Rötteln Castle Festival
The Rötteln Castle Festival is an open-air theater event that has been held every summer since 1968 at Rötteln Castle in Lörrach .
Venue
The performance area of the Castle Festival has been taking place on an open-air stage on three terraced levels in the northwestern part of the lower castle since the early 1970s .
On the lower of these levels, around 400 square meters in size, there is space for up to 550 spectators. During performance times, the area will be furnished with appropriate individual seating in 27 rows. In addition, the lighting and sound systems are installed on various support structures on this level . The central control unit for the lighting and sound technician is located on a temporarily erected platform, slightly raised and behind the auditorium. On this lower level there is also one of the three shell towers , which together with the inner wall forms the western end of the spectator stand.
The middle level, almost 57 square meters in size, serves as the main stage . There is a prompter box in the center of the floor . Otherwise, the stage looks good because of its surroundings, especially when the two castle towers are illuminated for the evening season. The actors can enter or exit the scene on both sides. The entrance to the left of the auditorium allows the actor to disappear behind the castle wall.
The upper level, about 38 square meters in size, serves as a supplementary stage area that can be used depending on the piece. In the middle of the main stage there are two symmetrical staircases to the upper level, which are often covered by the stage design . Above this third level there is another level, which is not used for the festival. The viewer looks at this terraced arrangement, at the end of which is the round tower "The Landscape". The round tower stands directly next to the old main gate to the outer bailey, from where one reaches the upper bailey via a steep, partly stepped path .
history
The first considerations on home games at Rötteln Castle were already handed down from the working conference of the Markgräflerland History Association on July 17, 1935.
The castle festival goes back to the foundation of the association Burgfestspiele Rötteln (open-air plays and castle concerts) on February 12, 1966, which is currently called Burgfestspiele Rötteln eV .
In the preparatory discussions in 1965, the establishment of a cellar theater for around 100 people in the vault under the former knight's hall of Rötteln Castle was considered. In addition, open-air performances for about 100 spectators should also be presented on the area of the knight's hall. Drama and palace concerts were planned for around 400 visitors each in the courtyard of the upper castle. Large events for up to 2000 spectators were to take place on the meadow below the castle. None of these envisaged performance spaces could be realized.
Due to the preparation of a parking lot in front of the castle and the completion of a street from Haagen , the first performance took place in 1968 in the garden of the castle tavern . In 1971/72 a larger play area with an open-air stage was laid out on three terraced levels; this is directly in front of the upper castle. There is space for up to 550 spectators on this facility.
The ensemble of the Castle Festival includes around 20 amateur actors from Lörrach and the surrounding area every year. In 1977 an old stable building was converted into a changing room for the festival. From 1968 to 1986 the Rötteln Castle Festival also organized musical performances.
From the beginning to 2016, around 240,000 spectators attended the more than 600 performances of 45 different plays.
Performances
literature
- Walter Gümpel: Report of the Röttelnbundes eV for the years 1963 to 1965. In: Das Markgräflerland, Heft 2, 1966, pp. 142–144. ( Digitized version of the Freiburg University Library )
- Willi Ferdinand Fischer : Rötteln can no longer be imagined without the Castle Festival. In: Das Markgräflerland, volume 3/4, 1973, pp. 216–217. ( Digitized version of the Freiburg University Library )
- Willi Ferdinand Fischer: The festival at Rötteln Castle. In: Unser Lörrach, 5. 1974, pp. 36–39.
- Walter Vogelpohl: Thirty years of the Rötteln Castle Festival - a look back. In: Das Markgräflerland, Volume 2/1996, pp. 126–132. ( Digitized version of the Freiburg University Library )
- Ingrid Carell: Castle Festival Rötteln. A few professionals and a lot of ambitious amateurs. In: Regio-Magazin, 9. 1992, pp. 18-20.
- Erhard Richter : 50 years of the “Rötteln Castle Festival”. In: Das Markgräflerland, Volume 2016, pp. 127–137.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Seating plan for the Röttelnspiele , accessed on July 9, 2019
- ^ See Johannes Helm: Fifty Years of the Markgräflerland Working Group 1929–1979 . In: Das Markgräflerland 1979, special print, p. 28 (digital copy from Freiburg University Library)
- ↑ Freiburg District Court VR 410233
- ↑ s. Judge p. 128
- ↑ s. Gümpel p. 143; Gümpel was a founding member of the Burgfestspiele Rötteln eV
- ↑ s. Judge p. 135
- ↑ a revised version of the piece by Erhard Richter was published in 2015: The Markgräfler Bauernaufstand von 1524/25. Scenic representation in five acts. In: The Markgräflerland. Volume 2/2015, pp. 5-86