Franz Walters

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Franz Walters (* 1939 in Vienna-Alsergrund ) is an Austrian puppeteer , cabaret artist and actor.

life and work

He spent his childhood and early youth in the city palace of Prince Khevenhüller in Vienna. He worked in typography for almost 10 years , during which time he took piano lessons at the Music School of the City of Vienna and singing lessons with Felizitas von Hornberg-Kail and at the Franz Schubert Conservatory with Joseph Maschkan and Erwin Waldmann.

In 1963 he gave up his job and began to study acting with Vera Balser-Eberle (wife of the famous castle actor Ewald Balser ), teacher at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and a member of the Vienna Burgtheater .

Ten years of engagements as a cabaret artist (e.g. cabaret “ Der Würfel ”, with Peter Lodynski , “The Colorful Car”, with Tamara Stadnikow, “Der Ventilator” with Gerhard Bronner and Felix Dvorak , “Die Giftzwerge”) followed Tourneekabarett, "Wiener Maxi Böhm") and as an actor and director at Viennese small theaters and federal state theaters, z. B. at the Burgenland State Theater and the Stadttheater Baden near Vienna. Together with a colleague he founded the “Niederösterreichische Kammerschauspiel”, which in 1971 brought the Kurtheater Reichenau to new life with the musical comedy “The man with the cylinder” .

During this time he also wrote stage music for pieces from Aristophanes to Peter Weiss, Viennese songs and chansons . He worked for the ORF as a reporter, author and director and had his first part-time contact with the medium of puppet theater as a speaker and puppeteer for the "Austria-Handpuppenspiele" Anni Bondi.

Anni Bondi

Already in the post-war years (1947) she founded the "Austria-Handpuppenspiele". It became one of the most popular puppet stages on Austrian television at the time.

The puppet actor

In the 1972/73 season, Franz Walters started a career as a puppet actor , which he has not finished to this day. He founded the "Theater with Puppets" and the evening program "Love in the Underground" was the prelude to an artistic activity that successfully introduced the often devalued medium of puppet theater to "serious" drama.

literature

“… The MONOKEL theater from Austria presents a piece of absurd theater. You hear, you smell, you can feel the Paris of the 1950s; one sees noble minimal theater and small, great characters. Franz Walters, station director of the Paris metro station Pigalle, sensitively accompanies the interpersonal in the (extraordinary) ordinary of everyday life ... "

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Walters, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian puppeteer, cabaret artist and actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna-Alsergrund