by Michael Mackert
WVU and the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater based in Bamberg, Germany, have established a partnership that gives German and American audiences the opportunity to experience-and appreciate-each other's cultural achievements. Through this exchange, WVU theater and dance students receive a means to enrich their education abroad.
This exchange, which in scope is the first of its kind in the history of WVU, marks a new stage in already existing relations between the faculty and students of WVU's Division of Theatre and Dance and Department of Foreign Languages and the members of the German theater.
The current project is an offshoot of the Department of Foreign
Languages' Summer Study Abroad Program at the Otto-Friedrich
University of Bamberg, which every year offers about a dozen
WVU students the opportunity to get a firsthand experience of
German language and culture. The program was launched in 1994
by its director, WVU Associate Professor of German Jürgen
Schlunk, who was also instrumental in initiating the theater
exchange.
During one of his summer visits to Bamberg, Schlunk became acquainted with Rainer Lewandowski, scholar, playwright, and artistic and managing director of the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater. In Germany, Lewandowski is renowned for his contributions to adult and children's theater. Among his accomplishments as an academic and creative writer are four books on German cinema and the outstanding one-man play Tonight Neither Hamlet (1985). Under Lewandowski's direction the Bamberg theater company received the Bavarian Academy of Fine Art's Prize for Performing Arts for two of its productions.
Following Schlunk's invitation, Lewandowski visited the United States in March 1997 to lecture at WVU, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Lewandowski introduced himself to the WVU audience with a synopsis of the structure of contemporary German theater. This was followed by a reading of scenes from Tonight Neither Hamlet by WVU Theatre Professor John Whitty. Lewandowski concluded his debut at WVU with a lecture on the Romantic writer/composer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822), which has recently been published in the West Virginia University Philological Papers.
Lewandowski revisited WVU in April 1998 to present televised versions of his musicals Mambo Mortale, or 911 is Busy and Me, Marlene. To make the musicals accessible to an American audience, Schlunk developed and directed English voice-over readings, which were performed by Maren Knebel and Jonas Strecker, two exchange students in WVU's Department of Foreign Languages. The playwright also lectured on German theater during the Third Reich and attended the premiere of Benedum Professor of Theatre Frank Gagliano's musical Piano Bar.
The cultural exchange continued in Germany. On Lewandowski's invitation, Gagliano and Schlunk, accompanied by a group of musicians from Elkins, West Virginia—Carrie Kline, Michael Kline, Mary Alice Milnes, Gerry Milnes, and Will Fanning—visited Bamberg in June 1998. On two evenings Gagliano gave a reading in English of his one-man play My Chekov Light. Following each reading, the musicians from Elkins performed a selection of Appalachian songs gathered under the title When the Roses Were in Bloom: Songs from the Heartland of America.
Two other important events further advanced this exchange. In November 1998, Gagliano and Schlunk returned to Bamberg to attend the European premiere in German of My Chekov Light at the E.T.A Hoffmann Theater. The play, which Schlunk had translated into German, was well received by both theater critics and the audience. Gagliano also presented an English reading of his recent play The Farewell Concert of Irene and Vernon Palazzo.
"The premiere of my play was one of the high points of my professional life as a playwright," says Gagliano. "The whole experience brought home to me that the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater is a first-class, world- class theater in a first-class, world-renowned medieval city, in which the population are avid theatergoers who embrace American talent. The fact that the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater is led by Rainer Lewandowski, who is himself a renowned German playwright and director, makes this theater extraordinary."
Prior to these performances, the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater and WVU had already entered into an official linkage agreement that will make the exchange of faculty and students easier. WVU students will now be able to serve as interns at the Bamberg theater. The first two-month intern-ship was held by Melody Hallman during the summer of 1998.
The Bamberg theater also agreed to bring a new musical by Lewandowski to West Virginia audiences at WVU's Creative Arts Center and Charleston's Cultural Center in October 1999, thus adding the United States to its of international tours, which includes Austria, China, and the Ukraine. The subject of Lewandowski's musical, entitled Just Don't Panic: A Century is Over Before You Know It, is the political events shaping German history in the 20th century and the German popular music accompanying them.
In return, the WVU Division of Theatre and Dance committed itself to stage one of its productions in Germany. "Current plans are to perform Shakespeare's Macbeth in Bamberg in May 2000," says Schlunk.
"The future benefit is a more vibrant cultural climate in the two regions involved," he says.
Lewandowski believes that exchanges of this kind allow audiences to become more thoroughly acquainted with the world's peoples and cultures. "These partnerships are an essential cultural foundation for understanding between peoples, for getting better acquainted not only with the cultural differences between peoples, nations, and individuals, but also with the similarities, especially in the area of theater," he says.
More than through other media, this is accomplished by theatrical performances. "The simultaneous presence of both actors and spectators is the distinguishing characteristic of the theatrical experience," says Lewandowski. "This experience is very intense and affects the spectators' consciousness, thereby expanding their understanding. To me this is the special significance of our cultural theater exchange, especially with a musical that very thoroughly reflects on the historical, sociocultural, and everyday developments of a nation and that deals with that nation's interrelation with another culture: the relation between Germany and America."
Each performance of Lewandowski's new musical in West Virginia will use the successful English voice-over screening format to facilitate comprehension for the audience. There will be a special matinee performance for West Virginia high school students. "Teachers of history, social studies, theater, music, and foreign languages will be informed about the opportunity for their students to attend," says Schlunk, who is currently developing study guides to aid teachers in preparing their students for the event.
"Our exchange clearly fits some of WVU's long-term priorities," he says. "Not only does it respond to the stated goal of internationalizing the University, but with its outreach to the community, particularly the high school population, it meets one of WVU's newest strategic initiatives: increasing its engagement with the people of the state."
The West Virginia tour of the German company has already received financial contributions from the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theater, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Creative Arts, the Department of Foreign Languages, the Division of Theatre and Dance, the Office of International Programs, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the RAG American Coal Corporation. Further financial support is being sought from West Virginia corporations.
The exchanges between Germany and WVU that have already taken place, together with the upcoming events, attest to WVU's growing presence on the international scene and point to an exciting future for WVU students and German and American theater audiences alike. Exchanges of this nature will not only provide exciting first-class entertainment but also help to foster mutual respect and understanding between the two cultures, a requirement necessitated by an increasingly international, multicultural, and globally interdependent world.
|
|
|
|
|