Miriam Goldschmidt

Miriam Goldschmidt in 2003 in the Basel barracks

Miriam Goldschmidt (* July 8, 1947 in Frankfurt am Main as Heidemarie Goldschmidt; † August 14, 2017 in Lörrach near Basel ) was a German actress , director and author . She became internationally known through her lifelong collaboration with the director Peter Brook , whose Paris Center International de Recherche Théâtrale (CIRT) she belonged for decades. Through her role as "Kunti" in Brooks' film adaptation of the Indian epic Mahabharata , she also became known to a broader film audience.

Live and act

Miriam Goldschmidt as the only black child in the children's program "Der Peter" on Hessischer Rundfunk in 1956

Miriam Goldschmidt was born in Frankfurt in 1947. She was handed over to an orphanage in Birstein when she was just a few weeks old - she never met her birth parents. At the age of five she was adopted by the Jewish couple Goldschmidt, who had returned to Germany from exile. Her adoptive father Leopold Goldschmidt was editor-in-chief of the Frankfurter Neue Presse and honorary chairman of the German Coordination Council of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation. From 1956, at the age of nine, Goldschmidt made her first experiences in front of the camera in the children's television program “Der Peter” from Hessischer Rundfunk. She was the only black kid on the show. Shortly before graduation from the Odenwaldschule , Goldschmidt left school and studied acting with Jacques Lecoq and “Modern Dance” with Laura Sheleen in Paris . It was during this time that she began working as an actress and director. An early work was Ophelia 69 , a “mixture of dance and pantomime, acting and free movement in space”. Goldschmidt subsequently worked with the greatest German directors of the post-war period, including in Darmstadt with Harry Buckwitz ("HIM", 1968), in Munich with Fritz Kortner and Peter Zadek , in Basel with Hans Hollmann (1969 as Lavinia in "Titus, Titus ”), Werner Düggelin , at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin with Peter Stein (“ Die Neger ”, 1981) and Luc Bondy (Botho Strauss'“ Kalldewey, Farce ”, 1982, and in Ostrowski's“ Ein heisses Herz ”, 1986 ); in Bochum with George Tabori (“Peep Show”, 1983) and Matthias Langhoff (“Titus Andronikus”, 1983). For her role in “Kalldewey, Farce” (director: Luc Bondy) she received the prestigious advancement award of the Berlin Art Prize of the Academy of Arts in 1983. During Miriam Goldschmidt's years with the Schaubühne ensemble, she staged Bruce Myers' two-person adaptation of Salomon An-ski “ Der Dibbuk ” in 1981 , which she and her husband Urs Bihler played on numerous stages for over 30 years, most recently in 2011 at the theater Basel.

Other own productions were an adaptation of Alexander Granach's "Da geht ein Mensch" in 1991, and in 1993 the world premiere of Jelloun's "The Night of Innocence" at Theater Neumarkt Zurich , Theater Tri-Bühne Stuttgart, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and Stadttheater Konstanz . She worked with various theater groups in the Basel area, for example with the Ensemble Prisma ("My Breakfast with Marc Chagall" and "Vincent van Gogh in St. Rémy" with Matis Hönig and Pierre Cleitman). In 2001, at the opening of the New Theater at the Dornach train station, she played the fool in Shakespeare's “Was ihr wollt” (director: Georg Darvas). In 2000 Goldschmidt played in the play Sweeney Agonistes by TS Eliot . Directed by Thorsten Lensing .

Peter Brook and Miriam Goldschmidt in rehearsals for "Der Verwaiser" at the Teatro Sannazaro, Naples (2013)

Peter Brook and Miriam Goldschmidt in rehearsals for "Why Why" at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris (2011)

She found her true home in the theater when she went to Peter Brook in Paris at the CICT / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in 1971 . In the decades-long collaboration with Brook, she played in: Timon d'Athene , Kaspar , The Ik , Ubu , Mesure pour Mesure , La Conference d'Oiseaus , The Mahabharata (stage and film). They went on world tours with most of the pieces. Brook was also the director of Happy Days ( Samuel Beckett ) and Why, Why, and Miriam Goldschmidt's latest play The Lost Ones ("The Orphan") .

In August 2017, Miriam Goldschmidt died in Loerrach at the age of 70 from complications from cancer.

Press reviews (selection)

Peter Brook wrote about her: “In all my experience, Miriam Goldschmidt is unlike anyone else. A totally original talent. She sees life and expresses it brilliantly both as tragedy and as comedy. " The director and former director of the Schaubühne Berlin, Peter Stein, said of Miriam Goldschmidt that she was bringing "a room to bloom".

