for me to think about leaving my home in Berlin soon. I’m already starting to feel that sense of loss. And also, Jena is new territory for me. But it’s important to keep moving, especially for art. You need curiosity and hope to be able to leave your home behind and start again!
Mona: For me, the timing worked out perfectly, moving to Jena as early as May. I even got to vote already! And I’m really enjoying cycling everywhere again, and how everything is somehow just around the corner. And summer in Jena was simply amazing, with feminist brunches and a great group of new friends, making everything feel like summer camp.
Luana: I’m really looking forward to working with you all! To the space we’ll enter together. To the discussions and connections we’ll find, both on and off the stage.
Thato: And to the audience here in Jena!
Florian: Hopefully, they’ll like us! And at the same time, I’m okay with the idea that we might encounter an audience that needs time to warm up to us.
Jonathan: It’s kind of weird, none of us except Thato is from here, and now we’re coming to this strange town to make theater. I actually think it’s good that when you do theater, you take a moment to see where you are, what kind of people are here, and what’s going on. But I also think the first year will be a lot of trial and error...
Ioana: ...and settling in. And experiencing something as a newcomer is really valuable. This encounter we’re having with the city now is kind of like... first love. You meet each other, and at first, you don’t know much about one another, and I show you a little bit of myself, and you show me a bit of you...
Jonathan: Oh, that’s a sweet image!
Ioana: Us and Jena.
Jonathan: … will it be love, or will it be friendship?
(Laughter)
Florian: I think it’s so great that we get to experience this together! Before, I was at the children’s and youth theater in Dresden, and I joined an already existing ensemble, where everyone knew each other. I could just blend in until I figured out where to fit in. And now in Jena, it’s like: We’re all getting to know each other, getting to know the city, and the audience. We’re all feeling our way through, figuring out: Where’s my place here? Where do I belong? And we’re trying to be very mindful of one another, which I think is really nice.
Luana: Yeah, and what can I learn from this place? What can I learn from you all? Will I remain an outsider? What do we have in common? What can and should I share with you?
Saba: I’m really looking forward to the post-show discussions, I’m curious what questions people will ask. Sometimes there are such random questions, and you’re like, I have no idea, how did you even come up with that? Explain it to me! So far, I’ve always been in the audience. I’m really excited to see if I can even answer all the questions.
Mona: I’m especially looking forward to the post-show discussions for the play that’s meant for the whole family!
Luana: I think it’s great when the theater is a place where everyone likes to gather before and after the performances. Theater can be so much more than just a good show.
Saba: And you, Thomas, what are you looking forward to in Jena?
Thomas: Directing my own show!
Lenni: Do you already have a theme?
Thomas: Yeah, but it’s not really relevant here.
Luana: Fair enough.
Lenni: I’m really excited to dive into projects. It’s definitely going to be intense, but I hope amidst all my assistant work, I’ll find some space to think and tinker with new formats or my own projects or whatever else fun.
Jonathan: And what are your goals?
Ioana: To be more focused and take better care of myself. I feel like this could be a place where I can grow, and if I do that, it’ll be good for everyone else too.
Saba: Work-life balance.
Mona: Yes, definitely! For me, it’s also about balancing the Theaterhaus and the independent scene. And what about you, Thato
Thato: I don’t know. I've been out of the game for years. I think the first step is just getting back into it. In the first year, I want to give myself grace. I have for a long time, how would I say it, struggled a lot, when I couldn’t practice my art anymore. It was like death. It was being dead but alive.
Jonathan: You couldn’t, as in...
Thato: … my body wanted to, but...
Jonathan: … but there were no opportunities?
Thato: No opportunities, and there was also a block, a mental block. For a long time, I thought, maybe this just isn’t for me. Maybe it's not for me. Even though my whole life I’ve wanted nothing else, I didn’t want to do anything else but to be on stage. And now I’m coming back, yeah! But... I want to give myself grace! I want to forgive myself for ever doubting myself. And I want to be the best self I’ve ever been. In the past few weeks—it’s only been two weeks since we started—I’ve felt something that’s hard to describe. You know when the sun is shining, and you take off your sunglasses, and suddenly the colors are much more vivid? That’s what the last two weeks have been like for me. The colors are brighter, and I don’t want to ruin that by moving backward instead of forward. Honestly, I’ve come a long way, and I still have a long way to go. So I have to give myself grace, I have to give myself thanks, and I have to appreciate all of you because I cannot wait to do this with you.