Volker Lösch

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Theater director Volker Lösch (2016)

Volker Lösch (* 1963 in Worms ) is a German theater director who contrasts pieces from the bourgeois educational canon with contributions from amateur choirs who present artistically processed experience reports. The texts and chants of the amateur choirs each reflect the problems of an - often underprivileged - social group. Dealing with social issues and societal conflicts is at the core of Lösch's aesthetic program: "I find art without connection to the outside, to the time in which I live, pointless."

From actor to director

Lösch grew up in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay . Shortly before the military coup in 1973 , his family returned to Germany. Lösch worked as an actor at the Nationaltheater Weimar , the Deutsches Theater Göttingen and the Theater am Neumarkt Zurich , before he directed his first directors in 1995 in Zurich . He then worked as a director at numerous city and state theaters. Lösch first worked in 2003 in his staging of the Oresty at the Dresden State Theater with a speaking choir that integrated “extra-theatrical reality” directly into the events on the stage . Since then, the ensemble of actors has been regularly accompanied by a choir of amateur actors in its productions. The amateur choirs that he rehearsed with Einar Schleef's former chorister Bernd Freytag are mostly occupied by representatives from various social classes, such as the unemployed, entrepreneurs, migrants or convicted criminals, who present biographically based texts.

Lösch caused a sensation with his staging of the naturalistic “fighting piece” Die Weber based on Gerhart Hauptmann at the Dresden State Theater in October 2004. He had to follow up on the production that the director implemented with a lay choir consisting of Dresden citizens and representing many layers of the population a preliminary injunction of the Berlin district court to shorten and rename it ( Die Dresdner Weber ). Bühnenverlag Felix Bloch Erben obtained the injunction. TV presenter Sabine Christiansen was also considering taking legal action because a text passage contained an implicit death threat against her. The theater magazine Die Deutsche Bühne named Lösch's production 2005 “Production of the Year”.

In-house director at the Schauspiel Stuttgart

Since the 2005/06 season, Volker Lösch has been in-house director and member of the artistic direction at the Schauspiel Stuttgart (until 2013). There he staged Euripides ' Medea in 2007 with a migrant choir. For this Stuttgart production, the film director Thomas Lauterbach produced the documentary Hochburg der Sünden in 2007 , which was awarded the Golden Dove at the Leipzig Doc Festival in 2008 as “Best German Documentary”.

In October 2008 Lösch cast together with Beate Seidel at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg in the controversial production Marat, What has become of our revolution? freely based on Marat / Sade by Peter Weiss, once again raises questions about social justice. The naming of numerous local wealthy millionaires on stage caused controversy. The production was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2009.

In December 2009, Lösch showed a modern adaptation of Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz at the Berlin Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz . Lösch combined the story of the petty criminal Franz Biberkopf, who was released from prison, with the experiences of today's prisoners and those released from prison under the key question of how the individual in a criminalized society (banking scandals, bribes and party donation scandals) can remain "decent".

Lösch's production of Schiller's Die Räuber at Theater Bremen in February 2010 was voted one of the ten best productions by German-language theaters in 2010 by the online magazine Nachtkritik.de . The production worked with a choir of young people from Bremen who felt they belonged to the radical left spectrum and allowed them to meet the 68 generation of their parents and grandparents.

After Lösch had already searched for evidence of current resistance for the Stuttgart production Endstation Stammheim in 2007, he joined the protest against the controversial transport and urban development project Stuttgart 21 in 2010 . In July 2010, together with actor Walter Sittler , he initiated the Stuttgart “ Schwabenstreich ”: “Every evening at 7 p.m., a new Swabian coup sounds: One minute of noise with everything that is loud, it can also be your own voice.” Lösch took part attended the Stuttgart Monday demonstrations with a Stuttgart citizens 'choir, which chanted texts by Peter Weiss and citizens' slogans .

On December 11, 2010, Lösch's work Lulu - The Hooker Republic premiered at the Berlin Schaubühne . In the production, the author combined set pieces from the Wedekind pieces Erdgeist and Pandora's Box with "texts by Berlin sex workers". In January 2012, at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut, Lösch staged the Antigona Oriental in a free production in the Teatro Solís in Montevideo , in which he had former political prisoners of the Uruguayan military dictatorship have their say and the names of well-known torturers who were later unmolested in the Uruguayan Society lived.

Lösch's staging of the homecoming tragedy Outside in front of the door at the Berlin Schaubühne linked Borchert's submission in January 2013 with excerpts from tapping logs of German prisoners of war in British and American custody, which document that simple Wehrmacht soldiers were involved in the murder of the civilian population and Jews. The protocols of the historian Sönke Neitzel and the social psychologist Harald Welzer ( soldiers. Protocols of fighting, killing and dying , 2011) had evaluated . Eva Behrendt described it as a "coup that Volker Lösch and Stefan Schnabel confront the much-played post-war drama [...] with what German soldiers actually did during the war and what acts they witnessed" and that Lösch re-created the play as a displacement drama accented.

