Jean Soubeyran

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Jean Soubeyran as "Harlequin" (pantomime)

Jean Soubeyran (born January 3, 1921 in Paris , † September 3, 2000 in Hanover ) was a French pantomime , actor , director , choreographer , professor and author . He spent and worked most of his life in Germany, which is why Soubeyran became known primarily there and not in France as a representative of modern pantomime, which he also integrated into drama and lifted from oblivion.

Life

Soubeyran initially studied acting with Charles Dullin and pantomime with Decroux for two years before appearing in a mimodrama at the Comédie-Française in 1945/46 under the direction of Barrault . He played for years in the Marceaus ensemble , including in Der Mantel , before performing on stage as a solo pantomime. He went “on a journey” through France, Switzerland and Germany (there first in the French occupation zone ) and then settled down in Dortmund “because the ground for pantomime in Germany was more fertile at that time.” One of his students there was Günter Titt .

He began teaching himself in the mid-1940s and, from the 1950s, gave lectures on “modern theater and pantomime”. From that time on, his ensemble, which existed until 1957, was founded in Dortmund and later resided in Düsseldorf , soon appeared on television in Germany and in 1955 had its own broadcast on the Dutch TV broadcaster VPRO . 1956 followed an extensive tour of the GDR, among others . In the same year, at the invitation of the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen , Soubeyran gave lessons in pantomime for the first time at a drama school (which became an integral part of acting training there in 1962 through Günter Titt and a separate subject in 1965).

Jean Soubeyran as "Harlequin" (pantomime)

In 1957 he went to East Berlin , as he previously one year of Brecht was asked by his acquaintance with him still in his exile in Switzerland, the carnival scene in Life of Galileo at the Berliner Ensemble in the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm to choreograph. In addition, he was responsible for the actor training. After Brecht's death, the production by Erich Engel was completed and performed in 1957. He stayed there for two years. Then he took on the title role in the film The Young Englishman and Walter Felsenstein brought him to the Komische Oper , where he stayed for two years.

When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 , he decided to go back to Germany , where he took on roles as an actor and pantomime, initially at the New Theater in Hanover and later at the Theater Bonn . In addition, he received engagements at theaters as a choreographer or director, e.g. B. at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg , the Schillertheater Berlin and the Lower Saxony State Theater Hanover. In 1961 he also founded a new ensemble in Essen with some former members, which also gave guest performances.

In 1966 he organized the "Days of Pantomime" in Essen, the third international pantomime festival (after 1962 in Berlin and 1965 in Zurich ) at which René Quellet and the duo Albert le Vice / Dominique Thommy ( Le cabaret mimique ) from Switzerland, Pierre Byland from France, José Luis Gómez from Spain as well as Karl-Heinz Thyssen, Helfried Foron, Peter Siefert, Ellen Dorn, one of the few female pantomimes at the time, the pantomime class of the Folkwang University under the direction of Günter Titt and students of the Westphalian Drama School in Bochum under the Led by Klaus Boltze participated.

From 1968 he was permanently brought to the Wuppertal theaters as a pantomime director and choreographer , after he had already carried out individual directing work there. In 1972 he was appointed professor in the drama department at the Hanover University of Music and Drama , where he had previously been a guest lecturer. His students included the later actors and directors Ulrike Folkerts , Brandt's son Matthias Brandt , Renan Demirkan , Peter Henze and Werner Müller, who was initially known primarily as a pantomime and clown ; to the former members of his pantomime group the actors and directors Gudrun Orsky, Peter Siefert and the actor, assistant director and author Günter Lanser. Actor Pit Krüger also received pantomime lessons from Soubeyran . In 1983 he worked with Anton Plate on the text for his opera Lisabella and Lorenzo .

After his retirement in 1986, he still worked on numerous free theater projects and in the film Fleeting until his death .

effect

It was Jean Soubeyran's merit that the ideas of Decroux, who established pantomime as a “language” with its own “grammar”, were implemented in a congenial way and integrated into the drama theater and thus this almost forgotten art in Germany, but also in the Netherlands and in Austria, where he went on guest tours, to have made it popular again and also to have made it a recognized subject in the field of "drama". It can also be stated that all German pantomimes are directly or indirectly his pupils, unless they were trained at other schools such as the École Jacques Lecoq . He did pioneering work in the field of German pantomime.

Only the realization of his dream of founding his own German pantomime theater based on the models of the groups of Fialka and Tomaszewski failed due to suitable support.

Jean Soubeyran at a lecture on "The Art of Pantomime" at NWDR

Quote

“The pantomime is not a charade . If the audience doesn't understand, then the fault isn't with the audience, but with the mimes. The audience should not understand afterwards, but at the same time, I would almost like to say before. The mime meets the audience's expectations. The mimes audience is not passive, but active. "

“Pantomime is action . There is no movement per se in pantomime as in dance . Movement, posture and gestures result from reality. The pantomime simplifies and compresses real processes. It represents what is special about the ordinary. "

"The pantomime does not want the beauty, but the truth."

