Whale songs
The Whale songs Communications mbH & Co. KG is a stage and music publisher in Germany.
history
It was founded in 1988 by Helga Baumgarten, who today runs the publishing house together with Elke Gürlich, and is based in Hamburg .
In 2007 the theater publisher looked after around 400 authors, composers and translators. The repertoire includes drama , music theater and works for children's and youth theater .
Focus
International contemporary drama
The acting division includes plays by international authors such as Charlotte Eilenberg , Jacobo Langsner , Stephen Orlov , Stewart Permutt , Steve Waters and Zsolt Poszgai . The focus of international drama in the Whale Songs repertoire is on works by Scandinavian authors.
The play Elling by Axel Hellstenius, based on the successful novel Blutsbrüder by Ingvar Ambjörnsen , had its German-language premiere in 2003 at the Schmidts Tivoli Theater in Hamburg . Since then it has been played in around 60 theaters in German-speaking countries.
The stage version of the Norwegian film Kitchen Stories by Hans Petter Blad premiered in 2004 at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen.
The publishing house continues to oversee the plays by the Danish author Astrid Saalbach , which were awarded the Nordic Dramatist Prize in 2004, and the play Schimmel by the Norwegian Marit Tusvik , which won the Norwegian National Ibsen Prize in 1991 .
One of the publisher's concerns is the discovery and promotion of new playwrights. Melanie Arns , John Donnelly , Sandra Roß , Joachim Zelter and many other authors are representatives of new, contemporary drama in the publishing program.
Dramatizations of books and films
Whale Songs "oversees" several theater adaptations of books and films.
- Outlook on Paradise , Elling monologue based on the novel of the same name by Ingvar Ambjörnsen , edited by Christine Bette Bopp, Stephanie Kunz, Helmut Zuber
- The Orange Girl , musical by Martin Lingnau , Christian Gundlach and Edith Jeske based on the novel of the same name by Jostein Gaarder
- The Discovery of Currywurst , play by Johannes Kaetzler and Gerhard Seidel based on the novel of the same name by Uwe Timm
- Effi Briest , play by Claudia Philipp and Carsten Knödler based on the novel of the same name by Theodor Fontane
- Elling , play by Axel Hellstenius based on the novel Blood Brothers by Ingvar Ambjörnsen
- Krallt , comedy by Petter Naess based on the novel Tatt av kvinnen by Erlend Loe
- Go ahead and cry! , Play by Melanie Arns based on the author's novel of the same name
- Irrungen, Wirrungen , play by Gerhard Seidel based on the novel of the same name by Theodor Fontane
- Kitchen Stories , play by Hans Petter Blad based on the film of the same name by Bent Hamer
- Little King Kalle Wirsch , children's musical by Christian Gundlach based on the book of the same name by Tilde Michels
- Madame Bovary , play by Peter Oppermann based on motifs from the novel of the same name by Gustave Flaubert
- Muxmäuschenstill , play by Nico Rabenald based on the script of the same name by Jan Henrik Stahlberg
- Ritter Runkel and the Digedags , stage play by Martin Verges and Thomas Heyn based on the '' Mosaic '' by Hannes Hegen
- Sabina Spielrein , monologue by Liv Hege Nylund and Asgeir Skrove based on the novel of the same name by Karsten Alnæs
- Samson and Roberto , children's play by Axel Hellstenius based on the book '' Samson and Roberto: But we don't have to be afraid, do we? '' By Ingvar Ambjörnsen
- School of the unemployed , play by Joachim Zelter based on the author's novel of the same name
Musical theater
The core of the music-dramatic repertoire is made up of German-language musicals written by well-known authors and composers from the German musical scene such as u. a. Christian Bruhn , Josef Göhlen , Martin Lingnau , Heiko Wohlgemuth , Thomas Matschoß and Edith Jeske .
In addition to the popular productions of the Hamburg theater Schmidts Tivoli ( Swinging St. Pauli or Swinging Berlin , Heiße Ecke , Villa Sonnenschein ), Whale Songs u. a. also the musical version of the bestseller Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär by Walter Moers , which premiered in Cologne in 2006 and received the 2007 Live Entertainment Award the following year .
Whale Songs represents the cult musical Godspell by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak in the translation by Christian Gundlach .
The repertoire also includes the work of Bettina Bartz , who is the author of new, modernized text versions of classical works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Giuseppe Verdi and other composers.