Low German stage in Rostock
The Low German Stage Rostock is a theater association in the Hanseatic city of Rostock that performs Low German plays. 15 amateur actors (as of 12/2018), with the support of experts from the Rostock Volkstheater , bring about 15 performances per year. The premieres will take place in BÜHNE 602 in Rostock's city harbor . Each piece is on the program for about two years. Guest performances take place in various cities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
history
In 1898 the Plattdütsche Verein vör Rostock and the surrounding area was founded. Folklorist Richard Wossidlo's play A Winter Evening in a Mecklenburg Farmhouse was performed in 1908. With the beginning of the First World War , the association's work was stopped. The guest performance of the Low German Stage Hamburg under the direction of Richard Ohnsorg in Rostock in 1918 with the play De Fährkrog was so enthusiastically received that the city's Low German clubs wanted to found their own stage again. A suitable director of the Nedderdütschen Theater in Rostock was found in the high school teacher Karl Krickeberg , great-grandson of the former theater director of the Schwerin court theater of the same name, and the first play was performed in 1920. The pieces by Krickeberg's Pidder Lüng and Anner Lüd Kinner found an enthusiastic reception in 1923 . In 1934 70 performances were staged.
During the Second World War , the number of performances fell sharply, Karl Krickeberg gave up the direction. With the destruction of the Rostock City Theater in 1942, the city lost its most important theater stage. After the end of the war, under the direction of Hilde Neumann, there was a new beginning for the Low German theater, despite the modest requirements, it was often played in front of full houses. There were five productions each year.
In 1950 the drama "De Lüd up Dangaard" by Martin Andersen Nexö was premiered in the Low German adaptation by Hilde Neumann. A special feature in the 1950s was the exchange of performances with various theaters from Schleswig-Holstein. In 1957 the Low German stage was a guest at the International Amateur Theater Meeting in Scheersberg near Flensburg, the director Heinz Jennerjahn did not return to Rostock afterwards. The new head was Dietrich Dahl, who was in charge until 2003.
It became difficult or even impossible to obtain and play pieces by West German authors. Close direct collaboration with some authors proved to be a way of finding suitable pieces. Hans Megow, himself a member of the stage, worked with Max Gerhardt, an actor and director of the Stralsund Theater, the dramas Die Bernsteinhexe and Maria Flint for the Low German theater. Maria Flint could no longer be performed because in 1960 many actors went to West Germany. After 1960, many adaptations from High German originals were performed, such as De Revisor by Nikolai Gogol .
From 1955 to 1990, the venue for the Low German Stage was the Post's cultural hall. Then they moved into the small house of the Volkstheater, then into the theater at the city harbor .