Performances (selection)

Filmography

Jean and Brigitte Soubeyran in Im Zirkus (pantomime)

Family compendium

His first wife Brigitte Soubeyran , a well-known and successful theater director in the GDR was, in the 1950s and 1960s as a pantomime teacher, choreographer and movement director at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Deutsches Theater Berlin occupied before their own production activities at the Volksbühne Berlin started which she practiced there from 1970 to 1979. She then continued this activity at the Chemnitz Theater.

Their son Manuel Soubeyrand was a director a. a. at the Volkstheater Rostock and until mid-2014 artistic director of the Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen . Since mid-2014 he has been the artistic director of the Neue Bühne Senftenberg .

His second wife, Ellen Soubeyrand, was a temporary member of his ensemble and translated his book Die wortlose Sprache under her maiden name Dorn into German.

literature

  • Jean Soubeyran: The wordless language (the new edition additionally textbook of pantomime). Friedrich, Velber near Hanover 1963; Orell Füssli, Zurich and Schwäbisch Hall 1984, ISBN 3-280-01549-9 .
  • Hella Buchwald, Hans-Ulrich Buchwald (Ed.): Celtic visions. A mask game. Puppets and masks, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-922220-55-X . (Illustrated book for a production by Soubeyran at the Scharniertheater Hannover)
  • Jürgen Sieckmeyer (photos) and Norbert Nobis (introduction): Death to the moonlight or yellow slaps? A futurism collage. Sprengel Museum Hannover. Wienand, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-87909-305-9 (illustrated book for a production by Soubeyran in the museum)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Self-assessment in Jean Soubeyran and his pantomime ensemble . Leaflet, Düsseldorf undated
  2. ↑ Theater Lexicon . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin (GDR) 1978
  3. ↑ Self-assessment, as above, and Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , January 3, 1991, p. 10
  4. ↑ Soubeyran in Essener Tageblatt , later undated as the newspaper no longer exists
  5. ↑ Essener Tageblatt , see on Titt also below in the article
  6. ^ Böttger, Ernst Georg .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) In: Theater Lexikon , University of Bern@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.theaterwissenschaft.unibe.ch  
  7. ^ Lecture directory of the University of Stuttgart
  8. ↑ Self-assessment and program archive German television
  9. ↑ Television Archive ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.birth-of-tv.org
  10. ↑ Ellen Soubeyrand, oral and written communications
  11. ↑ Folkwang University
  12. ↑ Chapter 10 of the Berlin version
  13. ↑ Ellen Soubeyrand; compare also the section “20. Century “in pantomime
  14. ↑ The young Englishman in the Internet Movie Database (English) compare the database of the DEFA Foundation
  15. ↑ a b c Essen daily newspaper
  16. ^ Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
  17. ^ Gilles Soubeyrand, oral and written communications
  18. ↑ a b Gilles Soubeyrand
  19. ↑ Ellen Soubeyrand and Theater Lexikon
  20. ↑ Flyer "Days of Pantomime" and Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , October 25, 1966
  21. ↑ Ellen Soubeyrand and Theater Lexikon
  22. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , and Gilles Soubeyrand
  23. ↑ a b c Ellen Soubeyrand
  24. ↑ "My father was always very proud when he saw her on television: 'She was my student'." Gilles Soubeyran
  25. ↑ Henze Theater
  26. ↑ Werner Müller's website
  27. ↑ Ellen Soubeyrand; see also the Folkwang University, as above
  28. ↑ Book presentation by Rimbaud Verlag
  29. ↑ Anton Plate at the German Music Council ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / projekte.musikrat.de
  30. ↑ Fleeting . In: Two thousand and one lexicon of international film
  31. ^ A b Jean Soubeyran: The wordless language (the new edition also textbook of pantomime). Friedrich, Velber near Hanover 1963; Orell Füssli, Zurich and Schwäbisch Hall 1984
  32. ↑ self-disclosure
  33. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
  34. ↑ Soubeyran: The Wordless Language, p. 36
  35. ↑ See also the program booklet ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in the Internet Archive
  36. ↑ Der Spiegel: "Rhythmic on the Ramp" from September 12, 1994
  37. ^ Program archive German television
  38. ↑ Theater Lexicon
  39. ↑ See the results of the search function on Volksbühne Berlin
  40. ↑ See for example Mike Hahne at Hans-Otto-Theater Potsdam  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hansottotheater.de  
  41. ↑ The different spelling can be explained by an error in the birth certificate of Jean Soubeyran. Gilles Soubeyrand: “The correct spelling is 'Soubeyran'. When issuing my father's birth certificate, the official in Paris made a mistake and accidentally added a 'd'. This was noticed too late, so that the name has always had to be spelled 'wrongly' since then. My father then used the correct spelling as his stage name. "
  42. ↑ Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wlb-esslingen.de
personal data
SURNAME Soubeyran, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French actor, mime artist and director
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH September 3, 2000
Place of death Hanover