User:DoctorMabuse/Piscator

Erwin Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was an influential 20th-century German theatre director who is considered one of modernism's most important theatre practitioners. His innovative, experimental productions during the 1920s in Weimar Berlin expanded the resources of the theatrical medium and spawned several new theatrical genres.

Most significantly, his contribution to the development of the theory and practice of epic theatre [...]

In his only work of theatre theory—the manifesto and "manual for instruction" The Political Theatre (1929)—Piscator places his form of epic theatre within its broader social and historical context and offers his contribution to the contemporary debates on the functions and aesthetics of political theatre. His work forms part of the post-expressionist "new sobriety" (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the arts in Germany. John Willett describes the movement as a "new realism" that pursued "methods of dealing both with real subjects and with real human needs, a sharply critical view of existing society and individuals, and a determination to master new media and discover new collective approaches to the communication of artistic concepts." Out of Berlin Dada, shares social criticism etc. of Dix, Grosz, Heartfield. Piscator's uniqueness. "For us," Piscator explained in it, "man portrayed on the stage is significant as a social function. It is not his relationship to himself, nor his relationship to God, but his relationship to society which is central." Piscator's theatre is part of a parallel development of similar innovations in the function and aesthetics of the theatre in Soviet Moscow and Weimar Berlin that forms an influential core axis of theatrical modernism. Relationship to Vsevolod Meyerhold and the Russian avant-garde; Similar purpose in their attempts to articulate dialectical materialism with the theory and practice of theatre. Contribution to debates about Marxist aesthetics being conducted largely between Moscow and Berlin. The "question of eternal values in art," Piscator wrote, is one which "Marxists should not even pose." Parallel innovations in multimedia theatre. Biomechanics and epic acting. Similar contributions to a wider modernist re-appraisal and re-functioning of forms of popular culture. Attempt to reach a popular audience. Politically-grounded. Intelligibility and accessibility. Not merely formal innovation, but attempt to shift the social basis of the arts. His early agitprop revues provided a standard of quality and a model to emulate for the workers' theatre movement, which experienced an explosive growth across Germany and Europe at the time. The revue-form, a kind of theatrical "montage", offered [...]; modernist fragmentation and autonomisation. He collaborated with a wide range of significant creative artists during the course of his career, including John Heartfield, George Grosz, László Moholy-Nagy, Edmund Meisel, Felix Gasbarra, and Traugott Müller. As well as the many contemporary plays and devised productions that he staged, Piscator directed dramas by Frank Wedekind, Maxim Gorky, Gerhart Hauptmann, Friedrich Schiller, and August Strindberg.
 * He pioneered a collaborative approach to artistic production with the dramaturgical collectives he assembled for his theatre.

In 1938 he founded the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he taught Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Judith Malina, Walter Matthau, Harry Belafonte, Elaine Stritch and Tennessee Williams.

Piscator's experience as a conscript in the First World War inspired a hatred of militarism and war and a commitment to communism, all of which lasted for the rest of his life. Anti-capitalism, Marxism, Leninism.

Piscator's achievement to have shown how stage used for historicisation of the drama [...].

Biography
Piscator came from a middle-class family in Hesse-Nassau; he was descended from Johannes Piscator, a protestant theologian who produced an important translation of the Bible in 1600. In 1913 he studied theatre history with Arthur Kutscher in his famous seminar at Munich University (which Bertolt Brecht was also later to attend). He began his acting career that same year, working on small roles as an unpaid actor at the Bavarian Court Theatre, under the directorship of Ernst von Possart. It was during this time that Karl Lautenschläger installed one of the world's first revolving stages at that theatre.

During the First World War Piscator was drafted into the German army, serving in a front-line infantry unit as a signaller from the spring of 1915. The experience inspired a hatred of militarism and war that lasted for the rest of his life, as well as a small number of bitter poems, which were published in 1915 and 1916 in the left-wing Expressionist literary magazine, Die Aktion. In the summer of 1917, having participated in the Second Battle of Ypres and suffered at least one hospitalization, he was eventually assigned to an army theatre unit. In November 1918, when the armistice was declared, Piscator gave a speech in Hasselt at the first meeting of a revolutionary Soldier's Council.

Played Arkenhlolz in August Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata at the Tribunal Theatre in Königsberg.

In Berlin in October 1920 he founded his "Proletarian Theatre" (Proletarisches Theater) with the writer and Communist Youth leader Hermann Schüller (who had been a member of the League for Proletarian Culture).

