About us
The International Womyn’s Theatre Festival (IF*TF) has a feminist and collective approach and is organized by womyn from the association protagon e.V. international performing arts and the independent theater ensemble antagon theaterAKTion. It was initiated by ensemble member Bárbara Luci Carvalho. She is a member of The Magdalena Project, an international network of womyn in contemporary theatr,e and artistic director of IF*TF Frankfurt. The IF*TF Frankfurt is an event to strengthen the position and perspectives of womyn in contemporary theatre and the performing arts, to confront gender injustice in the cultural sector and to establish a network for the further development of womyn theater makers. For eight years, the IF*TF Frankfurt has been providing important impulses for strengthening feminist projects at federal and national level. As part of The Magdalena project network, it is internationally connected. It has set itself the task of making this network better known in the independent scene in Germany.
Why a womyn's theatre festival?
Why a womyn’s theatre festival?
The IF*TF is the first contemporary womyn’s theatre festival in Frankfurt am Main. Since 2017, it has been creating space for feminist processes in an international and self-organized framework. Anyone can be on stage and in the audience, but we explicitly want womyn as directors and in other key positions.
Why are we doing this?
I’m sure some of you have already asked yourselves this question.
Our answer is:
Because womyn are still disadvantaged in the performing arts.
Here are some numbers:
– Only 32% of directors and script writers in the theatre are womyn, but in costume and make-up it’s 70%. [2020]
– Womyn in professions such as dramaturge or production manager in
theatre, film and television earn up to 26% less than their colleagues – the
gender pay gap is therefore much higher than the national average. [2018]
Source: Deutscher Kulturrat – Frauen und Männer im Kulturmarkt -Bericht zur wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Lage. https://www.kulturrat.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Frauen-und-Maenner-im-Kulturmarkt.pdf
We want to change that! But how do we do that?
In 2017, we at IF*TF started a festival that:
– puts womyn in the center of attention. We want key positions such as director to be filled by women and we want the overall focus to be on womyn.
– Each year we choose a theme to guide the content of the contributions. We ask questions related to feminism and want the discourse to evolve and a community to emerge through your answers and ideas.
– We want to work intersectionally: Womyn outside the cis-experience, with a migration background, disability or class-specific discrimination are at a particular structural disadvantage. We want to include these perspectives to a greater extent.
– We invite men to leave the role assigned to them by society and to be listeners.
– We promote workshops for womyn and girlz that are specifically designed to empower them.
2025 „Performing Ecofeminism“
We are happy to welcome you all to the International Womxn’s Theatre Festival IF*TF in Frankfurt am Main! IF*TF 2025, which is taking place in Hesse for the 9th time in a row, will focus on the question: How can intersectional feminism contribute to protecting the biodiversity of our planet and creating inclusive spaces?
Our aim is to develop a basis for a common feminist practice – one that embraces diversity, respect for differences and the participation of all. We look at structural inequalities, racism, colonial history and environmental injustice that particularly affect womxn and other marginalized groups and incorporate these perspectives into our artistic work.
We want to encourage our visitors to think about how they can act as co-creators of intersectional spaces—spaces in which womxn and girlz are encouraged to express themselves authentically, raise their voices and and collectively develop processes for social, ecological, and gender justice. To this end, we have put together an extensive program with over 50 events over seven days. Together with international artists from the fields of theater, performance, video, the visual arts and music, we promote an intergenerational and intercultural dialogue that connects, inspires and opens up new perspectives.
The IF*TF is part of The Magdalena Project, a dynamic international network that works across borders and generations. In Germany, we work in an interdisciplinary way on feminist perspectives, environmental awareness and social justice. At the same time, the festival creates a platform in an intergenerational dialogue between theater, art and politics where womxn can strengthen their position, develop joint practices and become visible. Since its founding, the IF*TF has emphasized exchange, solidarity, and networking—and invites everyone to ask questions, actively participate and shape new visions for theater stages.
I wish us all a powerful, solidary and inspiring festival!
Bárbara Luci Carvalho, Artistic Director
The asterisk (*)
… stands for people who define themselves as female. The International Womxn’s Theatre Festival is a platform for all womyn. Respecting which gender identity or sexuality a person ascribes to themselves is just as much a part of the feminist empowerment process as promoting people regardless of their background, religion or age. We explicitly want womyn at the centre, as directors and in other key positions. All genders are welcome in the evening programme.