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Popular Music student Sebastian Michaeli (l.) during group work © Ina Schuchardt-Groth

Educational music theater project of the Popakademie starts

04. September 2020

On Monday, 07. September the final week of the project "Whats up! - Chat Community, Music & Theater" starts at the Johannes Kepler Gemeinschaftsschule in Mannheim. The project is part of the department "Vermittlung Populäre Musik" of the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg and takes place in cooperation with the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Since February, pop academics León Stawski, Jonas Pentzek and Sebastian Michaeli have been working on the music theater piece "Whats Up" together with the performance artists of the National Theater and 80 students of the 8th grade of the Johannes Kepler Gemeinschaftsschule. The project investigates the phenomena of "identity" and "space" in the context of social media and chat communities, including smartphones and tablets.

Where do smartphones play which role? At workshops and project days the pupils tried to find out. To this end, the pupils explored their school and everyday meeting places. Based on these impressions, freelance artist Lea Langenfelder wrote the script together with Ricarda Walter.

Pop music design graduate León Stawski, pop music design student Jonas Pentzek and popular music student Sebastian Michaeli developed the songs together with a group of pupils. The preliminary work will be finalized and documented during the project week starting Monday in the Pop Academy and the Johannes Kepler Gemeinschaftsschule.

Instead of a live presentation, the photos and videos produced during this week as well as further information and teaching materials will be published on www.popakademie.de in autumn.

The work of the department Vermittlung Populäre Musik has been an essential part of the Pop Academy's work since its foundation and is part of the competence center of the Mannheim university institution. Its core is active music making with children, young people, adults and seniors. Offers for all age groups are realized in the area of cultural education and language promotion, with special emphasis on the integration of local actors from the metropolitan region. Students and graduates of the Pop Academy impart their professional knowledge in the projects.

The project is supported by the program "Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt" of the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of the State of Baden-Württemberg.