Oberhausen Theater

Theater Oberhausen (August 2012)

The Oberhausen Theater is the largest theater in the west of the Ruhr area. Until 1945 the name was Stadttheater , after which the Stadttheater GmbH was founded, from which the Städtische Bühnen emerged in 1950 and were renamed Theater Oberhausen from 1970 onwards. The Ebertbad , also used as a theater, is in the immediate vicinity.

history

prehistory

As early as the turn of the century, touring stages moved through the then still independent cities of Sterkrade , Osterfeld and Oberhausen. The first presentation of a touring stage can be proven in October 1859 at the station manager Peter Wirsdorfer. The Königsfeld Theater performed in the Kaiserhofsaal in Sterkrade until 1926 . In 1911 Franz Genesius dared to start a permanent theater in Hollerschen Saale on today's Helmholtzstrasse. Drama and operettas were performed. But the inadequate space prevented successful operation and the city did not support the stage. Therefore it was closed again in March 1914. The city had plans for a new building in the Grillopark or conversions of the multi-storey car park in the Kaisergarten or the Hollerschen Saal. As early as May 1914, under the direction of Carl Niessen, there was another performance in the Hollerschen Saal Theater. a. with a performance of Wallenstein's camp . For the first time, the city of Oberhausen subsidized a theater. This episode came to an end with the outbreak of the First World War .

During the war, guest performances by the Rheinisch-Westfälische Verbandsbühne took place with the support of the government in Düsseldorf and the city , which had to be discontinued in December 1918. The traveling stage performed in the hall of the Wilhelmshöhe restaurant on Neumarkt (today at the corner of Ebertstrasse and Sedanstrasse), which later became the property of the Oberhausen civil society . When the city began to develop the theater concept of its own accord in 1920, it reverted to this hall and expanded it for theater use. There were 524 seats, the orchestra room was lowered and the stage area was enlarged.

Theater construction

Theater Oberhausen (2009)

This theater opened on September 15, 1920 with Franz Grillparzer's drama Sappho . In 1921 the capacity was increased to 570 places. A 25-year lease was concluded with the civil society. The theater began as a playhouse, but operas and operettas were also shown as guest performances in the first season . In the 1924/25 season, the Hamborn and Gladbeck theater community was one of the largest theaters in the German Empire. There was a three-part theater with drama, opera and operetta. There was also a ballet company. The contract with Hamborn was canceled again in 1926 and the theater looked for additional venues in the neighboring towns. In 1927 there was a renewed merger with Hamborn, but in the course of the incorporation of Sterkrade and Osterfeld to Oberhausen and Hamborns to Duisburg in 1929 these possibilities no longer existed. Oberhausen had to build another operetta with a game opera. In March 1939, the hall was acquired by the city and renovated and expanded by the city architect Ludwig Freitag . On April 27, 1943, the house was so badly damaged by a bomb attack that it could no longer be used. The theater was continued in the GHH factory inn and in the hall of the Hotel Kaiserhof in Sterkrade , although in 1947 the theater was the first German theater to resume operations after the war. On September 10, 1949, the building that Friedrich Hetzelt had rebuilt and which still exists today was opened with a production of the opera Carmen . 1950 was an intimate theater stage in the Council Chamber of City Hall set up. It was relocated to the Sophie-Scholl-Gymnasium in Sterkrade in 1958 and then finally opened in 1962 in the Luise-Albertz-Halle . Until 1973 it was run as a classic three-part theater , whereby the first austerity measures in 1968 led to a downsizing of the opera business and in 1973 the drama ensemble was abolished with the exception of a few members for a children's theater. In the 1960s, the drama achieved international renown with the production of plays by Peter Handke under the director Günther Büch . In 1992 the repertoire was rebuilt again when the music theater was closed and a spoken theater was reopened for the region. It was named the best theater in the Rhineland five times in a row . The former Theater im Pott, or TiP for short, which was active as a theater for children and young people, went into it.

Guest performances

The ensemble regularly performed guest performances in the surrounding cities. Longer detours were made with pieces by Peter Handke to Stockholm , where calls for help were premiered and to Copenhagen , Oslo , Helsinki , Paris , Amsterdam , Munich and Berlin , among others . In 1967 the Oberhausen productions of prophecy and self-incriminations were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen . With Günther Büch's productions of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and the Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht , the ensemble made guest appearances in 1966 and 1969 in Chemnitz , then Karl-Marx-Stadt . In return, there were guest performances by the Rostock theater ensemble in Oberhausen with the play Der Gesang vom Lusitanischen Popanz by Peter Weiss and Karl-Marx-Stadt with, among others, Krach in Chioggia by Carlo Goldoni . There were also guest performances by the theaters from Magdeburg in 1969 and Leipzig with Brecht's Arturo Ui . These were rare examples of a cultural exchange with theaters in the GDR .

In 2011 the Oberhausen Theater was invited again to the Berlin Theatertreffen with the production of Ibsens Nora or A Puppenhaus by Herbert Fritsch . On August 28 and 29, 2012, the theater performed this production on the occasion of the Ibsen Festival to great applause at the National Theater in Oslo . On October 3rd and 4th, 2012 there was a guest performance with the production of Nora at the Schauspielhaus Zurich and on October 20th the play was performed at the Lower Austria State Theater in St. Pölten .

