Going to the theatre with school: Together with pupils, teachers and a wide range of formats, we open the doors of the theatre to attend selected performances and take a look behind the scenes. In theme-based workshops, preparations and follow-up discussions, we work with pupils and teachers to find and create connections between the stage, school and everyday life.
We look forward to exploring and questioning the possibilities of theatre with you and your students, and falling in love with it all over again!
Contact
SCHULBEAUFTRAGTE
Antonia Andreae
antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch
+41 44 258 75 18
Teachers
Let's meet!
We are delighted to welcome you to our information event. On 23 September, meet the team behind the Junges Schauspielhaus, the dramaturgy team and co-director Rafael Sanchez in person, and get first-hand information about all the plays and events for the 2025/26 season. Afterwards, there will be drinks and time for conversation.
Registration by 15 September at: antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch
Pedagogy Club
The club for teachers who love theatre
Instead of going to the theatre with students, go with fellow teachers: as part of the Education Club, you will watch plays and then discuss them with other theatre-loving teachers and production staff. We look forward to exploring the diverse programme of the Schauspielhaus Zürich with you on three to four evenings per season and engaging in conversation with you.
You will receive all information about the plays and dates after registering at: antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch
School classes
Recommended pieces
BLÖSCH
by Beat Sterchi
adapted for the stage by Mike Müller
DIRECTED BY: Rafael Sanchez
PFAUEN
PREMIERE: 18.09.2025
RECOMMENDED FROM 16 YEARS
About the play
Ambrosio is a Spanish farm labourer in a Swiss village. While the people around him are constantly suspicious, a special bond develops between him and the lead cow Blösch. Seven years after the two first meet, the world has changed drastically. The rural idyll has had to give way to industry and Ambrosio has had to swap the milking parlour for the saw. One day, Ambrosio and Blösch meet again in the slaughterhouse. With BLÖSCH, co-director Rafael Sanchez brings Beat Sterchi's novel to the Pfauen stage as large ensemble theatre. The production offers food for thought on the coexistence of humans and animals, migration and technological change.
DIE KLEINE MEERJUNGFRAU
A FLUID FAIRY FANTASY
by Bastian Kraft and ensemble
based on Hans Christian Andersen
A co-production with the Thalia Theater Hamburg
DIRECTOR: Bastian Kraft
RECOMMENDED FROM 14 YEARS
RERUN: 30.09.2025
About the play
Once upon a time there was a mermaid who fell in love with a human - and wanted to get rid of her fish tail so that she could live with him on land. The Little Mermaid tells a story as old as mankind itself: of nymphs, water spirits and the deep longing for transformation, for liberation from the role ascribed to her. In this spectacular evening of theatre, fairy tale meets drag, happy ending meets sad ending and a powerful ensemble meets an audience that can hardly escape the spell of this touching and brilliant show. Director Bastian Kraft brings Hans Christian Andersen's DIE KLEINE MEERJUNGFRAU to the stage together with members of the ensemble and stars of the Swiss drag scene - peppered with Disney references and biographical moments from the performers.
UNFILTERED!
by Mable Preach
DIRECTED BY: Mable Preach
A production by Junges Schauspielhaus (ages 12+)
SCHIFFBAU MATCHBOX
WORLD PREMIERE: 24.10.2025
RECOMMENDED FROM 14 YEARS
About the play
Every relationship that has love in it can change the world. However, finding deep, friendly or romantic love is not so easy in a world characterised by superficiality and clichés - especially for marginalised people. The protagonists in UNFILTERED! do it anyway: they throw themselves into a fictitious dating show, go from challenge to challenge and fight against prejudices and judgements - to hopefully be richly rewarded in the end.
The play illuminates the many facets of love in a playful way. For this production, director Mable Preach is working with an ensemble of professional and non-professional players. Together, they visualise the wishes, expectations and experiences of young people who are repeatedly confronted with discrimination and exclusion - and who live in a world in which not everyone is open to them.
DIE ZAUBERFORMEL VON ZÜRICH
A family play by Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
DIRECTED BY: Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
PFAUEN
WORLD PREMIERE: 08.11.2025
RECOMMENDATION FROM 9 YEARS
About the play
#BYEBITCH
EIN PROJEKT ZUM THEMA CYBERMOBBING
Classroom play
DIRECTOR: Stick Around
RERUN: Autumn 2025
RECOMMENDATION FROM 13 YEARS
About the play
Digital and analogue life are inextricably intertwined: Group chats organise students' everyday lives, encounters take place on the playground, in the classroom and on platforms such as Tinder or Instagram. But what happens when personal boundaries are crossed in the digital space or information is misused?
Inspired by the cyberbullying prevention initiative celinesvoice and the true story of Céline Pfister, who took her own life in 2017 after being severely cyberbullied, the play focuses on missed moments when civil courage would have been called for. The classroom play by the Zurich collective Stick Around explores the uncontrolled dynamics of social networks and is also a fixed part of our programme in the 2025/26 season.
GRAF ÖDERLAND
EINE MORITAT IN ZWÖLF BILDERN
by Max Frisch
DIRECTED BY: Claudia Bossard
PFAUEN
PREMIERE: 25.09.2025
RECOMMENDATION FROM 16 YEARS
About the play
A bank employee has beaten the caretaker to death. Just like that, with an axe and for no reason. Martin, the public prosecutor, capitulates to the senselessness of the crime and flees into the woods, where a new identity takes possession of him. As ‘Count Öderland with an axe in his hand’, he himself becomes the senseless murderer and a bloodthirsty and diffuse movement of rebellious dropouts emerges around him that can hardly be stopped.
