Elke Lang

Elke Lang (born October 29, 1952 in Wiesbaden , † January 12, 1998 in Hamburg ) was a German actress , set designer and director .

Live and act

Elke Lang grew up as the only child of the secretary Irmgard Lang and the caretaker Albert Lang in Wiesbaden. She attended elementary school, the Droste-Hülshoff-Realschule and then the grammar school. As an extra, she got her first contact with the theater at the Hessian State Theater. She was in Italy for the first time in the summer of 1969, where she met her first great love, a pharmacist, to whom she became engaged in 1970. The desire to become an actress and not go to Sardinia as a pharmacist's wife broke the engagement. From 1972 to 1974 she studied acting at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. She was in a class with Josef Bierbichler , Pola Kinski and Franziska Walser .

From 1974 to 1975 her first engagement at the municipal theaters of Augsburg followed . From 1975 to 1976 she was at the Southeast Bavarian City Theater under Klaus Schlette . In 1976 she brought Hans Hollmann to the Basel Theater for his last two seasons . There she celebrated her breakthrough with the Genevieve in Stern auf der Forehead by Raymond Roussel (production: Hans Hollmann). In December 1978 she went for the world premiere of Dream Killer - Edgar Allan Poe meets Peter Kürten by W.-C. Schröder (director: Ulrich Heising ) to the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg . In May 1979 she played in Roland Schäfer's production of the robbers at the Berlin Schaubühne . Peter Stein , who took over the direction, recommended her to become a saleswoman at Woolworth . The relationship with the set designer Erich Wonder and the long-standing friendship with the Swiss poet Jürg Laederach strongly encouraged the desire to become a director.

1980 to 1990

In March 1980 she played various roles in “ Faust I and II ” (director: Hans Hollmann) at the Hamburg Thalia Theater . Then followed in May 1980 the first own and self-financed project: The maids together with Monica Bleibtreu in the printing works Dankert, Hamburg. In September 1980 she played Marie in Büchner's Woyzeck as the partner of Peter Striebeck at his debut as Thalia director (director: Michael Gruner ).

In June 1981, Lang produced the play Laure again as director, set designer and actress in the former Dankert printing house . The director Günter Krämer brought her as an actress and director to the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart . The move to Stuttgart followed in the fall of 1981 and the beginning of a long-term friendship with the choreographer William Forsythe and the directors Molly Davies and Ulrich Waller . In October 1981 she appeared in piano plays by Friederike Roth ( R (egie) / B (ühne) and S (actor)). In 1982 she played the title role in Maria Stuart von Schiller (directed by Günter Krämer), she staged "Under supervision" von Genet (R / B), played in Catastrophe by Samuel Beckett (S / B, Director: Günter Krämer), made the stage design for Ritt auf die Wartburg by Friederike Roth (B / Director: Günter Krämer) and staged Catastrophe herself (R and B) at the Theater am Turm in Frankfurt. During this time, a close friendship with the dramaturge Tom Stromberg began . In 1983, there were appearances and directing work in The Youngest Day by Ödön von Horváth (S / Director: Günter Krämer), for Eisenherz von Gerlind Reinshagen (R) at the Schauspiel Frankfurt and in the world premiere of The Short Life of Snow Clouds by Wolfgang Bauer (Co-R / B + S / Director: Ulrich Waller), before moving to Frankfurt and teaching at the university there for performing arts began.

In May 1984 she directed Mercedes von Brasch (R / B) at Schauspiel Frankfurt and in December 1984 Herzschmerz (R / B), a project at Ballet Frankfurt von Forsythe . Orgia von Pasolini (R / B + S) at the Schauspielhaus Wien was the beginning of a working contact with its director Hans Gratzer in March 1985 . In May 1985 she played The Secretary and the Animal of Laederach (Premiere / Director: Erik Adler ) at the Munich Theater Festival. In October 1985 she directed Shelley von Oates (R) at the TaT in Frankfurt. This was followed in February 1986 by KüsseBisseRisse , a project about men, together with Ulrich Waller (UA / R / B) at the Schauspielhaus Wien. With almost 150 performances in Vienna, Nuremberg, Frankfurt (TaT), Hamburg (Kampnagelfabrik) and Zurich ( Zürcher Theater Spektakel ) this was her most successful production.

