Marieluise Knight

M. Ritter in the decoration of her piece: Be a lazy Ai - in the rainforest some things are lazy .

Marieluise Ritter is a German actress, puppeteer, theater and radio play director and author. As a teenager, she envisioned a career in the theater or opera, but her parents warned her against what they thought was a jobless art . So she first studied educational science and music and then worked for seven years as a teacher at a special school for people with learning disabilities.

Founding his own theater

intention

Her project shouldn't be a demonstration theater, but a hands-on theater, as she herself would have liked as a spectator. She absolutely wanted to avoid stereotypes like the puppet theater , because she also had an educational intention: "I want to achieve [...] that the children think more about themselves and their environment, that they learn not to follow a rigid pattern needs to follow, but that there are several ways to behave in every situation in life. ”This concept made high demands on the actors such as concentration, rethinking, quick-wittedness, sensitivity.

implementation

The Frankfurt figur theater was founded in 1973, while she was still employed as a teacher. The model experiment, mostly implemented with hand and stick puppets, initially had a permanent home in Frankfurt am Untermainkai until 1985 . Until 1976, the city only made this free space available. From February 1976 she no longer had to work on the side thanks to a grant of 12,000 marks annually . In addition to the puppet theater (especially for kindergarten and elementary school children ), Marieluise Ritter also staged Fernando Arrabal , Dürrenmatt and her own plays for adults.

Productions

A five-person ensemble performed with her on stage. Marieluise Ritter herself trained privately in England and France in the areas of drama, clown play and classical singing as well as in group lessons in dance and pantomime . During this time she brought out around 20 of her own productions, including children's classics such as Wulle - a drake story and Theophil, the crocodile . Several plays, especially Kalbfred and Kuh Niegunde, have been edited for theatrical stages . Most of these plays have - since 1977 - been gradually adapted for radio play productions and brought out by the company's own publishing house (formerly Nashorn-Verlag). From 1991 to 1997 there was a close cooperation with the Patmos publishing house , with which, in addition to some radio plays, especially elaborate children's song productions could be realized.

Ensemble dissolution

The Frankfurt figurine theater has been operating as a touring stage since 1986 , as the newly built Jewish Museum moved into the original building and the city offered no alternative. With that, the ensemble also broke up. Marieluise Ritter temporarily earned her living as a speaker in the cultural program of the Hessischer Rundfunk and as a freelance writer and speaker for the RIAS children's radio and occasionally took on smaller television roles.

activities

The actress appears partly as a “one-woman” theater, partly in a two-person ensemble with children's theater and cabaret . In particular, she is concerned with the development of plays that can be offered in kindergartens for children from two years of age. For the play Die Verrückte Karotte , an approx. 20-minute introduction for the little ones ("mini workshop") is offered beforehand, so that they understand what theater is all about and, when participating in the theater, understanding and security for the "adults" bring. Marieluise Ritter also works as a writer and still appears primarily as a radio play maker - with her own publishing house. She also gives more and more speaking lessons for voice care, speaking and reading aloud.

Works

Best-known plays, most of which also exist as radio play adaptations (selection):

for children Wulle - a drake story Wulle - his chick story (radio play only) Mama Wulle (radio play only) Wulle is the hit (radio play only) Save the Wulle! (radio play only) Calffred and Niegunde the cow The monster wants to be king The mousebearer Little Red Riding Hood and the little bastard Get away, you stinker! Theophil the crocodile Bommel, hand & Co Trampoline penguin The spherical dog Be a lazy Ai! The unabashed Christmas tree The crazy carrot Aladin is surprised

for adults New Roses, fairy tales of true love, dipa-Verlag Requiem for a macho, detective novel, fisherman TB. The woman's room is always out of tune. 13 (n) E (u) Rotic songs and texts , edition frankfurter figurentheater Prinz Quark, satirical fairy tale (reading), audio book, edition frankfurter figurentheater Imor and Doitnane, Satirical fairy tale (reading), audio book, edition frankfurter figurentheater

Web links

• Works by and about Marieluise Ritter in the catalog of the German National Library

• Directory and brief description of all children's radio plays by Marieluise Ritter
• Marieluise Ritter on the pages of the Frankfurt Puppet Theater

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Marie-Luise von der Leyen: The children should play along here . The "Frankfurt Puppet Theater" wants to stimulate its small audience to think - but in an entertaining way. In: Brigitte . No. 3/1977 . Gruner + Jahr, January 27, 1977, ZDB -ID 40522-X , p. 110-112 .
2. ↑ edition frankfurter figurentheater
3. ↑ The crazy carrot  ( 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.  
4. ↑ https://www.ohrsicht.de/shop/