Theater direct

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Theater Direkt is the German name of the "Instant Theater" developed by RR Gregory and the independent group Word & Action / Dorset in 1968. This form of joint story improvisation with subsequent scenic implementation from the moment is both a public form of improvisational theater and a group-internal cultural-educational method. It has been asserting and spreading for almost forty years as a method of collective or cooperative creativity in a field of diverse applications.

Origin and Distribution

For the former teacher, theater maker and poet RG Gregory, Theater Direkt is an independent form of theater, capable of giving the audience control over what is happening in the theater: "Here is a form of theater that does without a considered script, that gives itself totally to the mood of the audience of the moment, and that (done once) can never be repeated. " In addition to other interactive forms and local activities in Dorset / southern England, it was above all the "Instant Theater" and its use in language learning groups that made the group known around the world.In the 1980s, Gregory Gast was, among others, on the Theater Education course at the then HdK Berlin and on Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen . In 1986 Eva Hippe got to know Word and Action at a European conference for language teachers in Brighton and then accompanied her on several tours. In 1989, the independent group "Theater Direkt" was founded in Neu-Isenburg long held events and workshops in German. Since then, a diverse practice has arisen in German-speaking countries in various contexts, in language learning groups, in violence prevention , political education, in children's and youth theater and within theater education courses such as the Heidelberg Theater Workshop and the Institute for theater education at the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück / Lingen .

Implementation of a theater direct

The spectators (at least ten, maximum 100) sit on four sides of a rectangle around a playing area in the middle. The story develops from the open questions of the game master and the answers of the audience, which they call out loud or answer. The following applies:

  • "All the answers are true."
  • Everything that someone in the group says and the game master hears occurs in the story.
  • Once an answer has been given and heard, it cannot be withdrawn.
  • An evaluative selection of the answers is not possible.
  • Everything is voluntary. Nobody should be forced or persuaded to do something that they do not want themselves.
  • If no one said anything and no one signed up for a role, nothing would happen.

From the dialogue between the game master and the group, the storyline of a story arises, which is summarized by the game master without the latter being allowed to introduce his own formulations, ideas and suggestions. He only brings the dramaturgy , the form of the story, at the center of which is a hero to be invented (man or woman, boy or girl). A simple sequence of open questions makes it easier for the game master to let the story of the group emerge. The topmost rule is that he must not consciously influence the content and development of the action. He is therefore not allowed to ask questions that indicate a specific answer or that can only be answered with “yes” or “no” (“ closed questions ”), e.g. For example: “What color is the cat?” Instead of: “Is the cat black?” Or “And the cat was definitely black after all, wasn't it?” His job is to get involved in the pictures of the group / audience . He should not ignore simultaneous answers, but neither should he answer them himself, but rather reflect them back to the group and let the audience clarify contradictions until the course of the action has become clear to him. Answers to the question “On which day does the story begin?” Two participants at the same time with “Tuesday” and “Thursday”, he asks back: “How could it be Tuesday and Thursday at the same time?” Perhaps someone in the group will answer that the Heroine was wrong and only believed it was Tuesday when it was actually Thursday, and so the story develops.

The game master repeats the answers, inserts them into the existing plot and summarizes them from time to time so that everyone can imagine the resulting picture. The exposition of the new piece (who - when - where - what happens - what happens next - weather) forms the first act, which is summarized again by the director. In the subsequent part of the game, all roles in the story are listed. There are no props or costumes. Everything that occurs in the story, objects, body parts, feelings or people, is played by people. All elements of the story are roles, have feelings, and can speak. In the performance practice of the group Word and Action , the theater team consisted of the director of two other players who take on roles. The first takes the lead . The second takes on other roles in areas that are as far removed from the main role as possible, e.g. B. the main role of a crowd scene in another location. Within a workshop , the game master himself can take on the main role to ensure that every viewer is alluded to at least once in his role. The protagonist is given weight and is clearly visible to everyone. The play part follows the narrative thread of the story. All players improvise their characters according to this specification with their own role text, but without changing the course of the plot. When all scenes of an act have been played, everyone takes their seats and the narrative part of the second act begins, which is followed by another play part, then comes the narrative part of the third act, with which the story is to end and which lasts until the audience declares that the story is over. One round ends with the play part of the third act. After sixty to ninety minutes the group or audience has invented and played their own piece in three acts together.

Effect and results

The resulting stories often have original jumps, surreal montages, plots and themes. Theater Direkt is an open process of collective creativity in which elements of the experienced reality are reassembled without evaluating, analyzing or classifying ideas during the process. The shared experience as well as the shared result connects the group and can create a good basis for further project work. It also happens that viewers put motifs and characters from electronic media in a new context. The consumption of electronic media thus becomes visible within the shared history protected by the fiction and the group and can thus be reflected upon. This "media recycling" not only gives the game master the opportunity to talk about media experience after a round, but also - if desired - to use it for the further creative process.

Theater Direct in comparison

The differences to other forms of audience participation are clearly visible. In improvisational theater based on Keith Johnstone's formats, it is the actors who spontaneously decide on the content of their scenes (with occasional audience participation, e.g. suggesting a location), in “Theater Direkt” any group or public audience takes over the content Control of a story. In contrast to Augusto Boal's “ Theater of the Oppressed ”, the audience / participants enter fictional spaces through their stories, in which reality can be reflected and developed further without being immediately confronted with social or personal problem areas. Dealing with your own imagination remains playful.

literature

  • RG Gregory: The World Of Instant Theater , Its Origns, Practice And Implications, WANDA Publications 1988, ISBN 0904939340 .
  • Lorenz Hippe, Eva Hippe: Theater Direkt - the theater of the audience , in: Spiel & Theater, the magazine for theater by and with young people; 62nd volume, issue 186, October 2010.
  • Lorenz Hippe: “And what's coming now?”, Scenic writing in theater pedagogical practice , Deutscher Theaterverlag 2011.
  • Eva Hippe, Lorenz Hippe: Theater Direkt - the theater of the audience, a contribution to collective creativity , locations 03, Deutscher Theaterverlag 2011.
  • Lorenz Hippe: All the answers are true - the room concept of the Theater Direkt "ring talk group improvisation", edition LXXV, April 2012, p. 13ff.
  • Lorenz Hippe: Dialogue, Montage and Differentiation - on dealing with mixed groups; from: Fernlicht, Wolfenbüttel Academy Texts Vol. 68; Wolfenbüttel 2017

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RG Gregory; The World Of Instant Theater, Its Origns, Practice And Implications, 1988