Merle Karusoo

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Merle Karusoo, 2014

Merle Karusoo (born July 1, 1944 in the rural community of Rae ) is an Estonian theater director and playwright .

Life

Karusoo went to school in Tallinn and Viljandi and studied from 1968 to 1972 by distance learning at the University of Tartu Estonian Philology. From 1972 to 1976 she studied dramaturgy and acting at the Estonian Conservatory in Tallinn. She then worked for two years at the Tallinn Drama Theater , then from 1978 to 1983 at the Noorsooteater ('Young Theater'), today's Tallinn City Theater . Later she was a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Music and worked for various cultural magazines. In the 1998/1999 season she was the director of the Estonian Drama Theater.

plant

Merle Karusoo has been directing since 1966 and made his breakthrough in 1980 with the production I am thirteen . The special thing about the piece was that it was created spontaneously on the stage during the rehearsal without a fixed text template based on 500 student essays. The Estonian theater scholar Piret Kruuspere speaks of a “collective dramaturgy” in this context. In addition, a stage art called "sociological theater" became Karusoo's trademark, whereby, to a certain extent, "life itself is staged."

Another characteristic of Karusoo is that she likes to take care of marginalized groups. So based Save our souls (2000) on interviews with incarcerated killers and murderers. The piece was performed in 2002 at the Wiener Festwochen. In another play, Die Deporteure (1999), she examines the Estonian accomplices - that is, perpetrators and not victims - of the Soviet deportations during the Stalin era. With this she is always offended, provoked and met with criticism, but that is intentional: "Karusoo is not so interested in what Russians and Germans have done to Estonians, it is primarily interested in what Estonians have done to Estonians." like Andrus Kivirähk , albeit without his humor, they contribute to the deconstruction of the "national myth."

Awards

bibliography

  • Mida on õpetanud Voldemar Panso ('What Voldemar Panso taught me'). Tallinn: Eesti NSV Haridusministeerium 1980. 131 pp.
  • Olen kolmeteistkümne aastane. Ühe etenduse lugu ('I'm thirteen. History of a performance'). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1989. 92 pp.
  • Kured läinud, kurjad ilmad ('The cranes are gone, the weather is bad'). Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 1997. 372 pp.
  • Kui ruumid on tais. Eesti rahva elulood teatritekstides 1982–2005 ('When the rooms are full. Life stories of the Estonian people in theater texts 1982–2005'). Tallinn: Varrak 2008. 602 pp.
  • Tunnistamisi. Mõtteid ja esseid ('Testimonials. Thoughts and Essays'). Tallinn: SE&JS 2019. 157 pp.

German translations

  • The cranes are gone, the weather is bad. Translated by Irja Grönholm , in: Estonia 2/1999, pp. 48–69.
  • Save our souls. Translated by Irja Grönholm, in: Estonia 2/2002, pp. 20–31.

Secondary literature

  • Marju Lauristin : Sotsioloogia pluss improvisatsioon = sotsioloogiline dramaturgia ?, in: Kirjanduse jaosmaa '81. Tallinn 1983, pp. 123-129.
  • Piret Kruuspere: Merle Karusoo dramaturgina, in: Vikerkaar 3/1987, pp. 43–47.
  • Andrei Hvostov : The Karusoo, which I don't know, in: Estonia 2/2002, pp. 13-19.
  • Piret Kruuspere: Merle Karusoo's Memory Theater, in: interlitteraria 7 (2002), pp. 276-289.
  • Pamela Monaca, Leena Kurvet-Käosaar: Investigating Wor (l) ds: The Personal Is Political in the Drama of Merle Karusoo and Anna Deavere Smith, in: interlitteraria 7 (2002), 290-304.

Web links

Commons : Merle Karusoo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, pp. 184-185.
  2. ↑ Piret Kruuspere: Merle Karusoo dramaturgina, in: Vikerkaar 3/1987, p. 43.
  3. ↑ Marju Lauristin: Sotsioloogia pluss improvisatsioon = sotsioloogiline dramaturgia ?, in: Kirjanduse jaosmaa '81. Tallinn 1983, p. 123.
  4. ↑ See Estonia 2/2002, p. 31.
  5. ↑ Andrei Hvostov: The Karusoo, which I do not know, in: Estonia 2/2002, p. 16.
  6. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, p. 765.
personal data
SURNAME Karusoo, Merle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian director and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Rae (Estonia)