The Threepenny Opera Show Program
The Threepenny Opera Show Program content
Music Theatre | Australian Premiere
The Threepenny Opera
Directed by Barrie Kosky
Berliner Ensemble
Dates: 6 - 10 Mar 2024
Venue: Her Majesty's Theatre
Duration: 3hrs, incl. interval
Warnings: Contains depictions of violence, stage blood and references to suicide. Utilises theatrical haze. Recommended for audiences 12+
Note: Performed in German with English surtitles.
Funded by Lottostiftung Berlin.
Contents
Credits
Program Note
Director's Note
Biographies
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Credits
THE THREEPENNY OPERA
BASED ON JOHN GAY’S THE BEGGAR’S OPERA
BY BERTOLT BRECHT (TEXT) AND KURT WEILL (MUSIC)
IN COLLABORATION WITH ELISABETH HAUPTMANN
JONATHAN JEREMIAH PEACHUM Tilo Nest
and CELIA PEACHUM Constanze Becker
owners of the company “The Beggar’s Friend Ltd”
POLLY PEACHUM Cynthia Micas
their daughter
MACHEATH, known as MACKIE MESSER, Gabriel Schneider
boss of a gang of street bandits
BROWN Kathrin Wehlisch
chief of police London
LUCY Laura Balzer
his daughter
SPELUNKEN JENNY Julia Berger
prostitute
FILCH Gabriel Schneider
one of Peachum’s beggars
MACHEATH’S MEN, STREET BANDITS
as well as
PROSTITUTES
Dennis Jankowiak, Teresa Scherhag, Julie Wolff, Nicky Wuchinger
SMITH Nicky Wuchinger
first constable
THE MOON OVER SOHO Dennis Jankowiak
and its double Heidrun Schug
ORCHESTRA
CONDUCTOR, PIANO, HARMONIUM Adam Benzwi
ALTO SAXOPHONE, CLARINET, FLUTE, PICCOLO James Scannell
SOPRANO SAXOPHONE, TENOR SAXOPHONE, BARITONE SAXOPHONE Doris Decker
TRUMPET Nathan Plante
TROMBONE, DOUBLE BASS Otwin Zipp
DRUMS Sebastian Trimolt
GUITAR, BANJO Ralf Templin
DIRECTOR Barrie Kosky
MUSICAL DIRECTOR Adam Benzwi
STAGE DESIGN Rebecca Ringst
COSTUMES Dinah Ehm
LIGHTING Ulrich Eh
SOUND DESIGN Holger Schwank
DRAMATURGY Sibylle Baschung
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Leonie Rebentisch
ASSISTANT MUSICAL DIRECTOR Levi Hammer, Daniel Busch
ASSISTANT STAGE DESIGNER Annett Hunger, Janina Kuhlmann
ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER Svenja Niehaus
PROMPTER Christine Schönfeld
STAGE MANAGER Frank Sellentin
LIGHT STAGE MANAGER Rainer Manja
STAGE TECHNICIAN Gregor Schulz
SOUND Ralf Gäbler, Jonas Emanuel Hagen
ACOUSTIC DESIGN Ralf Bauer-Diefenbach
LIGHT OPERATOR Markus Kössler
PROPS Timothy Hopfner, Anke Tekath
MAKEUP Lena Hille, Friederike Reichel, Lili Zawierucha
WARDROBE Britta Klein, Marija Obradovic, Alexander Zapp
PERFORMANCE RIGHTS
Bertolt Brecht Erben (text), Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. (music)
Arie der Lucy: © with generous permission from European American Music DC, New York
THE PREMIERE OF THIS PRODUCTION WAS ON THE 13TH OF AUGUST, 2021 AT THE BERLINER ENSEMBLE
Program Note
"We would be good, instead of base, but this old world is not that kind of place!"
An Introductory Essay by Sibylle Baschung
The discussion about what The Threepenny Opera is seems about as old as The Threepenny Opera itself: a play with music or a musical piece with a few bits of dialogue? In the programme for the world premiere at the Berliner Ensemble in 1928, the play is given the following subtitle: a play based on The Beggar’s Opera, a ballad opera from 1729 by John Gay. Elisabeth Hauptmann discovered the original, suggested it to Brecht, translated it and worked together with him on the script. Brecht himself was only listed in second position under “adapted by”, followed by “music: Kurt Weill”. And it was Lion Feuchtwanger who came up with the title. Thus, many people had their hand in helping to create this surprise theatrical coup, which achieved worldwide fame almost overnight – not least the actors. The door to The Threepenny Opera’s journey all over the world was opened by the fantastic music by Kurt Weill and the superficially trivial story of love, betrayal, morality and business – and of course the cleverly subversive, socially critical adaptation by Brecht.
Brecht gave the original by John Gay its very own, new character and in doing so wrote a completely different play. The Brecht researcher Werner Hecht sums up the difference succinctly by saying that The Beggar’s Opera of 1728 was a “disguised critique of open social problems,” while The Threepenny Opera of 1928 was an “open critique of disguised social problems.”