Free director

With a heavily edited version by Max Frischs Biedermann und die Brandstifter, Lösch gave the Basel Theater in February 2014 the “first noteworthy excitement in years.” Lösch's “Firemen's Choir”, made up of students from the Bern University of the Arts , rapped and chanted “Bile ideas from the populist corner: Alsatians occupy all supermarket checkouts, German officials occupy the Swiss federal offices! Egyptians block the Alps! Kosovars stab unsuspecting grandmas! In cartoons in the background the audience dramatic parodies looks SVP -Wahlplakate: Alpine cows wear burqa . An Arab smuggler vagina comes down with refugee barges over the Swiss map. ”Lösch apparently hit the mark. What can be seen in the fact that a local editor close to the SVP of the ' Basler Zeitung ' barks straight away shortly after the premiere, Lösch disregards 'the popular will in a blatant manner' and shows 'his true face, namely that of an anti-democrat', which is not an honest Swiss should be surprised that Lösch is German. ”The production ended with the fire brigade choir pouring gasoline over a group of foreigners and cracking matches. In a surprising turn, “in the end it is the Swiss who are looking for escape corridors from their broken state to the north. But the Germans have closed the borders. "

The Staatsschauspiel Dresden came out on January 26, 2019 with the premiere of the new play Das Blaue Wunder by Thomas Freyer and Ulf Schmidt , on which the director Lösch also co-wrote . The production offers "a sketch - and type cabaret" between the grotesque and satire , in which the AfD is dragged through the cocoa in quotations from party programs , essays and speeches. The weekly newspaper Die Zeit published a dossier with highlights from the rehearsals in advance. The ten actors do gymnastics over an imposing set by Cary Gayler , which consists primarily of a real metal hull. In order to maintain an overview in the rapid changes of roles and scenes, outfitter Carola Reuther has "depending on the class, designed bright blue uniforms for the captain's level, loden jackets for better company and sailor suits for the painter". In the final picture they appear as a choir, shouting: "Get involved!"

various

For years, Volker Lösch has been commenting on technical and general political issues in the daily media and in other places, for example in the daily newspapers taz or Junge Welt . He is one of the participants in the artist forum of the cultural magazine Melodie & Rhythmus, which is closely linked to the young world, in June 2019.

Awards

Fonts

  • Hermann G. Abmayr, Volker Lösch, Gangolf Stocker , Sabine Leidig , Winfried Wolf (Eds.): Stuttgart 21 or: Who Owns the City? (In collaboration with Lunapark21 - magazine for the critique of the global economy). PapyRossa, Cologne 2011.
  • Volker Lösch, Gangolf Stocker, Sabine Leidig, Winfried Wolf (eds.): Stay on top! - The answer to Heiner Geissler . PapyRossa, Cologne 2011.
  • Christoph Engelhardt, Egon Hopfenzitz, Sabine Leidig, Volker Lösch, Walter Sittler, Winfried Wolf: Outraged - keep going ! New arguments against Stuttgart 21. To a Prime Minister and a Chancellor . PapyRossa, Cologne 2013.
  • Volker Lösch: Finally do something! In: Haus Bartleby (ed.): The capitalism tribunal , on the revolution of economic rights (The red book). Edited by Alix Faßmann , Anselm Lenz and Hendrik Sodenkamp . Translated by Corinna Popp, Viktor Kucharski, Anselm Lenz. Haus Bartleby eV, Vienna: Passagen Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-70920-220-3 , pp. 117-120

literature

  • Christian Engelbrecht: Weber, Woyzeck, Wunde Dresden. An attempt on Volker Lösch's choral theater work at the Dresden State Theater . Tectum, Marburg 2013.

Movies

  • Thomas Lauterbach: stronghold of sins . BRD: INDI-Film / SWR 2007/08 (79 min.).
  • Johanna Schickentanz: Make-up removed: Volker Lösch . FRG: ZDF Theaterkanal 2010 (15 min.).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "For me, no novel or play is sacred" (Interview: Stefan Kirschner). In: Berliner Morgenpost , December 10, 2009.
  2. ↑ Ulrike Kahle-Steinweh: On the desire to hit the lid, in: Theater heute , No. 11, November 2010, pp. 47–51, here p. 49.
  3. ^ Eva Behrendt: Death and Mastery, in: Theater heute , No. 3, March 2013, pp. 14–17, here p. 16.
  4. ↑ Stephan Reuter: Der Verkrampfte Volkswille, in: Theater heute , No. 4, April 2014, pp. 18–21, here p. 18.
  5. ↑ Stephan Reuter: Der Verkrampfte Volkswille, in: Theater heute , No. 4, April 2014, pp. 18–21, here pp. 18–20.
  6. ↑ Stephan Reuter: Der Verkrampfte Volkswille, in: Theater heute , No. 4, April 2014, pp. 18–21, here p. 20, with quotations from: Aaron Agnolazza: Bühne frei für eine Brandstifter, in: Basler Zeitung , 5 March 2014 .
  7. ↑ The Blue Wonder - In Dresden, Volker Lösch, together with Thomas Freyer and Ulf Schmidt, launched the AfD , nachtkritik.de of January 26, 2019, accessed January 28, 2019
  8. ↑ See for example: “I went to sea”. Criticism of capitalism. His theater polarized - an interview with director Volker Lösch, May 16, 2009.
  9. ↑ See for example: "The aim is to go to the neighborhood with the piece." A play addresses the causes of the emergency in German hospitals. A conversation with Volker Lösch.
  10. ↑ http://www.melodieundrhythmus.com/ .
  11. ↑ Lessing Prize for director Volker Lösch, focus.de, July 22, 2012, accessed on July 23, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Lösch, Volker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater director
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Worms , Rhineland-Palatinate