Otto Zonschitz

Theater am Halleschen Ufer 2002, previously Schaubühne and theater manufacturer

Otto Zonschitz (* in March 1939 , the place of birth is assumed to be Vienna, † February 19, 2005 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actor , director and founder of the ensemble .

Career

Otto Zonschitz first completed Jus -Studies at the University of Vienna (PhD 1964). His passion belonged to the theater and so he joined the "Komödianten" ensemble in Vienna, which was at home on Börseplatz and where he was involved in a variety of ways, especially as an actor. In 1968 Zonschitz dared to stage his own first production. In addition to directing the two one-act plays "Dansen" and "What costs the iron" by Bertolt Brecht, he also played the role of the iron dealer Svenson. Strengthened by the success of his debut, Zonschitz left the same year to found his own ensemble, for which he had already found comedians, namely his partner, the actress Ilse Scheer , and the musician Rudolf Stodola (born February 18 1946 in Vienna) as his closest confidante and four other actor colleagues. The last performance with the comedians took place on November 25, 1969. They performed the piece Gesang vom Lusitanischer Popanz by Peter Weiss and took it with them to the new place of work in Berlin , as it were as the basis of their repertoire . The two ensembles remained connected through guest performances.

The troupe that Zonschitz headed from now on was christened Theatermanufaktur Berlin and moved into the premises of a former chocolate factory in a Kreuzberg backyard. The location was suitable for living and rehearsing, but by no means for public events, so that the theater manufacturer performed at changing theaters, not only in Berlin. The work of the self-proclaimed collective , which intended to incite its audience to “intervening thinking”, began under difficult economic conditions. Since everything from writing pieces to furnishing and administrative tasks was done by the company, it was only possible to develop one larger production per year. Accordingly, there were ten new pieces between 1972 and 1982. The first is entitled 1848 and is about the revolutions of that year . The stage work, written by Zonschitz and performed 243 times at home and abroad, had its world premiere on May 11, 1973 at the Landestheater Tübingen . After a tour through the Federal Republic of Germany , which also included a performance in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the German National Assembly , the Berlin premiere took place on September 13th in the stands . On April 11, 1974, Hanns Eisler's opera libretto Johann Faustus was premiered as a spoken theater piece at the Tübingen State Theater . Even this production was named "best of the year" by two critics in the annual edition of Theater heute , although Zonschitz was only able to realize all of his ideas for the West Berlin performance on February 1, 1977 ( Grips Theater ).

In addition, the theater manufacturer took part in April 1974 with 1848 in the 20th Festival Internazionale del Teatro Universitario in Parma and with the same play in Hamburg at the North German Theatertreffen. In 1976 and again in 1977 invitations to the Ruhr Festival Recklinghausen were added. In the following year Zonschitz delivered the commissioned work Das Richtfest or Greetings, saviors, where is our breakfast from for the Ruhrfestspiele . Tours and festival participation in many European countries, including some from the Eastern Bloc , were part of the daily business of the ensemble. In October 1979 this was awarded the culture prize of the German Federation of Trade Unions . This was followed on 7 November in Stuttgart State Opera under the joint direction of Zonschitz and Scheer the premiere of Zonschitz` processing of Pablo Neruda -Theaterstücks gloss and Death of Joaquin Murieta under the short title Murieta . The record of the same name , released in 1980, was one of a total of six LPs. Before Murieta enriched the Ruhr Festival in June 1980 , the play was performed next to Faustus in the venerable Old Vic Theater in London. On December 16, Berlin was the scene of a premiere, namely Brecht's agitprop play The Mother . In the Künstlerhaus Bethanien this was possible as part of the Berliner Festwochen . The long-playing record Songs Against War , produced in October 1981 under the Theaterfabrik label in the Hansa studio , contains the two Zonschitz appeals war and never again war . The graphic design of the record cover also comes from him. As with the LP production, Otto Zonschitz always excelled in several areas in the productions. In addition to the directorial work, he could also have been the author of the play or its editor; in addition, he could have been responsible for the costume designs or the stage design.

In 1982 Zonschitz and his staff, which had now grown to 20 people, were assigned the premises of the Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer . The lease began in February and games began in March. Another highlight of his career was the World Theater Festival in the distant US city of Denver in 1982. And also as a Berlin institution immediately experienced turnaround time brought a sense of achievement with it: The fairy tale comedy The dragon of Yevgeny Schwarz took the ensemble of Theatermanufaktur in April 1990, a tour through the still sovereign GDR . Zonschitz had done a translation, designed the set and masks, and directed. Partly occupied by GDR actresses, the West German production with its “contemporary allusions”, but also Brecht reminiscences, was rated as “an asset” for the GDR theater scene.

But now and then there was criticism of Zonschitz's staging style. It was said that he overloaded the pieces with expansions and clarifications . Hellmut Kotschenreuther said in the Tagesspiegel about the round heads production: "Too much of a good thing is too much." Ortrun Egelkraut wrote in the Berliner Volksblatt that the evening at the theater had become "a tedious, boring affair". Jürgen Beckelmann , also a Volksblatt , said after visiting the "Turandot": "Otto Zonschitz [could] never find an end." First, the reviewer was bored, then "grimness", the thought "I am [...] but not stupid! ”peaked. Zonschitz's rank as one of Berlin's important off-theater pioneers is undisputed . In the eyes of the Tagesspiegel , however, he could not preserve it. Initially, he ensured that free groups received their own venues and funding, but later exploited the privileges so that the more innovative off-theater youngsters fell by the wayside. With the lack of funding from the Senate in 1992, the theater manufacture ceased to exist. Zonschitz returned to Vienna, where he succumbed to cancer on February 19, 2005.

