Vagant stage
The vagrants stage is near the train station Zoologischer Garten and the Kurfürstendamm in the City West located private theater in the square street in the district of Charlottenburg in Berlin. The theater has 100 seats and is now a functional building with a studio character. It shares the building with the Quasimodo Jazz Club , the Qmodo Restaurant and the Delphi Film Palace . The Theater des Westens , the gallery C / O Berlin and opposite the Savoy Hotel are in the immediate vicinity . The Vaganten stage has been run as a GmbH since 1980.
In addition to contemporary drama, the program also includes modern classics and project productions. A look at the repertoire of the last few years shows a sure feeling for current topics. There are also collaborations with drama schools in Berlin and guest performances from the independent scene.
History of the vague stage
1949-1956
Immediately after the war, actors and directors around Horst Behrend got together to act as an independent theater group in different locations. For a short time the group was called "TiK", "Theater in a suitcase". Based on the medieval " Vaganten ", minstrels who emerged from the universities, Günther Rutenborn and Horst Behrend founded "Die Vaganten" on February 9, 1949. It opened with "The Resurrection". Against the trend of political-socialist drama predominating in East Berlin, especially by Russian authors and the theater, which is often heavily entertainment-oriented in the west of the city, the Vaganten Bühne set up a theater of the Enlightenment. A special feature of the early years was that they were played in both the GDR and West Berlin. Numerous actors who live in East Berlin belonged to the ensemble, which Horst Behrend took over as sole director in 1952.
1956-1979
The continuous and professionalizing work required fixed structures and a fixed venue. The Vaganten found this in 1956 in the basement of the Delphi house, which housed a cinema, dance bars and restaurants. The Delphi House, designed in 1926 by the architect Bernhard Sehring , who thirty years earlier, in 1895, was also the architect of the neighboring Theater des Westens, was originally built as a dance palace with a restaurant. Badly damaged in the war, the former dance hall was converted into a cinema in 1947, which still exists today under the name Delphi-Filmpalast. The construction of the wall in 1961 caused a major cut. Guest appearances in the GDR could no longer take place and former employees from the east part of Berlin had to be replaced. In the years 1961 to 1965, two more venues were added to the Delphi House: the “Theater am Kreuzberg” in Kreuzbergstraße and the “Theater an der Spree” in what was then the congress hall. In 1956 Wolfgang Borchert's “ Outside front door ” was added to the program. With authors such as Sartre , Genet , Anouilh , Ionesco , Mrozek , Tardieu and Osborne , the Vaganten stage became “the” theater of the avant-garde in Berlin in the sixties. Horst Behrend died in November 1979.
1980-2009
In 1980 Horst Behrend's sons, Rainer and Jens-Peter , took over the management of the theater and founded a non-profit GmbH, of which they became partners. With a dedicated team, a new profile was developed in the eighties that is based on three main features: contemporary drama, works of classic modernism and parodic drama. In 1985 the theater was closed for seven months for a long overdue renovation. The premises were completely renovated and modernized. Formally, new paths were broken, such as B. Stagings in the then new form of play of the arena stage, in which the spectators were grouped around the playing area.
2009-2019
With the death of Rainer Behrend in 2009, Jens-Peter Behrend took over sole management. In addition to works by contemporary authors, current project stagings (piece developments) are on the program. The repertoire includes contemporary and socially critical pieces in which the problems of the present are reflected. The program focuses on theater productions with socio-political content. In 2011/2012 (after the last renovation in 1985) a new extensive renovation of the theater was necessary. An air conditioning system was installed, the seating and the entire stage and sound technology were renewed, all rooms were renovated and the entrance area was provided with a roof.
Since January 2020
In January 2020, Lars Georg Vogel, who has been artistically connected to the house for many years, took over the management of the Vaganten stage.
Artistic profile
The Vaganten stage brings out around four to five new productions every year. It is part of the concept to maintain a great deal of openness when designing the schedule. Due to the modern staging of classical pieces and critical representation of social problems, students and schoolchildren have long been part of the regular audience. The design of the program is based on the self-image of creating a theater that introduces young people to the stage arts without becoming didactic or theater for target groups in the narrower sense. Theater education has been a focus since 2005. The cooperation with the project "TUSCH (Theater and School)", which is funded by the Berlin Senate and whose initiators are Vaganten Bühne, and the associated school partnerships enable intensive contact with students and teachers. Once a month, the reading series “Monday reading - literary forays through Berlin” is part of the program. Texts by authors such as Heinrich Heine , Theodor Fontane , Walter Benjamin , Siegfried Kracauer , Victor Auburtin , Arthur Eloesser are read.
Former ensemble members acting & directing (selection)
Current artistic staff
literature
- Jürgen Hofmann, Theaterbuch Berlin , Verlag Klaus Guhl, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-88220-166-5
- Martina Marx, The Vagant Stage. Development from 1949 to 1986. Structure and working method. Institute for Theater Studies Freie Universität Berlin, 1987
- Reiner Matzker (ed.): Charlottenburger Welttheater , Verlag Das Arsenal 1993, ISBN 3-921810-37-X
- Steffen Damm, Hermann Haarmann, Theater Berlin , FAB Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-927551-37-6
- Astrid Domke, conception for theater education at the Berlin Vaganten Stage , University of the Arts, Institute for Theater Education, Berlin 2005
- Angelika Cromme, Berliner Theaterkritiken, Erlebtes Theater 2002-2006 , Verlag Dr. Köster Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89574-600-0
- Rebecca Rippold, The gGmbH in the cultural sector - a tightrope walk between non-profit and economic aspirations. Analyzed using the example of the Vaganten stage. University of Applied Sciences Potsdam 2015
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 21.4 " N , 13 ° 19 ′ 44.6" E