Act! Wer bin ich?

Theater educator and teacher Maike Plath worked at a secondary school in Neukölln for almost 10 years. Normal teaching was hardly possible there. So instead, she started doing theater with the young people and was successful. The “problematic youths” suddenly showed what they were capable of and what they thought about the world. She began to write down and publish her experiences and concepts. When the school board asked her to “work to rule,” Maike Plath gave up her civil service position after 17 years of teaching and now runs the ACT association with two other women. "When I started my own business, I didn't want to sit alone on the ICE train and teach classes somewhere else every weekend. I wanted to continue working with young people and ensure that as many of them as possible had a voice." A team of 23 artists and educators now works according to her approach throughout Berlin and provides further training for teachers and artists nationwide. Some of the children from back then are now young adults and are themselves mentoring younger children. And every year, new ones join them... Rosa von Praunheim and his film crew (camera Elfi Mikesch) spent many months in 2015/16 observing the development of a play by Maike Plath – “How long is Paradise” – at Heimathafen.