Awards

In addition to invitations to various theater meetings, the theater is one of the winners of the federal theater prize for small and medium-sized theaters , which was awarded for the first time in 2015. The theater receives € 80,000 in prize money. The award ceremony is scheduled for the end of January 2016.

Stages

The large house has 342 seats on the stalls and 114 on the tier. On December 16, 1961, the Studio 99 was opened in a hall on the top floor of the extension and in 1962 the Kammerspiele in the auditorium of the Luise-Albertz-Halle with around 150 seats. The Kammerspiele were given up when the play was dissolved. In addition to the big house, the theater now has the venues hall 2 and pool. Next to the foyer is the Falstaff theater pub .

Directors

Philipp Müller-Walden Julius Winkelmann Roland Müller-Stein Willi Grunwald Ernst Hellbach-Kühn Arthur Schmiedhammer and Rudolf Schneider Heinrich Voigt Curt Gerdes Kinner from Dresler Fritz Kranz

Joseph Heckhausen Paul Smolny Alfred Kruchen Christian Mettin Ernst Seilgen Heinz Schickel (music theater), Horst Lateika (drama), Gisela Baalcke and Jutta F. Schmidt (children's and youth theater), Erich Kreis (administration) as joint theater management Fritzdieter Gerhards Klaus way Johannes Lepper Peter Carp Florian Fiedler

Directors

The following directors worked at the Oberhausen Theater:

Günther Büch Axel Corti Dieter Dorn

Herbert Fritsch Horst Gnekow Tilman boy

Harald Leipnitz Alexander May Vitus Relin

actor

The following actors and guest actors performed or performed at the Oberhausen Theater:

Maria Becker Joachim Bliese Dieter Borsche Susanne Burkhard Hille Darjes Ursula Dirichs Gernot Endemann Markus Frank András Fricsay Claus Theo Gärtner Käthe Guss Günther Maria Halmer Joachim Hansen Alexander Hegarth Eleanor Holder Brunhilde Hülsmann Hanns Ernst Jäger Michaela Klarwein

Rudolf Knor Hartmut Kollakowsky Diether cancer Manja Kuhl Günter Lamprecht Hermann Lause Alf Marholm Benjamin Morik Ulli Philipp Tilo Prückner Christian Quadflieg Wants to fly quad Wolfgang Reichmann Wolf Roth Klaus Rott Daniel Rothaug Uta Sax

Erich Schellow Sigmar Solbach Walter Spiske Manfred Steffen Günter Strack Lilly Towska Günther Ungeheuer Hildegard Wahry Wolfram Less Sabine Wegmann Ulrich Wildgruber Michael Witte Gisela Zülch

Singer

The following singers performed at the Städtische Bühnen (or the theater) Oberhausen:

Klara Barlow Käthe Guss Olivia Molina Fritz Uhl

Paul Pokorny Karl Schmitt-Walter Teresa Żylis-Gara

household

Of all the publicly funded theaters in Germany, Theater Oberhausen was the one that was subsidized the most in relative (not in absolute terms!) In the 2014/2015 season. 93.1% of the income came from public funds.

literature

• Wilhelm Lange: Theater in Oberhausen 1911 to 1960 Published by the Städtische Bühnen Oberhausen at Christmas 1960
• Gerd Lepges (1): Da capo al fine. Music theater for Oberhausen. Opera Operetta Musical Ballet 1986–1992. Friedhelm Wolters printing works, Oberhausen 1992
• Gerd Lepges (2): Musiktheater in Oberhausen 1949–1992, a documentation, self-published in Oberhausen 1992
• Gerd Lepges (3): Continue playing - 90 years of theater in Oberhausen 1920–2010 Verlag Karl Maria Laufen Oberhausen 2010 ISBN 978-3-87468-256-5

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 50 Years Theater Oberhausen, Chronicle, published by Theater 1970
2. ↑ Lange, p.7ff
3. ↑ ^{a b} Lepges: From the hall stage to the theater , WAZ , June 15, 2012
4. ↑ Gerd Lepges: Continue playing. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 21, 2010, p. 6.
5. ↑ Lange, p. 19
6. ↑ 3. Lepges, p. 213
7. ^ Gudrun Mattern: Ascent from the provinces in: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 10, 2011 p. WOB_4Nr.20
8. ↑ 3. Lepges, p. 214.
9. ↑ German Stage Yearbook 1969, p. 430.
10. ↑ 3. Lepges, p. 77 and p. 82
11. ↑ 2. Lepges, p. 243
12. ↑ 3. Lepges, p. 154
13. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung No. 39 of February 16, 2011, S.WKU 2
14. ↑ Gerd Lepges "Nora" flew to Oslo in Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on September 3, 2012 WOB 4
15. ↑ Theater on Tour. Retrieved August 14, 2013 . 
16. ↑ WAZ of December 22, 2015 WOB_1 / No.298
17. ↑ Sponsored Cards . In: Die Zeit from January 12, 2017, p. 36.

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 34 "  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 38.2"  E