At the premiere of Happy Days in Basel, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote (March 22, 2003): “The laugh of this actress is an event. She can smile softly and sadly, sometimes greedy and horny - she does that when she is enjoying the barrel of the gun. She can laugh out loud, mean, malicious, sadistic, flippant, vicious, disgusting, raw, childlike. Sometimes the sound of joy turns into a lament. If she doesn't want to investigate deeper, she bites her lip. "

Radio plays & films

On the set of Fabiano Mixo's film "Woman Without Mandolin" (Berlin, 2015)

• 2011: Iris Disse O holy death, Santisima Muerte, Days of the Dead in Mexico. (Mother) - Director: Iris Disse (radio play - RBB )
• 2015: Fabiano Mixo, Woman Without Mandolin , experimental film
• 2019: Miriam Goldschmidt - inventor of in-between, documentary by Christof Schaefer and Janos Tedeschi

Works

• The actor's agility before the unknown. In: Peter Brook: Theater as a journey to people. The director Peter Brook. Texts and conversations. Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89581-135-1 , p. 216ff.

literature

• Spectrum. The culture magazine. Westdeutscher Rundfunk 1976 (first broadcast May 15, 1976). In it an interview with Goldschmidt u. a. to develop materials based on book templates.
• Brigitte Landes: Who are you? I. In. Die Zeit , No. 43, October 21, 1983, p. 53f. On-line
• Peter Brook. Wandering years. Writings on theater, film and opera 1946–1987. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-923854-25-0 . (It contains references to numerous productions, such as the King Eagle Owl and the Conference of the Birds .)
• Irene Bazinger: The masks of despair. In: Berliner Zeitung , November 5, 1999. Online
• Thomas Blubacher : Miriam Goldschmidt . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 733.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Actress Miriam Goldschmidt died , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, August 16, 2017, accessed on August 16, 2017
2. ↑ Miriam Goldschmidt is dead , tagesspiegel.de, August 16, 2017, accessed on August 16, 2017
3. ↑ Miriam Goldschmidt. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
4. ^ Esther Braunwarth: The Christian-Jewish Dialogue in Germany using the Example of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (GcjZ). University of Tübingen, 2009, accessed on November 11, 2018 . 
5. ↑ http://kulturportal.de/-/kulturschaffende/detail/23171
6. ^ Josef Herbort: Heinz Ophelia as a clown. In: Die Zeit , February 7, 1969
7. ↑ The dibbuk. ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2016 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. 
8. ^ Chronology of the premieres since the 1962/63 season
9. ↑ Who are you? I. In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 16, 2018]).
10. ↑ Supplies for the cellars of the world of the dead. The mirror .
11. ^ Art Prize Berlin Jubilee Foundation 1848/1948 . ( adk.de [accessed on November 16, 2018]).
12. ↑ "Dibbuk" at the Schaubühne . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 16, 2018]).
13. ↑ "Dibbuk" at the Schaubühne. Article in: Die Zeit from December 4, 1981.
14. ↑ program. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
15. ↑ My breakfast with Marc Chagall. Institut Franco-Allemand de Sciences Historiques et Sociales , accessed on August 27, 2019 . 
16. ↑ Schwarzbubenland / neuestheater.ch. Retrieved August 27, 2019 . 
17. ↑ Peter Brook. Biography
18. ↑ Why Why A theater research by Peter Brook - 2010 - Shakespeare Festival Neuss. Retrieved November 15, 2018 . 
19. ↑ Happy Days - Play by Samuel Beckett with Miriam Goldschmidt. Peter Brooks first production in German.
20. ↑ Andreas Wilink: The Orphan - Peter Brook staged Beckett with Miriam Goldschmidt at the Ruhrfestspiele. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
21. ^ Obituaries: Miriam Goldschmidt, 70 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 2017 ( online [accessed August 21, 2017]).
22. ↑ Joachim Lünenschloß, NEUE FILZ FILM GmbH: Miriam Goldschmidt sings a Japanese song - Miriamba. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
23. ↑ Who are you? I. In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 16, 2018]).
24. ↑ Miriam Goldschmidt - Leben und Wirken  ( 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. . Retrieved November 8, 2012.  
25. ↑ http://www.womanwithoutmandolin.com/film/
26. ↑ Fabio Cordes: Miriam Goldschmidt - inventor of in between. In: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9180074/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 . Accessed October 1, 2019 (German). 

Web links

Commons : Miriam Goldschmidt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Miriam Goldschmidt at filzfilm.de
• Miriam Goldschmidt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Experienced stories at WDR 5
• Miriam Goldschmidt - inventor of Inbetween at Cineworx Filmproduktion