Are you interested in queer history, theatre, performance, and protest?

In our theatre workshop, we will work with selected items from the QWien archive: photos, writings, videos, sounds, placards, protest banners, biographies – including material from the Rosa Lila Villa, the 1st Rainbow Parade, and the Wiener Freiheit. From these, we will develop performances, scenes, and new perspectives together.

Together we ask:

• How can we tell queer stories from the past today?
• What has been made invisible – and how do we bring it back?
• How do the past, present, and future connect through our bodies, voices, and ideas?
• And how have queer struggles made our society more democratic – and continue to do so?

Through a creative process of research and rehearsal, we want to create archive encounters with queer history: playfully imagining, discussing, and moving together from researchers to performers. Through exchange, expression, and empowerment, we want to (in)vent playful scenes around queer history. We will engage with biographies, community moments, and moments of protest, and explore together how we can approach them critically and portray them with care. What matters is not perfection, but the pleasure of the process.

Come as you are – and bring your perspective.

The workshop is open to young queer people (18 and over).

Venue: QWien, Ramperstorffergasse 39, 1050 Vienna

Dates: Tuesday, 7 July to Saturday, 11 July 2026, 11 am – 5 pm

Please register by 1 July 2026 by emailing produktion@qwien.at. In your registration, please include your name, pronouns, and age, and briefly tell us about your interest in and expectations of the workshop. We are happy to answer any questions.

Workshop leaders: Gin Müller (Verein zur Förderung der Bewegungsfreiheit) and Eike Wittrock (Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien)

Contributors: Melina Vesely, Maya Michelsen, Andreas Brunner, Thomas Tretzmüller

An event by QWien – Centre for Queer Culture and History and the cooperative project LGBTIQ Movements and Democracy: History, Present, and Future, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.