In collaboration with the playwright Hans Rehfisch, he formed a "proletarian Volksbühne" in Berlin (a rival to the Volksbühne) at the Comedy-Theater on Alte Jacob Strasse, where, in 1922-1923, they staged works by Maxim Gorky, Romain Rolland and Leo Tolstoy.

Theory and practice of theatre
Piscator attributed his repudiation of his middle-class background to his early literary encounters with "all those in the last fifty years who ironized, attacked or interpreted this morbid bourgeois society"; he identified the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Oscar Wilde as having been particularly influential for him.

Piscator relates a story from his experience in the trenches at Ypres to explain the profound impact of the First World War on his thinking about the art of the theatre. An N.C.O. crawled over to him when he was unable to dig a shelter under a hail of shellfire and demanded to know what Piscator did for a living: The moment I uttered the word actor among the exploding shells, the whole profession for which I had struggled so hard and which I held so dear in common with all art, seemed so comical, so stupid, so ridiculous, so grotesquely false, in short so ill-suited to the situation, so irrelevant to my life, to our life, to life in this day and age, that I was less afraid of the flying shells than I was ashamed of my profession. A little episode, but meaningful for me then, and meaningful ever since. Art—true, absolute art—must measure up to every situation and prove itself anew in every situation. I have since gone through more and worse things than the shellfire in the trenches at Ypres, but at that time my "personal profession" was leveled like the trenches we occupied, lifeless like the corpses around us. Art need not shy away from reality [...]. Up to that time literature had put life into focus for me, but the war had reversed this relationship: from that time on life put literature into focus.

In Russia's Day there was a map which made the political meaning of the play's setting clear from the very geographical situation. This was no longer purely "decor," but also sketched in the social, politico-geographical and economic implications. It had a part to play. It obtruded into events on the stage and came to be an active dramatic element. And at this point, the performance began to work on a new level, a pedagogic level. The theater was no longer trying to appeal to the audience's emotions alone, was no longer speculating on their emotional responsiveness—it consciously appealed to their intellect. No longer mere élan, enthusiasm, rapture, but enlightenment, knowledge and clarity were to be put across.

In 1929 Piscator published his only work of theatre theory, The Political Theatre. In the preface to its 1963 edition, Piscator wrote that the book was "assembled in hectic sessions during rehearsals for The Merchant of Berlin" by Walter Mehring, which had opened on 6 September 1929 at the second Piscator-Bühne. The book was intended to provide "a definitive explanation and elucidation of the basic facts of epic, i.e., political theater", which, at that time, "was still meeting with widespread rejection and misapprehension." Three decades later, Piscator felt that: The justification for epic techniques is no longer disputed by anyone, but there is considerable confusion about what should be expressed by these means. The functional character of these epic techniques, in other words their inseparability from a specific content (the specific content, the specific message determines the means and not vice versa!) has by now become largely obscured. So we are still standing at the starting blocks. The race is not yet on ...

Criticism of Stanislavski's circle of attention: "It is not true that your centre of attention lies in the middle of the stage. When you play before a public, the public must be the centre of your attention."

Königsberg Tribunal

 * 1920: Death and the Devil (Tod und Teufel, aka Totentanz, written in 1905) by Frank Wedekind. Opened on 20 January 1920 at the Königsberg Town Hall. Scenic design by Otto Reigbert.
 * 1920: Variété by Heinrich Mann. Opened on 20 January 1920 at the Königsberg Town Hall. Scenic design by Otto Reigbert.
 * 1920: Castle Wetterstein (Schloss Wetterstein, written in 1910) by Frank Wedekind. Opened on 30 January 1920 at the Königsberg Town Hall. Scenic design by Piscator and F Kaiser.
 * 1920: The Centaur (Der Centaur, written in 1917) by Georg Kaiser. Opened on 17 February 1920 at the Königsberg Town Hall.

Proletarian Theatre

 * 1920: Russia's Day (Russlands Tag) by Lajos Barta. Opened on 14 October 1920 at Kliem's Dining Rooms in Berlin. Scenic design by John Heartfield.
 * 1920: The Cripple (Der Krüppel) by Karl August Wittfogel. Opened on 14 October 1920 at Kliem's Dining Rooms in Berlin. Scenic design by John Heartfield.
 * 1920: At the Gate (Vor dem Tor) by Andor Gábor. Opened on 14 October 1920 at Kliem's Dining Rooms in Berlin.
 * 1920: Enemies (written in 1906) by Maxim Gorky. Opened on 10 November 1920.
 * 1920: Prince Hagen by Upton Sinclair. Opened on 5 December 1920. Scenic design by László Moholy-Nagy.
 * 1921: How Much Longer, Bourgeois Justice, You Whore? (Wie lang noch, du Hure bürgerliche Gerechtigkeit?) by Franz Jung. Opened on 6 February 1921.
 * 1921: The Kanakans (Die Kanaker) by Franz Jung. Opened on 28 March 1921.

