TUSCH (Theater & Schulen)
The TUSCH (Theater und Schulen) 
concept is rooted in partnerships between Berlin theatres and schools through which theatre-based projects are developed. The program is under the jurisdiction of the Berliner Senat für Bildung, Jugend und Sport and involves around 30 theatres and schools.
For more information go to www.tusch-berlin.de.
2010 - 12
Our current TUSCH-partner is the HEINRICH-SCHLIEMANN-GYMNASIUM in Prenzlauer Berg.
Our partnership with the school came about because a very dedicated teacher, Mechthild Pieper, who had been a long-standing fan of English Theatre Berlin, had set up an English-language drama Wahlpflichtfach. So it came almost naturally that the annual drama project for the TUSCH week in March 2011 will be created by her first English drama class.
The students decided to go for a classical English Crime story, set some time in the 19th century. Together with our drama teacher, Inka-Charlotte Palm and our long term drama education intern, Minna Partanen from Finland, they are currently writing and improvising, and striving to put a piece together.
The piece will be shown at the TUSCH week in late March 2011 at Podewil.
2007 - 09
The fourth TUSCH project set up a partnership between ETB and the NELSON-MANDELA-Schule in Charlottenburg, the first International school in Berlin. Most of the students are native English speakers. All classes are held in English.
The focus was a project with the “Wahlpflichtfach” drama. All of the 15 participants were students from grade 9 and 10. The class decided to create a play of their own:
PINK!
All is not what it seems
Starting from the intense emotions anger, jealousy and deception, we finally ended up with deciding on only one of them.
We were looking for the phenomenon “DECEPTION” in our lives. Where do we come across that concept in our society and especially in our every day lives and experience?
We found out that it is present each and every single day. Each and every single day that we step outside our houses, ride a bus or turn on the radio or tv. No matter if we just want to read a newspaper or a magazine, it’s there. Deception is part of our daily life and we cannot escape from it.
PINK was presented at the TUSCH Festwoche at the PODEWIL on March 10 2008 with the following students: Kyung Min Kim, Tanya Herfurth, Nimisha Kalevaru, Felix Suhl, Isabella Seger, Stella Nthenya, Christof Mehlstaeubler, Amos Douglas, Ferdinand Osang, Bruno Ziebell, Tristan Krams, Jason Simson-Lagans, Niklas Anspach, Adrianne Espiritu, Alex Andonopolous, Leandra Bitahwa
Aeschylus' The Persians is as relevant today as it was nearly 2500 years ago! 11 Students are presenting key scenes from the original and also their own creation of an interpretation in a contemporary context. Glory, Worry and Doom transcend time and place...
The project was presented both at the 2009 TUSCH Festwoche on March 26 at ENGELBROT and at English Theatre Berlin on Sunday March 29 / 8pm.
2006/2007
In September 2006 ETB started a new TUSCH partnership with the SCHILLER-OBERSCHULE in Charlottenburg. ETB Workshop Co-Ordinator Priscilla Be teamed up with the teacher Christine Brown and her ninth grade English Class. The subject they chose to theatrically explore was `Body Image´ which was performed during the TUSCH-Woche at Die Pumpe in March 2007.
2004/2005
In August 2004 English Theatre Berlin started a TUSCH partnership with the SOPHIE-SCHOLL-OBERSCHULE in Schöneberg. ETB´s Artistic Director, Günther Grosser, and British actor, Tomas Spencer, teamed up with Kristina Tendel, teacher at the Sophie-Scholl-Oberschule, and 15 students of Grade 12 to work on their version of Louis Sachar´s exciting play HOLES.
The TUSCH project HOLES was performed during the TUSCH-Wochen at Die Pumpe in March and in the Sophie-Scholl-Oberschule in May, 2005 and again was a huge success.
2002/2003/2004
Our first TUSCH project (2002-2004), SOUTH AFRICA AWAKENINGS - From Tribal Beginnings to 2004, was developed during a two-year Partnership with the MARTIN-BUBER-OBERSCHULE where our creative team, Jesta Phoenix (writer), Nicholas Grew (music composer) and Nooreen Shah-Preusser (director), together with students and teachers from the school developed a production based on the history of South Africa. For the first year of the project the work concentrated on tribal beginnings to 1994, the second year focused on the years 1994 to 2004 - corresponding well with the 10th anniversary of freedom in the new South Africa.
Both shows resulting from the project and presented at the school aula were a tremendous success and were enthusiastically welcomed both by teachers and students as well as by representatives of the South African Embassy.