Turkish ensemble
The Turkish Ensemble was a Turkish theater project founded by Peter Stein at the Berlin Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer . It was created in 1979 from a collaboration between the Turkish migrant theater group Berlin Oyuncuları and the Schaubühne , initiated and conceived by Meray Ülgen , and existed until 1984. The project is considered a special highlight in the early history of German-Turkish theater.
With the exception of plays for children, which also used German, the performances were in Turkish. Bilingual booklets made it possible for German viewers without knowledge of Turkish to follow the productions.
prehistory
The contact between Stein and Ülgen came about through Stein's 1978 production of Botho Strauss Big and Small at the Berlin Schaubühne , for which the director wanted to cast the role of the Turk with an actor of Turkish origin and Ülgen offered the role. Ülgen, at that time already a major player in the West German migrant theater and part of the Berlin Oyuncuları as a director, actor and dramaturge , saw the small and inconspicuous role as an opportunity to take part in the ensemble of a well-known German theater - this was an actor of Turkish origin in Germany up to not yet made possible then - and said yes. The piece, which Ülgen produced parallel to this more or less spontaneously promised collaboration with his Berlin Oyuncuları , was also viewed by Peter Stein after it was completed, at Ülgen's invitation. In this context, Ülgen suggested the collaboration of his drama group with the Berlin Schaubühne , for which he was finally supposed to present a concept to Stein, who was not averse to it. After Stein agreed to do so, he founded the Schaubühne's Turkish Ensemble project in 1979 .
conditions
The Turkish stage project (sometimes also called the Turkish project ) was the first Turkish theater project in Germany that was able to pursue its artistic work without permanent financial problems: its employees received a fixed salary, and rehearsal rooms and technical staff and equipment were made available by the stage. Probably because of this exposed position, there was later often criticism, especially from less sponsored Turkish drama groups in Berlin, of the social and political demands of the program and of the ambition of this ensemble.
Ülgen's intention was to build a professional ensemble with the Berlin Oyuncuları with Turkish migrants living in Germany. By working with the Schaubühne, he promised to make further progress in this regard. Stein, however, partially undermined this plan by integrating seasoned, partially famous actors and theater people from Turkey into the Turkish ensemble , for example his friend the director Beklan Algan and his wife. Nevertheless, the majority of people from Germany of Turkish origin were given the opportunity to work in the ensemble in a larger public - some, like Tayfun Bademsoy , are well-known German actors today. In the long term, however, tensions between the semi-professionals from Germany and imported theater stars from Turkey were inevitable.
Productions
Algan initially prepared the first production of the Turkish ensemble as a piece that was to deal with Turks living in Germany. He was assisted by the writer Emine Sevgi Özdamar . However, this production did not materialize and so in 1980 Macit Koper's Giden tez geri dönmez , which shows a kind of "guest worker" odyssey in 15 pictures, was directed by the author with Şener Şen in one of the leading roles for the first public performance of the Turkish ensemble . This was - for the first time in large parts of the German-language press - discussed positively; Aras Ören even spoke of a "milestone in Turkish cultural life in Berlin".
At the end of the year followed the premiere of Keşanlı Ali Destanı , an internationally successful and critically acclaimed piece by Haldun Taner , whose Berlin production, however, criticized, among other things, all too superficial folklore and a lack of relevance for the Turkish community in Germany.
The Turkish ensemble later had particular success with theater for children by its co-initiator Meray Ülgen, which for the first time also included German text series, which made up three of the ensemble's ten theater productions up to 1984. But even the adult theater continued to show respectable successes, even in the final phase of the project with Nazim Hikmet's dramatized story The Cloud in Love , although it did not reach the very large audience. Numerous invitations to guest performances on mainly German stages, however, underline the artistic success and effectiveness of almost all ten productions of the Berlin Turkish Ensemble , which had also organized a song and a literary evening up to 1984: Başar Sabuncu, of all things, staged his own piece from the year 1966 Işgal , of which one had expected a lot, failed in 1981 and was removed from the program after just a few performances.
Theatrical classification
With the opening of an important German theater for an ensemble of Turkish origin (and language) for the first time , Turkish theater in Germany has come into the focus of a broad German public for the first time. However, the pulling power of the financially strong stage project has had a negative effect on other hopeful Turkish theater groups in Berlin and is partly responsible for their dissolution. The eventual failure of the renowned Schaubühne's project, which ultimately did not manage to integrate Turkish theater culture into the German theater world due to internal disputes, has long served authorities as an argument not to approve any more funds for Turkish theater in Germany. Nevertheless, there are numerous examples of successful Turkish theater in Germany today.
Premiere chronology
1980
- Macit Koper (also director) - Giden tez geri dönmez
- Haldun Taner Keşanlı Ali Destanı ; Director: Tuncel Kurtiz
1981
- Başar Sabuncu (also director) - Işgal
- Meray Ülgen (also director) - Keloğlan - Evvel zamman içinde
- Meray Ülgen (also director) - Kurnaz Eşek
1982
- Meray Ülgen (also director) - Sünnet düğünü
- Güngör Dilmen - Kurban ; Director: Beklan Algan
1983
- Nazim Hikmet - Ferhad ile Şirin ; Director: Tuncel Kurtiz
- Nazim Hikmet / Orhan Güner - Sevdalı Bulut ; Director: Miriam Goldstein
1984
- Samad Beranghi / Orhan Güner Küçük kara balık ; Director: Tuncel Kurtiz