A Report from
the 15. Preetzer Treffen
von Jon Bankert
aus: The Vest Pocket Playhouse Newsletter –
Fall 2002, September 2002
Last year, on the morning of September 11, I was in my theater in the United States getting ready to go to Preetz. I was listening to the radio. Suddenly news flashes began coming that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Then that another had crashed into the Pentagon.
I rushed from my theater into the house and turned on the television in time to see the second plane crash into the World Trade Center, and then, in chilling disbelief, to watch the towers collapse. By noon, the US borders were sealed, and so I never reached the 14. Preetz Papiertheatertreffen.
This year, however, the planes flew, and I was treated to one of the high points of my life: the 15. Preetz Papiertheatertreffen. It was my first visit to Germany and I was not disappointed. I found the country beautiful and welcoming.
And, of course, for an American, anything that's over 200 years old is cause for astonishment. And so I was astonished by a lot of things. I saw many wonderful performances by my colleagues, and I return to America with lots of new ideas to try out.
While this was all very wonderful, unquestionably my most lasting impression of the weekend is the strong sense of community I felt. To work with Paper Theater can seem like a very lonely vocation.
Most people don't even know what it is. So to spend a weekend with a group of people who not only are familiar with, but connoisseurs of, Paper Theater is a very heady experience. In addition, I was able to match faces to people with whom I had only had eMail contact before. And I met many new friends from all over the world, with whom I remain in contact.
As I write this, the threat of a new war looms over all of us. In this atmosphere, it is more important than ever before that we hold on to whatever fragile sense of interconnectedness and community that we can create.
We must remember that it is between individuals, not nations, that bonds of friendship and love flourish. It is just such bonds that the Preetz Papiertheatertreffen creates. May it continue to flourish.
xxx