Schauburg (Munich)
The Schauburg (also SchauBurg) is the children's and youth theater of the Munich city administration with around 350 performances annually .
History of the theater
The theater was founded in 1953 by Siegfried Jobst and his wife Annemarie Jobst-Grashey as the “Munich fairy tale stage”. The couple saw their artistic mandate in making a contribution to cultural reconstruction after the material, moral and spiritual destruction of fascism. They weren't interested in entertainment and diversion. Rather, they saw it as their task to arouse emotions in the young viewers and to address virtues such as camaraderie, friendship and self-confidence. The first piece, Unlucky and Lucky by Alfred von Beckerath , had its world premiere on June 3, 1953 in what was then the Goethe-Saal in Schwabing . The stage was simple, entry was 85 pfennigs. In 1983 Siegfried Jobst received the “Munich Lights” medal in silver at the suggestion of the then artistic director Jürgen Flügge for his services.
After 53 premieres of fairy tales, classics and Punch and Judy plays, after around 3,000 performances and more than a million visitors, the city of Munich took over the building, which had meanwhile been renamed “Theater der Jugend” (TdJ), in 1968 and incorporated it into the Munich Chamber Play . Between 1969 and 1973 Norbert J. Mayer was artistic director. He turned the house into a communication center, a place of provocation, agitation and protest. In addition to pieces from the repertoire of the Berlin Grips Theater , there is no better school than… and Or shooting at something until it is broken , both by Helmut Walbert .
The successors Hedda Kage and Iven Tiedemann ran the house from 1973 to 1975. Instead of political-educational topics, they wanted to make theater an experience for the whole family. In Ein Fest bei Papadakis - a typical piece by the Grips-Theater Berlin - they cast the roles exclusively with "everyday experts": Turks, Greeks, Greek musicians. That was in 1974 and at that time they were called " guest workers ".
Jens Heilmeyer followed from 1975 to 1980. He had to bridge the time when the old theater was closed for fire protection reasons. After difficult discussions, the state capital of Munich took over the building of the former Ufa cinema in Schauburg and the later Blow-Up disco on Elisabethplatz and converted it into a theater for children and young people. Meanwhile, the game was played on the move: the multi-part Oma-Stingl series, written by Hans Mathes Merkel , was shown open air in all parts of the city with free entry. The new “Theater der Jugend” in the Schauburg was opened with the world premiere of Das Märchen vom Starken Hans , also by Hans-Mathes Merkel (1977). After disputes with city authorities and the Ministry of Culture in connection with the play What does love mean here? Jens Heilmeyer prematurely terminated his contract from the Rote Grütze Theater.
His successor was Jürgen Flügge, co-author of the controversial play What does love mean here? . He organized three exemplary festivals: “Schau Spiele” 1985, 1986 and 1988. Instead of reducing children's and youth theater to the question of “brains” or “fairytale stage”, he emphasized the poetic power of theater. From 1983 onwards, as director, he had artistic independence from the Münchner Kammerspiele, which retained organizational responsibility. Having his own permanent ensemble, the in-house authors Wilfried Grote and Rudolf Herfurtner , and constantly inventing new venues in the building, which is totally unsuitable for children, contributed to the fact that he was able to shape the style of youth theater for nine years. His wish to equip the Schauburg with a multifunctional room was not fulfilled by the city.
In 1990 the Dutchman George Podt (general manager) and Dagmar Schmidt took over the house. In the same year, the city council decided to renovate. That is why a Kolping Hall in der Au (today I-Camp ) was turned into a makeshift theater for young people. In 1993 the reopening of the Schauburg at Elisabethplatz could be celebrated. At that time the theater was officially renamed SCHAUBURG - Theater der Jugend. In addition to the main stage, which enables completely variable seating - peep boxes, arena, empty auditorium - there is a small studio under the roof, a café with a small stage and the foyer as an event location. George Podt and Dagmar Schmidt named “complexity versus simplification” as their artistic approach. Children and young people should be enthusiastic about complex theater works on stage. Children and young people need the tools to deal with the complicated world into which they are growing, to see through and understand it. Style-defining directors were Peer Boysen , Beat Fäh and Gil Mehmert . Since the beginning of the 2017/2018 season, the Schauburg has been under the new management of Artistic Director Andrea Gronemeyer . Since then, the theater has been an open house for the performing arts for the young and the young at heart. The audience can grow up in the Schauburg with theater, because the ensemble already plays pieces for the very youngest viewers from 3 months and specifies its offers according to age up to adulthood. The program is mainly characterized by new pieces by contemporary authors that have been specially developed for young audiences, including new interpretations of material from world literature as well as pieces that take up topics from the concrete world of young viewers or burning social issues. In addition to acting, you can also experience dance, music, figure and improvisational theater and cross-border theater forms in the Schauburg. With mobile productions for classrooms and kindergartens, the Schauburg ensemble seeks contact with children and young people from parts of the city far from the theater and the everyday worlds of its audience. Schauburg will network worldwide and incorporate this experience from intercultural exchange into the program and the participatory projects. The awareness of playing for an audience with roots in many cultures is the motor behind the Schauburg's vision of establishing itself as a place of cultural identity in a diverse society. The invitation to play in theater clubs and participatory stage projects with "everyday experts" is an integral part of the artistic work at the Schauburg: in the Schauburg LAB, children and young people of all ages have the opportunity to work as dancers, musicians, or musicians for the entire season or in compact holiday projects. Trying out actors or authors on and behind the stage and finding their own language.
History of the building
The building on Elisabethplatz in the Schwabing-West district was built in 1926 as a movie theater, which was then given the typical name “Schauburg”. After 40 years in the cinema, it was converted into a private theater, which soon had to file for bankruptcy. In 1967 the brothers Anusch and Temur Samy rebuilt the Schauburg and established one of the most famous discos in Europe, the Blow Up , there by 1972 . It was Germany's first large-capacity discotheque for 2,500 guests, in which 250 spotlights twitched to the rhythm of the songs. According to the weekly magazine Stern , the Blow Up was “Germany's first Beatschuppen”, in which, in the style of the New York Guggenheim Museum, a gangway was built along the outer walls, which repeatedly led to platforms on different levels. The audience danced in the hall and strolled on the gangway, the bands played on the platforms. Here were Pink Floyd , Yes and artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Sammy Davis, Jr. on. In the five years of its existence, the Blow Up also made headlines because of the visits of guests such as Fritz Teufel and Andreas Baader . The "Blow Up" closed in 1972 after five years.
When a supermarket chain wanted to move into the vacant building, a citizens' movement against this use was founded. This initiative feared that the supermarket would endanger the existence of the Elisabethmarkt opposite . This is how the stand operators became the biggest advocates of cultural use. The city bought the building to run it as a municipal children's and youth theater.
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Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 26.8 ″ N , 11 ° 34 ′ 31.3 ″ E