Ekhof Theater
The Ekhof Theater is one of the oldest baroque theaters with a functioning stage machinery from the 17th century, which is still operated manually today. It is located in the west tower of Friedenstein Castle in Gotha .
history
The palace theater was built into the former ballroom of Friedenstein Palace in several construction phases from 1681 to 1683 under Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg . Initially, members of the ducal family and senior officials of the court were primarily on the stage, with the stage play primarily pursuing educational goals - the offspring should learn to move freely and confidently in front of an audience. At the same time, the multitude of materials offered a playful approach to the classic educational canon.
From 1775, during the reign of Duke Ernst II, it was one of the first German court theaters to have its own permanent ensemble. The actors were officially employed at the court and received a fixed salary. Even a pension fund was set up, which was completely unusual for the time. The management of this theater troupe was from 1775 to 1778 Conrad Ekhof , who led the theater to its peak with spectacular and much-praised performances and made it an important center in the German theater landscape. The range of plays ranged from Shakespeare, Goldoni, Molière, Voltaire and Diderot to Lessing, Gotter and Brandes. From now on, the paying bourgeoisie could also attend performances; previously the theater was reserved exclusively for members of the court.
Intensive use of the stage gradually came to a standstill in the 19th century. In the years 1837 to 1840 the New Theater, later Gotha City Theater, was built, which ushered in a new era of theater life in Gotha.
Today the theater in the castle can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday. It is also part of the regular tours of the castle museum. The Ekhof Festival has been held every summer since 1996 and has been organized by the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation since 2010 and its content is closely linked to the changing focus areas in the Foundation's exhibition program. In this series of events, opera and drama productions from the 17th and 18th centuries are shown in the most original way possible. In addition to the performances, there are numerous readings and concerts.
The historical stage is also used for the Whitsun Festival of the Thuringia Philharmonic in Gotha and for the “Week of Historical Theaters”.
The auditorium today only has 165 seats on the stalls and 1st tier. The second tier is not open to the public.
Stage technology
The Ekhof Theater has a stage set with a machine for rapid transformation, which the Italian Giacomo Torelli invented in 1641. On both sides there are six aisles with three scenery wagons each under the stage, on which the suspended stage sets can be moved in and out through slots in the stage floor. The scenery carriages are moved by ropes over three corrugated trees and corresponding pulleys in the lower stage. A system of cable pulls allows the festoons , which complement the picture from above, as well as the rear prospectus to be let in and out. It is thus possible to operate all scenes synchronously, which enables quick scene changes with up to three images with the curtain open. You need nine to twelve people to transform the scenery. There are also two intact recesses in the stage floor, on which people and props could disappear down and reappear. An airframe, which unfortunately is no longer preserved today, made it possible to let people even float over the stage. A number of sophisticated mechanisms were used to generate both acoustic and visual effects, which were indispensable for a baroque stage play, of which the originally reconstructed wind and thunder machines are still in use today.
literature
- Elisabeth Dobritzsch: Baroque magic stage. The Ekhof Theater in Friedenstein Castle. Hain Verlag, Weimar / Jena 2004, ISBN 978-3898070690
- Carsten Jung: Historical theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3422021853
Web links
- Ekhof Festival
- Friedenstein Castle
- Page about the Ekhof Theater at the Friedenstein Castle Foundation
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 42.1 ″ N , 10 ° 42 ′ 14.9 ″ E