Vienna Urania Puppet Theater
The Vienna Urania Puppet Theater is a puppet theater in Vienna .
Kraus era
The two elementary school teachers Hans Kraus (1923–1995) and Marianne Kraus († 1999) occasionally set up a puppet theater in the Stöbergasse adult education center in 1948 . In the same year a venue was set up in the Figl Inn in the 3rd district and opened on June 11, 1949. From the following year the puppet stage was housed by the Vienna Urania . The Urania had been assigned the southeastern tip of the island by the bathing administration in the Gänsehäufel lido , where a puppet theater was to provide entertainment for the children. On July 30, 1950, the curtain went up on the open-air stage for the first performance of the “Theater of the Small”; up to 1,200 visitors came on the weekends. In autumn, the Josefsaal in the 8th district was used for a short time .
From Christmas onwards, the Urania was played in the middle hall, the first performance was on December 25, 1950. The “Little Theater” became the “Vienna Urania Puppet Theater”; from then on there were three performances a week with a constantly changing program. In the event year 1954/55, 200,000 visitors were already counted. In midsummer there were still performances on the “Urania Island” in Gänsehäufel.
From 1953 the radio (at that time still RAVAG ) broadcast the series “Kasperl im Funkhaus” in the large broadcasting hall. The Urania puppet theater has also been featured on ORF television since 1957 . The puppet theater - the world's oldest children's television program - with the characters Kasperl and Pezi originally ran every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., the Petz family ran as part of the ORF broadcast Betthupferl . The presentations were initially moderated by Walter Niesner .
Hans Kraus carved the heads of his hand and stick puppets himself and designed the decorations. He wrote the lyrics, the dramaturgy, was responsible for the music, and played and spoke most of the male roles, especially Kasperl and grandfather Petz . Marianne Kraus was responsible for the production of the costumes and played most of the female roles, but also the little bear Pezi , who became the most popular figure among the public.
There were subscriptions to the puppet theater, the number of subscribers was around 7,000 per year. Since the children's theater was constantly sold out, there were hardly any tickets for walk-in customers. If officials or public figures wanted to come to a performance, additional armchairs were placed in the middle room, even if this was not permitted by the authorities. Since "lap tickets" were also sold for small children, the puppet theater had z. B. in the event year 1993/94 an occupancy rate of 102 percent, and was the best-attended theater in Austria. The children's theater reached its peak in visitor numbers in 1995/96 with 7,714 subscriptions. From October to the end of April, 32 performances were played every month on 16 days.
In 1997 in Vienna- Leopoldstadt (2nd district) in the Wurstelprater the Hans-Kraus-Weg was named after the founder of the puppet theater.
Müller era
After the death of Hans Kraus in 1995, Manfred Müller , who had joined the puppet theater ensemble in 1974, was entrusted by Marianne Kraus with the co-direction and the role of Punch and Judy. Marianne Kraus died in June 1999, so that Müller took over the management of the theater. Before her death, Marianne Kraus had entrusted Alexandra Filla with her role of Pezi . Other figures are the grandmother, the dragon Dagobert (" Bussi, Bussi ") and the unicorn Tusnelda . Puppeteers included Peter Dissauer and Ch. Picco Kellner. Under the direction of Manfred Müller, the pace of the performances was accelerated and the playing time was extended to a full hour.
In the course of the general renovation of the Urania building from 2000, the puppet theater was also redesigned. Until then, the theater had to be cleared every afternoon for the evening performances of the adults and rebuilt in the morning, which each took at least three quarters of an hour. Now a mobile stage has been constructed that can be pushed relatively easily into the middle hall. The stage technology was also modernized with digital technology and computer animation. While the target group used to be toddlers between the ages of two and three, games were now primarily aimed at children of primary school age. The charm of the theater and the Viennese touch have been retained.
The puppet theater was owned by the company Kasperl and Pezi - Wiener Urania Puppentheater GmbH under Müller's management and was bound to the Vienna Adult Education Centers / Urania with a cooperation agreement. In 2000 the children's theater celebrated its 50th anniversary; since the first performance in 1950, more than 2.5 million visitors have been counted.
After Manfred Müller announced in a press release in the summer of 2018 that he would not find any interested parties to take over the theater and that the continuation of the puppet theater is therefore endangered because of his imminent retirement, 27 potential successors came forward. The universal artist André Heller was awarded the contract and was presented on September 21, 2018 as his successor from the 2019/2020 season. Manfred Müller died unexpectedly on April 27, 2019, three days before his planned retirement.
Era Heller
The puppet theater is now owned by the company Kasperl und Pezi GmbH under the management of André Heller. The first season begins on October 4, 2019.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Petrasch: The Vienna Urania. From the roots of adult education to lifelong learning. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77562-1 .
- ↑ Andre Heller takes over Kasperl on ORF from September 21, 2018 accessed on September 21, 2018
- ^ Head of the Urania puppet theater dead on ORF from April 27, 2019, accessed on April 27, 2019
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 42 ″ N , 16 ° 23 ′ 1 ″ E