Projects

• 1970: Singing from the Lusitanian Popanz by Peter Weiss
• 1973: 1848
• 1974: Johann Faustus by Hanns Eisler
• 1975: The big gangster show
• 1975: Emperor and kitchen songs
• 1977: Our right to live (scenes from the Weimar Republic) (later renamed War, Peace, Inflation )
• 1978: The topping-out ceremony or hello, saviors, where is our breakfast
• 1979: Murieta after Pablo Neruda
• 1980: Bertolt Brecht's mother
• 1981: Henry Ford or the Great Law
• 1982: Collateral Damage or The Civilian Population a Problem
• 1984: The round heads and the pointed heads by Bertolt Brecht
• 1986: Nekrasov by Jean-Paul Sartre
• 1988: Turandot or Bertolt Brecht's congress of white washers
• 1990: The Dragon by Yevgeny Black

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hartmut Krug: A left story. Otto Zonschitz and the theater manufacture: on the death of the Berlin off-theater pioneer. In: tagesspiegel.de. March 3, 2005, accessed May 9, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Zedler - Zysset . In: Wilhelm Kosch, continued by Ingrid Bigler-Marschall (Ed.): Deutsches Theater-Lexikon. Biographical and bibliographical manual . tape VII , fasc. 38./39. De Gruyter , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-026918-5 , Zonschitz, p. 3854 f .
3. ↑ Editor: Otto Zonschitz died. Author, stage designer, long-time employee of the "Komödianten", artistic director of the "Theatermanufaktur". In: derstandard.at. March 3, 2005, accessed May 9, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Ernst Wimmer: When the Austrian was murdered. Two "Anschluss" one-act acts by Brecht with the comedians . In: Volksstimme Österreich . 5th April 1968.
5. ^ Rudolf U. Klaus: Lessons from the teaching piece. With the "Komödianten" at Börseplatz: Two Brecht parables . In: Courier . Vienna April 5, 1968.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Andrea Huemer: Once upon a time at the Börseplatz. Conny Hannes Meyer will be 85 years old these days. His “comedians”: a theater that shaped Vienna - in the 1960s and far beyond. A memory. In: diepresse.com. June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 9, 2017 . 
7. ↑ tso / dpa: Actress Ilse Scheer died. The Austrian actress and director Ilse Scheer, co-founder of the Berlin “Theatermanufaktur”, is dead. She died on Tuesday after a serious illness at the age of 71. In: tagesspiegel.de. April 20, 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2017 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} 10 years of theater manufacture . In: Theatermanufaktur Am Halleschen Ufer (ed.): Bertolt Brecht. The good man from Sezuan. A modern fairy tale . October 1982 (unpaginated program).
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Chronicle of the theater manufacture . In: Theatermanufaktur Am Halleschen Ufer (ed.): Bertolt Brecht. The good man from Sezuan. A modern fairy tale . October 1982 (unpaginated program).
10. ^ Le: The humanist as a traitor. For the world premiere of Hanns Eisler's “Johann Faustus” at the LTT . In: Tübinger Theaterchronik . April 11, 1974.
11. ^ Record cover from Theatermanufaktur. Murieta , theater manufacturer Z192, February 1980.
12. ↑ Record cover of songs against the war. Scheer - Brecht - Eisler. The cities are still standing, the people are still breathing. Ilse Scheer: Songs and texts against the war by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Tucholsky, Otto Zonschitz, music: Hanns Eisler , Theatermanufaktur T4, October 1981.
13. ↑ Thomas Adam: Weißwäscher Brecht. "Turandot" in the theater manufacture . In: Der Tagesspiegel . Berlin December 10, 1988, features section.
14. ^ Claus B. Maier: The game about "The round heads and the pointed heads" in the theater manufacture. The satanic trick on Halleschen Ufer . In: BZ . Berlin June 2, 1984, the theater premiere.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Eveline Rößler: Poetry often covered - Lancelot rode along in a leather look ... Guest performance with pros and cons: Theatermanufaktur Munich [sic] presented "The Dragon" . In: Free Press Karl-Marx-Stadt . April 18, 1990.
16. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Schumacher: When the dragon threatens the city again. Theater manufacture with a fairy tale comedy by Schwarz . In: Berliner Zeitung . April 6, 1990.
17. ↑ E. Peuker: On the lost face. Theater manufacture with "The Dragon" in Leipzig . In: Central German Latest News . Leipzig April 24, 1990.
18. ↑ Hellmut Kotschenreuther: Contradictory from Jahoo. "Round heads and pointed heads" in the theater manufacture . In: Der Tagesspiegel . Berlin June 2, 1984.
19. ↑ Ortrun Egelkraut: Theater Manufactory. Brecht's exile theme continued to this day . In: Volksblatt . Berlin June 2, 1984.
20. ↑ Jürgen Beckelmann: Brecht's "Turandot ..." in the theater manufacture. Good mood turns into grimness . In: Volksblatt . Berlin December 10th, 1988.

Web links

• Obituary in the Berliner Tagesspiegel