Outdoor stage
An open-air stage , also known as an open-air theater , open-air theater or open-air theater , is an outdoor stage that is used for theater or musical performances ( open-air plays ). In baroque garden theaters , the natural theater often takes the form of a hedge theater . Special forms of open-air theaters are amphitheaters and lake stages .
history
Stage-like rooms were created in Baroque gardens, the backdrops of which were formed by trimmed hedges. One example of this is the garden theater in the Great Garden in Herrenhausen . Allegorical sculptures or putti were often added as staffage to these park, garden, hedge or nature theaters . Artificial ruins or grottoes were often used as sets for these facilities. The first open-air theaters as we understand them today began to emerge in the 1860s, and a large number of new foundations took place between 1910 and 1930 under such different terms as natural theater, open-air stage, forest stage, mountain theater, Burgtheater, home stage, etc. a.
Problems of the definition of terms
The term open-air theater is not used consistently. So describes Meyers Lexicon an outdoor stage as follows: "open-air theater, open-air theater, open-air theater, which is adapted to link with the ancient theater or the courtly nature theater of the 17th and 18th centuries a given area, as in Epidaurus, Syracuse, Verona (Arena) u. a., or that has historical buildings, churches (Salzburg) and castle ruins as a background. "
Professional operation
The largest lake stages are in Bregenz on Lake Constance ( Bregenz Festival with 7,000 seats) and Mörbisch on Lake Neusiedl ( Mörbisch Lake Festival with 6,300 seats) in Austria . Naturally grown rock formations are also used as a backdrop for open-air stages. The Störtebeker Festival in Ralswiek , the Luisenburg Festival in Wunsiedel , the Karl May Festival in Elspe, the Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg and the Pirate Open Air in Grevesmühlen , which traditionally take place outdoors, are known throughout Germany.
Seebühnen can use an existing embankment as a conveniently sloping surface for the audience and a strip of water as a fire protection barrier in front of the stage by the water. The stage can float on pontoons or stand as a scaffolding at the bottom of the water.
Amateur stages
Many open-air theaters in Germany are run by associations . These non-professional stages are to a large extent (90 member stages, as of November 2014) organized in the Association of German Open Air Theaters (VDF). The amateur open-air stage with the most visitors in southern Germany is the Ötigheim open-air stage , while the Waldbühne Heessen attracted the most visitors in northern Germany in 2013.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Koepf : Picture Dictionary of Architecture . Second edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-520-19402-3 , p. 167
- ↑ Erika Fischer-Lichte: Brief history of the German theater. UTB, 1999, p. 271. ISBN 9783838516677