In Max Frisch's morality tale, Zug director Claudia Bossard explores the explosive mixture of social alienation, populism and state failure. The production skilfully analyses what drives, burdens, shapes and defines Count Öderland.
HANS SCHLEIF
by Matthias Neukirch and Julian Klein
DIRECTOR: Julian Klein
RERUN: Autumn 2025
RECOMMENDED FROM 16 YEARS
About the play
Hans Schleif was an architect, archaeologist, family man - and a high-ranking member of the SS. Decades later, his grandson, ensemble member Matthias Neukirch, sets out in search of clues. His research leads him into the contradictory depths of a biography that reveals personal and historical abysses.
The result is an evening that hauntingly interweaves private memory and collective remembrance - between ancient myths, the Holocaust and the German history of perpetrators. History becomes tangible where it otherwise often remains abstract.
Workshops
To help you prepare for your theatre visit, we offer introductory workshops at the theatre or at your school. The free workshops are based on the artistic concept of the production and address the special features and content of the performance. The same offer is also available for follow-up workshops and post-performance discussions. As preparation or follow-up to the themes and content of the production, the workshops tie in with the different lives of young people.
In addition, we provide you with an educational folder for all plays that we recommend for school classes. In it, you will find further information about the production as well as ideas for independent preparation and follow-up work with your school class after attending the theatre. You will receive the educational folder approximately two weeks before the performance, regardless of whether you have booked a workshop.
Contact: antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch
We offer workshops for these productions:
BLÖSCH
by Beat Sterchi
adapted for the stage by Mike Müller
DIRECTED BY: Rafael Sanchez
PFAUEN
PREMIERE: 18.09.2025
RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 16 AND UP
About the play
DIE KLEINE MEERJUNGFRAU
A FLUID FAIRY FANTASY
by Bastian Kraft und Ensemble
basend on a novel by Hans Christian Andersen
A coproduction with Thalia Theater Hamburg
DIRECTED BY: Bastian Kraft
PFAUEN
RERUN: 30.09.2025
RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 14 AND UP
About the play
UNFILTERED!
by Mable Preach
DIRECTED BY: Mable Preach
A production by the Junges Schauspielhaus (ages 12+)
SCHIFFBAU MATCHBOX
WORLD PREMIERE: 24.10.2025
RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 14 AND UP
About the play
#BYEBITCH
EIN PROJEKT ZUM THEMA CYBERMOBBING
Classroom play
REGIE: Stick Around
RERUN: Autumn 2025
RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 13 AND UP
About the play
DIE ZAUBERFORMEL VON ZÜRICH
EIN POLITISCHER FANTASY-TRIP
DIRECTED BY: Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
PFAUEN
WORLD PREMIERE: 08.11.2025
RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 9 AND UP
About the play
Partner class
As part of the partner class, pupils have the unique opportunity to explore the similarities and differences between various plays and productions.
As a partner class, you and your pupils will attend two productions during a season. In preparatory and follow-up workshops, the pupils explore in depth what they like about each production and why, thereby discovering their individual theatrical tastes. In the workshops, we also examine how the content of the plays they have seen relates to the realities of the pupils' lives and the society in which they live. Last but not least, the class receives in-depth information about the artistic process – from the idea to the performance.
The partner class is an artistic education format for pupils from the 2nd year of secondary school onwards.
Would you like to become a partner class with your pupils? We look forward to receiving your expression of interest by email to antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch.
Premiere class
How is a play created? What needs to be done to bring it to the stage in front of an audience? And which artistic disciplines work together in theatre?
As part of the premiere class, pupils follow the creative process of a production right up to its premiere. They engage playfully with the themes, content and artistic expression of the production and learn to give constructive feedback as part of an artistic process.
We are happy to tailor the scope of the programme to your individual needs (e.g. two workshops, rehearsal visit, guided tour of the Schiffbau and performance visit). The premiere class is a free educational programme aimed at pupils from the 1st year of primary school onwards.
Would you like to become a premiere class with your pupils? We look forward to receiving your expression of interest by email at antonia.andreae@schauspielhaus.ch.
Guided tours
Where are the stage sets created? Who designs the costumes?
During our guided tours, you will learn little secrets about our stage world and gain an insight into the place where theatre in all its facets is created. There is a bit of history, we look at the stages and production facilities and give you an understanding of the work done here at Schauspielhaus Zürich.
For details and booking enquiries, please contact: fuehrungen@schauspielhaus.ch
Collaborations
Blickfelder Festival
The Blickfelder Festival presents international theatre and dance productions for young audiences and implements local projects between schools and artists. With a diverse cultural programme and interactive activities, Blickfelder takes place every two years in a public space in the city of Zurich. The Schauspielhaus theatre is one of the festival's most important partners. The next edition will take place from 28 May to 7 June 2026.
Spiilplätz 2026
SPIILPLÄTZ is a festival and working meeting for youth theatre clubs from institutional theatres and independent stages in Switzerland. Twelve youth theatre clubs from all over Switzerland meet once a year for four days. The young people – aged between 14 and 26 – show each other their current plays, discuss them in in-depth follow-up talks, take part in workshops together and network. The focus of SPIILPLÄTZ is on exchange rather than competition.
Date: June 2026 in Bern
Further information about the festival can be found here.
