Black theater

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Under Black theater is defined as a special form of presentation of the theater play . Its roots lie in the Japanese puppet show, the bunraku .

The technical requirements for black theater are a stage lined with black velvet and also masked players. Because players dressed in black play against a black background, they can remain invisible.

In a well-defined alley of light, they guide objects and puppets in such a way that they move freely in space and are no longer tied to one place. This is how amazing illusions can be created: stars emerge from the dark, a circle is dancing ballet and puppets seem to move independently across the stage. Often in the black theater there is also an interplay of objects with living actors, pantomimes, etc. Black light ( UV light ) can also be used as an effect so that white or fluorescent objects shine ( black light theater ).

history

The variety magician Ben Ali Bey ( Max Auzinger ) used the black cabinet for the first time in 1885, other magicians, e.g. B. Omar Pascha, took up the idea and spread it. George Lafaye, a French puppeteer, took over the technology for the puppet theater in 1959 and the puppet theaters around Spejbl and Hurvínek brought it to Prague . The local theater "Laterna Magica" finally made the black theater internationally known in the 1960s.

In 1980, Rainer Pawelke presented the Black Theater as a stage show with young people and students at the University of Regensburg as part of an educational sports theater project, where he worked as a lecturer in sports teacher training. Under the name " dream factory - a poetic sports theater" was u. a. the Black Theater was made known as an educational project in several Germany tours and in television programs. Pawelke also wrote a book about it: "Black theater from the dream factory".

Well-known groups

In Germany, the Schwarzes Theater is mainly represented by the " Velvets Theater " founded in Prague in 1967/68 and now based in Wiesbaden .

In 1958 graduates of the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague founded the first Black Theater group. From the beginning, this new type of theater celebrated successes at home and abroad. The fact that this group was led by two strong artistic personalities eventually led to a split: Jiří Srnec and Hana Lamkova went their separate ways. These now two theater groups made black theater technology even more popular, including through appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and in Las Vegas shows. In 1965, Prague's Laterna Magica also integrated the technology of the black theater into its network of film projection, multi-screen and live stage action. Shortly thereafter, other groups emerged, such as B. the Velvets Black & Light Theater and the drawn theater F. Kratochvil.

In the course of time, however, practically all the groups still in existence have oriented their work more and more towards entertainment by exhausting what is technically feasible. Velvets continues to devote himself to full-length theater productions in the true sense of the word: The work of de Saint-Exupéry , Franz Kafka and Michael Ende's “Momo” is interpreted as well as operas (such as: Die Zauberflöte , Rusalka , Hoffmanns Erzählungen ) and own productions such as Grenz-Los.

The “Blackwits” ( Ivan Kraus and Naděžda Munzarová ), the “Optical Figure Stage ” and the Black Theater Prague (Image Theater, BlackLight Theater of Jiri Smec, HILT - the black light theater of Theodor Hoidekr) are further examples.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer and Gudrun Pawelke: Black theater from the dream factory . Hugendubel Heinrich GmbH, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-88034-810-3 .