HORA
Creators: name: HORA
Publisher: name: DARIAH-DE
Year: 2023
Subjects: Zurich
Theatre Group
Switzerland

description: The theatre HORA was founded in 1993 by the director and theatre pedagogue Michael Elber and the agoge Gerda Fochs as an association in Zurich. The name HORA is taken from the first production of the theatre, an adaptation of Michael Ende’s novel Momo. Today, the HORA theatre is one of Switzerland’s most famous independent dance, theatre, and performance groups. It aims to ‘provide a professional theatre environment for talented ‘mentally handicapped’ actors.’
Elber’s and Fochs’ foundation of the theatre was inspired by a guest performance of the ‘integrative’ theatre Thikwa from Berlin in Zurich. The so-called ‘integrative theatre’ aimed to no longer make theatre with cognitively handicapped actors for therapeutic or political reasons. Instead, it should be perceived as part of the regular cultural offer. In the following years, the artistic director Michael Elber experimented with new formats and possibilities of theatre work with cognitively disabled actors.
For the Swiss, the audience needed to take on new perspectives and views by appreciating his ensemble members’ unique features. The piece Die Lust am Scheitern (2000), a so-called Nullimprovisation, has been formative for the artistic development of the ensemble. Elber described it as the essence of his HORA philosophy. The production An-sehen oder gesehsch mi? was the first with which the ensemble went on tour in the canton of Zurich. Furthermore, it became the basis for creating the documentary film Aber auch ich by Urs Wäckerli, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 1999.
In 1995, HORA moved into its first rehearsal rooms. The financial situation of the theatre remained difficult. In 1998 it received the award Kultur- and Sozialpreis of the ZFV Unternehmungen and was invited abroad for the first time in 2000 with the production Lennie and George. Guest performances in Germany, Austria, France, and Russia and at ‘integrative’ theatre festivals, particularly with the play Die Lust am Scheitern, followed. In 2002, HORA became part of the Züriwerk Foundation as a theatre workshop. As a result, both the management and the ensemble members received a fixed monthly salary for their theatre work, and the rehearsals counted as working time. The latter, as well as the financing, was subsequently based on that of sheltered workshops. 
The efforts for recognition by the regular cultural scene continued to be complicated. In the following years, Elber shaped the ‘classic’ HORA aesthetic: Ideas of norms are questioned, and the imperfect, unconventional, unpredictable, and erroneous are valued. The diversity of the HORA theatre is reflected in various theatre forms, such as adaptations of film and literary classics, open-air and mask theatre, and collaborations with other ensembles. In 2008, HORA actor Marcel Trinkler was awarded the GoldenHans- Theaterpreis für behinderte Darstellerinnen und Darsteller (‘GoldenHans- Theatre Prize for Disabled Actors’) for his performance in Die Lust am Scheitern.
The HORA’BAND was founded in 2005 as a separate artistic project independent of the HORA theatre ensemble. It has released four music albums and played over 250 concerts. A third department was created four years later with the vocational training for actors with disabilities under the direction of Urs Beeler. It existed until 2018 when it was dissolved for operational and structural reasons. As organizer of the international theatre festival OKKUPATION!, held until 2013, HORA created an interface between the regular and ‘integrative’ theatre scene. It facilitated the establishment of contacts with other partners, such as the Schauspielhaus and the Rote Fabrik. This led to the collaboration with the French choreographer Jérôme Bel. He directed the conceptual play Disabled Theater, which premiered at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in May 2012. As a result, the ensemble was invited to renowned venues worldwide, predominantly to regular ‘nonintegrative’ theatre events. In September 2012, the play won the Children’s Choice Award in two categories at the Ruhrtriennale. In addition, the ensemble received recognition for its performance from the Theatre Commission of the City of Zurich. The following year, the production was the first work of an ‘integrative’ theatre group to be invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen. There, actress Julia Häusermann received the Alfred- Kerr- Darstellerpreis für die herausragende Leistung eines jungen Schauspielers (‘Alfred- Kerr Best Actor award for the outstanding performance of a “young actor”’). Subsequently, the play was increasingly controversially discussed, especially by disability rights activists, and thereby increased its popularity. The success required organizational changes in the theatre’s operations.
In 2014, the book Theater HORA – Der einzige Unterschied zwischen uns und Salvador Dalí ist, dass wir nicht Dalí sind (‘Theater HORA – The only difference between us and Salvador Dalí is that we are not Dalí’) over the first twenty years of the HORA theatre was published by Theater der Zeit. Marcel Bugiel and Michael Elber edited it. In 2015, the ensemble finally moved into the Backstein in the Rote Fabrik and manifested its membership in Zurich’s regular independent theatre scene. The years 2013 to 2019 were dominated by the long-term project ‘Freie Republik HORA’ (‘Free Republic HORA’). It was aimed at promoting cognitively disabled directors, choreographers, and performance artists. In 2015, HORA Theatre was awarded the Anerkennungspreis (‘Acknowledgement Prize’) of the Paul Schiller Foundation. The following year, it was awarded the most important Swiss theatre prize, the Schweizer Grand Prix Theater/ Hans- Reinhart- Ring. Interdisciplinary research projects and publications on the theatre HORA followed. By being included in the cultural mission of the city of Zurich, the theatre received regular support as a cultural business for the first time.
In the summer of 2019, the theatre took leave of HORA founder Michael Elber. Curdin Casutt has been responsible for the overall management since 2018. He reorganized the theatre and established a new management team. Now, the artistic ‘Labor’ executes the workshop for the ensemble members. In the following years, collaborations with external artists occurred, as numerous guest performances in Switzerland and abroad occurred. To this day, the theatre contributes to focusing the viewer’s attention on the skills of the artists to counteract a deficit-oriented view of people with cognitive disabilities. The actors are encouraged in their autonomy, enriching the regular theatre landscape.