In October 1986 she started working on the newly formed TaT in Frankfurt with Nur Du von Waller (UA / R / B). This was followed by a quartet by H. Müller (S), Paris ... by Jo Straeten (an adaptation of “Dangerous Liaisons” / UA / R + S) and the production of Die Möwe von Chekhov (R / B). After this work she became a permanent director and de facto senior director. She ran the theater together with Christoph Vitali , Tom Stromberg and Ulrich Waller. In 1988 the new production of Orgia by Pasolini (R / B + S), Seven Doors by Botho Strauss (R + S / Co-Director: Ulrich Waller) and in 1989 Gespenster von Ibsen (R / B), as well as the production of the project Die Another clock together with the set designer Xenia Hausner and the dramaturge Ursula Keller (UA / R).

1990 to 1998

In the spring of 1990 she terminated her contract with the TaT and moved to Berlin that summer. She became a permanent director and actress at the newly formed Schillertheater (director Kirchner / Clauß / Lang / Sturm). In September 1990 she brought Frank Baumbauer for “Words are words. Kisses are kisses ”a Musset-Marivaux project (R) together with R. Lilienthal at the Stadttheater Basel . In October 1990 she played in Faust (S / Director: Alfred Kirchner ) at the Schillertheater in Berlin, in January 1991 she staged Davon die Welt nicht unter von Ulrich Waller (UA / R / B) at Ballhaus Rixdorf as a Schillertheater project with the Actors Thomas Schendel , Christiane Leuchtmann and Suzanne von Borsody and most recently Immer von Dir (UA / R / B) at TaT Frankfurt in May 1991 . In October 1991 she broke off rehearsals for Kasimir and Karoline von Horváth at the Schlossparktheater and left Berlin. In April 1992 she played the title role in Ann Portuigese von Barnes (UA / director: Hans Gratzer) at the Schauspielhaus Wien and in December 1992 illness Tod von Duras (R / B / + S) again at the TaT in Frankfurt. In March 1993 she staged Sister Angelika as the middle section of Puccini's triptych alongside Reinhild Hoffmann and Renate Ackermann at the Bonn Opera . She returned to Hamburg and became a member of the ensemble of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus under Frank Baumbauer.

In 1993 she played Kassandra in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (director: Leander Haußmann ), and in 1994 she staged Gerettet von Bond, Der Mann im Flur von Duras (R / B + S) at the Vienna Schauspielhaus and played in Josephs Töchter von in October 1994 Ellert (UA / S / Director: Jossi Wieler ) at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg. In February 1995, the second opera direction followed: The Magic Flute by Mozart at the Opera of Wuppertal .

Zapping by Ulrich Waller (R) followed in April 1995 , a project with drama students in the Kampnagelfabrik Hamburg and Der Menschenfeind von Molière (S / director: Werner Schroeter ) at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg. In September 1995 she also played Masha in Three Sisters of Chekhov at the Schauspielhaus (director: Harald Clemen ). In December 1995 she staged “After the Rain” by Belbel (DE) on the same stage. As of March 1996, she played the title role in Miss Stefan of Laederach (Director: Ulrich Waller) to the Hamburger Kammerspiele (HK), and in April 1996 she directed shards of Arthur Miller (HK). During the rehearsals she got cancer and had an operation after the premiere.

In September 1996 she played Maria in Shakespeare's Was ihr wollt (director: Karin Beier ) at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus. On October 14, 1996, he married Ulrich Waller. In November 1996 she made a guest appearance with Fraulein Stefan in Vienna, a brilliant success. In May 1997 she staged Gorki's summer guests at the Hamburger Schauspielhaus and in October 1997 Woyzeck von Büchner (R / B) at the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden. In November 1997 she played Merteuil in a quartet by Müller (director: Eduard Erne / HK).

Last staging

She could no longer complete the production of Büchner's Danton's death at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the premiere of which was scheduled for February 14, 1998. On January 12, 1998, she died on her way home from an evening rehearsal. The evening before, she was on stage for the last time as the Kaleria in her own production of the summer guests . The funeral service took place in the Hamburger Kammerspiele on January 18th. On January 24th she was buried in the cemetery of San Gusmè near Siena in Italy.

literature

• Christina Haberlik: Director Women , Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2010, (book for the exhibition of the same name)
• Ulrich Waller: My journey takes longer - Elke Lang: director, actress , Achilla-Presse, Hamburg 1999.
• C. Bernd Sucher (Ed.): Theater Lexicon - authors, directors, actors, dramaturges, stage designers, critics. Munich 1999.
• Yearbook theater heute 1988, "The women are coming: Hannelore Hoger, Lore Stefanek, Elke Lang ...", Velbert 1988.

Web links

• Elke Lang at theInternet Movie Database(English)