The Stage (1964)

The stage at a performance of your own production "Games people play - games of the played"

The Stage , later The Stage - Experimental Theater Düsseldorf , was a Düsseldorf theater group founded in 1964 by the American Ernest Martin .

history

The stage was created in 1964 at the Düsseldorf Adult Education Center . The theater group consisting of amateur actors was founded by the US theater director , artistic director and actor Ernest Martin, who led it until 1987. According to a report by SPIEGEL in 1970, twenty people between the ages of 20 and 29, such as “housewives, employees, interpreters, decorators and mannequins” belonged to the theater group. In 1968 there was a name change. The group was now called “The Stage - Experimentiertheater Düsseldorf”. Due to their often played and successful in-house productions, Ich sehe mich dich haben , and Oedipustelex , the group received the 1979 sponsorship award from the city of Düsseldorf .

program

The work of the theater group The Stage caused a sensation less through the staging of predetermined plays by contemporary authors such as Six People Are Looking for an Author by Luigi Pirandello or From the Lives of Insects by the Capek brothers ( Karel Čapek and Josef Čapek ) than through the production of self-made plays . The beginning of this series of in-house productions was the work Ballade for a Parasite in 1966 , which was followed in 1968 by Time out of Mind .

“In the productions, Ernest Martin realized his idea of ​​an experimental theater that, without a conventional narrative structure, concentrated exclusively on the simultaneous interplay of language, facial expressions, gestures, movement, light, sound, film, television, time and space. The “stage” stuck to this concept of developing pieces independently until the early eighties. Of great importance for the development of the theater group the productions were I see myself you see (1975) and Oedipustelex (1978), the more than 100 times in guest appearances at home and abroad (including Cologne, Hamburg, Bremen, Wuppertal, Hannover, Paris , Rome, Copenhagen and The Hague). ”(Source: Ernest Martin's official website)

Selection of productions

• 1965: Six people are looking for a Luigi Pirandello author
• 1966: Ballad for a Parasite (in-house production)
• 1967: From the life of insects by the Čapek brothers
• 1968: Time out of Mind - time outside the mind (in-house production)
• 1968: Games People Play - games of the played (in-house production)
• 1969: The Electric Environment or Why Karl-Heinz wears long hair (in-house production)
• 1970: Cerebrum and Kontakt - Contact (in-house production)
• 1975: I see myself seeing you (in-house production)
• 1978: Oedipus Telex (in-house production)
• 1981: Alice in Wonderland or The Conscious Dream (in-house production)
• 1982: Marat / Sade by Peter Weiss
• 1983: Public abuse from Peter Handke
• 1986: The lesson of Eugène Ionesco
• 1986: Rashomon based on the film by Akira Kurosawa
• 1987: Arsenic and lace cap by Joseph Kesselring

Press

The Spiegel reporter Fritz Rumler writes in his article From body dumplings orgiastic singing rises over the stage on May 25, 1970 :

“It was, of course, just theater; of course, unusual theater. In the 'Green Vault' of the Düsseldorf Rheinhalle, what some might mean happened - psychedelic, orgiastic, ritual, cruel, therapeutic or total theater; it also reminded the caretaker of "pig stuff".

It was more reminiscent of the off-off art of the New York 'Open Theater', of the 'Living Theater', of the psychodrama of group therapy, and in this genre the Düsseldorf 'stage 70' is a fabulous, unique piece for Germany. "

- The mirror

Awards

• 1979: Sponsorship award from the city of Düsseldorf

Others

• The German performance artist and photographer Monika Baumgartl was a member of the stage from 1969 to 1970 .
• On the occasion of Ernest Martin's 85th birthday , the Theater Museum of the State Capital Düsseldorf honored the achievements of the Afro-American artist in 2017/18 with the comprehensive retrospective "How it all began ... Ernest Martin and Düsseldorf's independent scene since the 1960s".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Orgiastic singing rises from body dumplings - Spiegel reporter Fritz Rumler talks about the Düsseldorf “stage 70”. In: Der Spiegel. May 25, 1970. Retrieved October 14, 2014 . 
2. ↑ Ernest Martin's biography on his official website
3. ↑ Der Spiegel - Article from May 25, 1970