The petition to save the Plauen-Zwickau theater has found thousands of supporters within two weeks. On Tuesday morning, around 11,800 signatures were recorded on the online platform openpetition.de. Around 500 more have been collected on lists that have not yet been entered, the theater said on request. The collection was only launched on 4 December and will run until the beginning of June 2025.
The reason for this is a financial shortfall as a result of cost increases and pay rises. According to General Director Dirk Löschner, the shareholders are discussing scenarios ranging from staff cuts to the elimination of an entire division. To avert this, the supporters' associations of both theatres in Plauen and Zwickau have launched a petition.
"For decades, culture in Saxony has been pushed ever closer to the abyss by underfunding, especially in rural areas," it says. "The Plauen-Zwickau Theater is also facing the end in 2025." The shareholders are called upon to secure funding without restrictions for 2025 and 2026. They should also lobby the new state government and the Vogtland-Zwickau cultural region to increase their subsidies to relieve the burden on the two cities.
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