Dramatic workshop

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Dramatic Workshop ( English for "Dramatic Workshop") was the name of a drama school founded and run by Erwin Piscator at New York's New School . The workshop, of which the most famous alumni were Tennessee Williams , Marlon Brando , Tony Curtis and Harry Belafonte , existed from 1940 to 1951.

history

At the beginning of January 1939, Erwin Piscator, the most famous representative of German political theater, who had already gone through several exile periods, traveled to the USA, to New York City, with his wife Maria. In May 1939 he contacted Alvin Johnson , the president of the New School for Social Research , which was a reservoir for German emigrants during the Nazi era . a. educated Jewish intellectuals. At the beginning of 1940 he then founded a Dramatic Workshop at the New School , which began teaching on January 15, 1940 with initially 20 students.

In September 1940, the Studio Theater was formed within the workshop , whose venue was the auditorium of the New School . The Studio Theater was temporarily closed on May 31, 1943, and finally - under pressure from a group of students - in 1944. Since July 1944, the workshop has hosted annual summer courses, initially held in Sayville, Long Island . In December of the same year, a Junior Dramatic Workshop was also established.

In January 1945 the workshop had 40–60 full-time and about 250 part-time students. In October of that year the entire facility moved to the President Theater , located at West 48th Street. After the end of the Second World War , the GI Bill of Rights passed in 1944 led to a massive increase in students; the workshop temporarily became one of the largest theater schools in the country. In 1947 the facility took over the Rooftop Theater , which had been used sporadically since February 1946.

In June 1949, Piscator outsourced the Dramatic Workshop from the New School. It then continued to exist independently under the name Dramatic Workshop and Technical Institute . In March 1950 the Rooftop Theater was given up as a venue, in late summer 1951 the President Theater ; space in the Capitol Theater was rented as a replacement .

In 1951, during the McCarthy era , Piscator was summoned for questioning before the Un-American Activities Committee . To avoid this interrogation, he left the USA and landed in Hamburg on October 7, 1951 . He never returned to the United States. Piscator's wife Maria was in charge of the Dramatic Workshop .

Teachers and students

In addition to Piscator, the workshop staff included Carl Zuckmayer , Stella Adler , Lee Strasberg , Hans José Rehfisch , Kurt Pinthus , Hanns Eisler , Erich Leinsdorf , George Szell and Jascha Horenstein . Well-known students at the facility were Judith Malina , Gene Saks , Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, Elaine Stritch , Harry Guardino , Tony Curtis, Harry Belafonte, Bea Arthur , Michael V. Gazzo , Walter Matthau , Ben Gazzara , Shelley Winters and Rod Steiger .

Although Piscator, who had his spiritual home in political agitation theater, was the leading personality of the institution, other acting concepts such as: B. Method Acting is an important niche.

Productions (selection)

literature

  • Thomas George Evans: Piscator in the American Theater. New York, 1939-1951 . Ann Arbor: University of Wisconsin Press 1968.
  • Thea Kirfel-Lenk: Erwin Piscator in exile in the USA 1939-1951 . Berlin: Henschel 1984.
  • Claus-Dieter Krohn : Erwin Piscator's theater work in New York 1939-1951. In: exile. Literature and the arts after 1933 . Edited by Alexander Stephan. Bonn: Bouvier 1990, pp. 154-170.
  • Maria Ley Piscator: The dance in the mirror. My life with Erwin Piscator . Reinbek: Rowohlt 1989.
  • Judith Malina: The Piscator Notebook . London: Routledge Chapman & Hall 2012.
  • Erwin Piscator: theater, film, politics. Selected writings . Edited by Ludwig Hoffmann. Berlin: Henschel 1980.
  • Gerhard F. Probst: Erwin Piscator and the American Theater . New York, San Francisco, Bern a. a. 1991 (American University Studies, Ser. 26, Theater Arts, 6).

Web links