Development of a Repertory for Children’S and Youth Theatre in Germany by Henning Fangauf

Kinder- und Jugendtheaterzentrum in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Development of a Repertory for Children’s and Youth Theatre in Germany by Henning Fangauf Children’s and youth theatre in Germany rests on two basic convictions: It is a cast theatre and it has a repertory of plays at its disposal. Because of these structures, which developed only after 1945, it is different from almost all other European children and youth theatre environments. The First Half of the 20th Century According to Manfred Brauneck’s “Theaterlexikon” a repertory is the entirety of plays a theatre has on its programme and that can be called upon at any time. Prerequisite for the repertory principle is the theatre having a contracted cast at its disposal. In this sense during the first half of the 20th century one cannot speak of a repertory in children’s and youth theatre. Apart from the annually shown Christmas tales theatres neither held the conviction that there should be special performances for young audi- ences all year round nor were there authors who could have created such a repertory. Children’s theatre was dominated by plays performed during the Christmas sea- son in the tradition of 19th century children’s comedy, among them the German Christmas classic “Peterchens Mondfahrt” by Gerd von Bassewitz (1912). At some theatres of the Weimar Republic there was an interest in the topic of adolescence. The plays were written by expressionists like Arnold Bronnen (“Vatermord”, 1922), Ferdinand Bruckner („Krankheit der Jugend”, 1924), Martin Lampel (“Revolte im Er- ziehungshaus”, 1929) or Ernst Toller (“Hoppla, wir leben“, 1927). In 1930 Erich Käst- ner’s famous children’s books “Emil und die Detektive” (Emil and the detectives) and “Pünktchen und Anton” were dramatized and performed for the first time. The national-socialist dictatorship publicly burnt all these works. The uniform Nazi “Culture State” ordered performances of the classics and solemn Thing ceremonies for young people. After World War II children and youth theatre took a completely different course of development in the two German states. 1949 to 1967 – Federal Republic of Germany Fairy-tale performances for children, adaptations of young adult books and classics of world literature for young people – this play canon dominated West German repertories after World War II. In the synopsis this period, lasting to the end of the 60’s, is held to be one of conservative theatre lacking contemporary plays. It was a phase in which children’s world literature was put on stage. Often performed were pieces by Erich Kästner, Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, Friedrich Forster’s “Robinson soll nicht sterben” and, as one of the few critical contemporary plays of these years, “Fips an der Angel” by Dieter Rohkohl. Premiered 1951 in Berlin, this play describes the fate of a war orphan. Klaus Doderer states for this time that mainly Henning Fangauf: Development of a Repertory in the large cities such as Berlin and Munich youth theatres had developed which dared to experiment and offered an all year repertory, drawing from an ever growing range of plays. In statistics of the German Theatre Association listing all plays performed on West German stages since 1947, children’s and youth theatres weren’t even mentioned until 1971. Only in 1974 was there a significant rise in performances at children and youth theatres that could be traced back to the increased founding of independent theatres. 1949 to 1989 – German Democratic Republic In the GDR children’s and youth theatre repertory developed completely different. Already in 1946 the Theater der Jungen Welt opened in Leipzig with “Emil und die Detektive” (Emil and the detectives). In the 50’s there followed the founding of more theatre houses for children and young adults in Dresden, Berlin, Halle and Erfurt, in contents picking up the threads of the proletarian-revolutionary theatre with children and for children of the 1920’s, according to Christel Hoffmann. With their commis- sions these theatres supported authors who built up a repertory of adaptations of fairy-tale and classic material, contemporary and historical drama. To these belong Heinz Kahlau, Elke Erb, Adolf Endler, Peter Ensikat. Undisputed was the quality of the fairy-tales by Sowjet playwright Jewgenij Schwartz. But Sowjet contemporary literature mainly served as model for the social-political youth topics of GDR dramatists. At the end of the 80’s, the central stage-work publisher of the GDR, Henschel Schauspiel, listed approx. 