The Piscatorbühne Century

This study of the Piscatorbühne season of 1927-8 uncovers a vital, previously neglected current of radical experiment in modern theater, a ghost in the machine of contemporary performance practices.

This study of the Piscatorbühne season of 1927-1928 uncovers a vital, previously neglected current of radical experiment in modern theater, a ghost in the machine of contemporary performance practices.

A handful of theater seasons changed the course of 20th- and 21st-century theatre. But only the Piscatorbühne of 1927-1928 went bankrupt in less than a year. This exploration tells the story of that collapse, how it predicted the wider collapse of the late Weimar Republic, and how it relates to our own era of political polarization and economic instability. As a wider examination of Piscator's contributions to dramaturgical and aesthetic form, The Piscatorbühne Century makes a powerful and timely case for the renewed significance of the broader epic theater tradition. Drawing on a rich archive of interwar materials, Drew Lichtenberg reconstructs this germinal nexus of theory and praxis for the modern theatre.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre, performance, art, and literature.

Autorentext

Drew Lichtenberg has been resident dramaturg at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, USA, since 2011. He has worked as a dramaturg, literary manager and translator-adaptor with the Royal National Theatre, Public Theater, Roundabout, La Mama, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Rep and Baltimore Center Stage. As an educator, he has taught courses at Catholic University of America, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and Eugene Lang College at the New School. His publications include The Piscatorbühne Century (2021).

Zusammenfassung

This study of the Piscatorbühne season of 19271928 uncovers a vital, previously neglected current of radical experiment in modern theater, a ghost in the machine of contemporary performance practices.

A handful of theater seasons changed the course of 20th- and 21st-century theatre. But only the Piscatorbühne of 19271928 went bankrupt in less than a year. This exploration tells the story of that collapse, how it predicted the wider collapse of the late Weimar Republic, and how it relates to our own era of political polarization and economic instability. As a wider examination of Piscator's contributions to dramaturgical and aesthetic form, The Piscatorbühne Century makes a powerful and timely case for the renewed significance of the broader epic theater tradition. Drawing on a rich archive of interwar materials, Drew Lichtenberg reconstructs this germinal nexus of theory and praxis for the modern theatre.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre, performance, art, and literature.

Inhalt

Introduction; 1. The Founding and Principles of the Piscatorbühne; 2. Piscator in Context; 3. Piscatorbühne 1927-1928; 4. Brecht and Piscator: Dialectical Affinities; 5. The Piscator Lines of the Modern Theater