Central-Theater

 * 1922: The Philistines (written in 1901) by Maxim Gorky. Opened on 29 September 1922 at the Central-Theater in Berlin. Scenic design by M Frey.
 * 1922: The Time Will Come (Le Temps viendra, written in 1903) by Romain Rolland. Opened on 17 November 1922 at the Central-Theater in Berlin. Scenic design by Otto Schmalhausen and M Meier, music by K Pringsheim. Cast included Paul Henckels.
 * 1923: The Power of Darkness (Власть тьмы, written in 1886) by Leo Tolstoy. Opened on 19 January 1923 at the Central-Theater in Berlin.

Volksbühne

 * 1924: Flags (Fahnen, written in 1918) by Alfons Paquet. Opened on 26 May 1924 at the Theater am Bülowplatz in Berlin, under the auspices of the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Edward Suhr and costumes by T Hecht. Cast included Veit Harlan, Leonard Steckel, and Gustav Fröhlich.
 * 1924: South Seas Play (Südseespiel) by Alfred Brust. Opened on 21 December 1924 at the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Paul Malik, music by W Zeller.
 * 1924: Moon of the Caribbees (written 1918) by Eugene O'Neill. Opened on 21 December 1924 at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Scenic design by Paul Malik, music by W Zeller.
 * 1925: Who Weeps for Juckenack? (Wer weint um Juckenack?) by Hans Rehfisch. Opened on 31 January 1925 at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Cast included Heinrich George as Juckenack, Gerda Müller as Lina, and Gustav Fröhlich as Edmund Walter.
 * 1925: Sails on the Horizon (Segel am Horizont) by Rudolf Leonhard. Opened on 14 March 1925 at the Theater am Bülowplatz in Berlin, under the auspices of the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Traugott Müller. Cast included Gerda Müller as Djaltschenskaja, Gustav Fröhlich, Paul Henckels, Aribert Wäscher, and Gustav von Wangenheim.
 * 1925: Help, A Child Has Fallen from Heaven! (Hilfe, ein Kind ist vom Himmel gefallen!) by Wilhelm Schmidtbonn. Opened on 2 May 1925 at the Central-Theater in Berlin, under the auspices of the Volksbühne.
 * 1925: The Joyous Town (Die fröhliche Stadt) by Hanns Johst. Opened on 16 September 1925 at the Munich Kammerspiele, under the auspices of the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Otto Reigbert.
 * 1925: There are Crimes and Crimes (Brott och Brott, written in 1899) by August Strindberg. Opened (with the German title Rausch) on 11 November 1925 at the Munich Kammerspiele, under the auspices of the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Otto Reigbert.
 * 1926: Tidal Wave (Sturmflut) by Alfons Paquet. Opened on 20 February 1926 at the Volksbühne. Scenic design by Edward Suhr and inserted film by J. A. Hübler-Kahla. Cast included Heinrich George as Granka Umnitsch, Alexander Granach as Gad, Erwin Salser, Albert Venohr, and Ellen Widmann as Rune Lewenclau.
 * 1926: The Drunken Ship (Das trunkene Schiff) by Paul Zech. Opened on 21 May 1926 at the Volksbühne. Scenic design and projections by George Grosz, costumes by Edward Suhr, music by W Zeller. Cast included Leonard Steckel as Verlaine and Carl Ludwig Achaz as Rimbaud.

Other work in Berlin

 * 1924: Red Revue (Revue Roter Rummel) by Piscator and Felix Gasbarra. Opened on 22 November 1924 and toured around Berlin halls. Music by Edmund Meisel.
 * 1925: Liberation (Die Befreiung) by Berta Lask, with a workers' acting group. Opened on 8 March 1925 at the Central-Theater.
 * 1925: In Spite of Everything! (Trotz alledem) by Piscator and Felix Gasbarra. Opened on 12 July 1925 at the Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Scenic design by John Heartfield and music by Edmund Meisel. Cast included more than 200 actors.
 * 1926: Michael Hundertpfund by Eugen Ortner. Opened on 17 January at the Tribüne theatre in Berlin. Scenic design by Cesar Klein. Cast included Heinrich George and Dagny Servaes.