200 titles for children and youth, 50% of these written by national authors. Adaptations of folk-tales, but also the invention of own fairy-tales, the classics of the GDR children theatre, take up a large space. Famous playwrights, who also worked for adult theatre, such as Thomas Brasch or Lothar Trolle, Stefan Heym and Peter Hacks, wrote for the GDR children and youth theatre. They largely contributed to the so-called GDR “national literature” not making a difference between drama for adults or for children. Horst Hawemann, long time chief director at the central DDR Kinder- und Jugendtheater “Theater der Freundschaft” in Berlin, made a special name for himself with his plays “Kokori” (1979), “König Drosselbart und das Mädchen Prinzessin” (1985) or “Die Katze” (1986). Albert Wendt’s plays “Der Sauwetterwind” (1982) and “Vogelkopp” (The bird-headed man, 1985) had already found their way into the repertories of both German states even before the re- unification of 1989. In the GDR special attention was paid to author sponsorship: commissioned plays, author prizes and studio days were part of everyday life and were then also taken up in the joint German-German theatre landscape after reunifi- cation. After 1968 – Federal Republic of Germany In West Germany a repertory as in the GDR and as defined at the beginning only developed with the emergence of the social-critical, emancipation children’s and youth theatre of the student movement at the end of the 60’s. Volker Ludwig, founder and director of the Berlin Grips Theater became their most productive author. At his side were his brother Rainer Hachfeld, as well as Reiner Lücker, Detlef Michel and others. Alone between 1968 and 1978 they wrote 13 plays for the Grips Theater. “Stokkerlok und Millipilli” (Stokkerlok and Millipilli,1969) is usually considered Grips www.jugendtheater.net Seite 2 von 5 Henning Fangauf: Development of a Repertory Theater’s first play. It was followed by more plays for children, among others “Trummi kaputt” (Trummi in pieces, 1971), “Mannomann!” (Man oh man, 1972), “Ein Fest bei Papadakis” (A party at the Papadakis’,1973) or “Max und Milli” (Bedtimes and bullies, 1978). The first play for adolescents followed in 1975 with „Das hältste ja im Kopf nicht aus“ (I can’t take no more), and in 1986 the worldwide hit „Linie 1“ (Line 1). All of these were performed, not least because of a dearth of contemporary plays, by the children’s and youth theatres being founded in quick succession all over Germany and beyond. Plays from the 50’s and early 60’s weren’t found on the repertory of this politically- minded children’s and youth theatre. Instead they developed their material themselves, especially the independent theatres. The probably most famous cast produc- tion of that time were the two sex-education plays “Darüber spricht man nicht” (Things that men don’t talk about, 1973) and “Was heisst hier Liebe” (Did you say love? 1976) by the Theatre company Rote Grütze. Both plays, were regarded with suspicion by conservative teachers because of their topic and jargon street language and were based upon the cast’s month-long research in kindergartens and schools, on playgrounds and youth centres. This authentic material refuted the argument, the group wanted to indoctrinate youngsters. These plays also still belong to the repertory. Another important step towards repertory development was done on some West German stages in the 80’s. These houses were modelled along the lines of the in- house-authorship of the GDR theatre. Between 1981 and 1983 the Württember- gische Landesbühne in Esslingen hired the children’s book author and illustrator Paul Maar and developed together with him the plays “Mützenwexel” (1981), “Freunder- finder” (Make a friend, find a friend, 1982) and “Die Reise durch das Schweigen” (1983). Successful plays that also found their way into the repertory of the following years. With Wilfrid Grote and Rudolf Herfurtner the Theater der Jugend in Munich also discovered two new dramatists and developed with them several plays. Among others “Das Krokodil weint mit” (1980) or “Die Lieblingsspeise des Tigers” (1985) were created by Wilfrid Grothe and Rudolf Herfurtner’s successful play “Geheime Freunde” (Secret friends, 1986) was written after the novel “Alan and Naomi” (Der gelbe Vogel) by Myron Levoy. The difference to the cast plays of the independent theatres in the Seventies was that artists such as Maar, Grote or Herfurtner saw themselves decidedly as authors, as dramatists and that theatres were looking for and appreciated this competence in design of language and story-telling. Although successful, the model of an in-house authorship has not managed to break through at German children’s and youth theatres, just like the idea of plays being commissioned by the theatres. In Germany dramatists still remain solo-players who find their workplace more at their own desks than in theatres. Because of the growing interest of theatre publishers in plays for children and youth theatre the compilation of a repertory received important impulses. Especially the founding of the Verlag der Autoren in 1969 and the publishing house Autorenagentur in 1980, both in Frankfurt on Main, created lectoral handling and legal representation for authors.

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