There is no real criminal milieu at the centre of The Threepenny Opera, but rather a “normal, bourgeois, capitalist” way of life (Erich Engel). For some members of society, this fulfils its promise of prosperity to a certain degree, while at the same time trying to mask the antisocial parts of this way of working and living with feigned sophistication and false theatrics. The play depicts characters who are first and foremost interested in their own, mainly material advantage – and have to be, because they live in a cold, alienated world. It requires a considerable theatrical effort to pursue their interests, while at the same time disguising or glossing over exactly that. After all: who doesn’t want to be good? However, in Brecht it is not an individual lack of virtue that causes social injustices, rather it is the other way round. The idea that they should therefore work together to change social circumstances does not occur to the characters. They are much too busy putting on a performance for others and themselves. Thus they themselves keep contributing to their own alienation and to a world where everything, including feelings and ultimately also art, become a commodity.
Weill, like many other young composers at the time, was opposed to Richard Wagner’s music and its narcotic, opiatic effect, which Weill countered with the rhythm of the big city. Just as Brecht did on a literary level, Weill played with different musical genres from completely different contexts – ranging from influences from Jewish synagogue music to Bach, Mozart and operetta, jazz and popular dance music – and thus created something completely idiosyncratic and new.
A Misunderstanding?
To Brecht’s disappointment, the audience at the world premiere left the theatre apparently rather less educated in matters of social criticism, and instead very well entertained. The reason for this, in his opinion, was the music. This is an argument first put forward by Adorno in 1929, according to which The Threepenny Opera’s success was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the audience. The play should therefore be protected from its own success. Adorno’s defence of it, however, was not due to the obvious social criticism. The audience quickly understood that social circumstances were generally bad as they watched the play. His defence of it was rather due to the subversive, critical potential that was bubbling under its glamorous surface. Both in the text and in the music: in the compositional surface of the magnificent opera and operetta form, the composer Kurt Weill skilfully allows the disconnectedness, the meaninglessness of worn-out soundscapes and worlds of imagination to shine through. On the level of the characters, Weill thus manages to capture both the unfulfilled need for security and intimacy, and their failure due to a world full of façade and the false consciousness in which this reliability is sought.
Brecht’s work on The Threepenny Opera did not end with the world premiere in 1928. The play was published in January 1932 with some additions to the text and notes. The present version of the play keeps most of Brecht’s additions. Musically, it is based on the score from 1928 and also includes "Arie der Lucy" (Lucy’s Aria), which was cut for the world premiere and "Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit" (Ballad of Sexual Dependency), which was only reintroduced in 1932, so that Weill’s composition can be heard in its entirety.
False Appearances
In The Threepenny Opera’s world, values such as compassion, loyalty, charity and the importance of family apply on the surface, yet hidden behind the operetta humour there is a machinery at work that proves to be deeply antisocial to its core. The contradiction between the need to be good and be loved and asocial behaviour is rooted in the socio-political conditions that Peachum expresses with his famous words: “We would be good, instead of base, but this old world is not that kind of place!” “My position in the world is one of self-defence” is therefore the principle Peachum uses to justify his immoral actions.
The fear of financial ruin is always lurking within the system and although anyone who is wealthy enough lives a comfortable life, they are still a long way from being good – and individual goodness is also no guarantee of social conditions that could be viewed as fair in terms of the distribution of rights, opportunities and resources.
Neither Macheath, who almost falls prey to Peachum’s perfidious life-and-death scheme, nor anyone else in the play comes to the conclusion suggested by these facts, namely that the underlying social conditions need to be changed, instead they serve to justify the way things are. “The world is poor and men are bad, there is of course no more to add!” The actual crime, according to Brecht, is inherent to this view of the world.
Polly: "But love is the greatest thing in the world!"
"Love for Sale" is the name of a famous jazz standard by Cole Porter and the first working assumption that director Barrie Kosky used to approach The Threepenny Opera. The title plays with the agreement that is made in prostitution and other theatres of emotion, is acted out on stage and sometimes in life, that what is taking place is an illusion that tries to make us forget it is one.
Polly vehemently claims to oppose her parents’ economic thinking with something different – love. She pursues the idea of the romantic relationship between two people as if it were unquestionable. Such a relationship lives off the promise of mending the cracks that the brutal conditions tear in the social fabric. At the same time it also linked to claims to possession. It only takes five days after they first meet before Mac and Polly celebrate their wedding, the “most beautiful day of their lives”, knowing full well what practical self-interests also played a role in this decision. In the eyes of the city, it is “the boldest move” that Macheath has made in his competition with Peachum’s empire to date. And by marrying her father’s biggest competitor, Polly can free herself from her dependency on her family. Not only Polly, but all of the other characters in Brecht become calculable objects and also behave that way – calculatingly. “All the fuss of tearfulness, emotion, eroticism and mood ultimately serves only to veil this fact” (Jan Knopf), no matter how seriously the desire for social warmth is meant. While the first two acts of the play are mainly focused on the hasty marriage of Polly and Macheath, on real and feigned feelings, on competition and Peachum’s murderous plot, accounts are settled in the last third of the play: relationships turn out to be unreliable as soon as the market value of one of the parties involved drops. In this sense, The Threepenny Opera shows the “thorough capitalisation of all human relationships,” as the director of the world premiere, Erich Engel, summarised the essence of the play.
Macheath: "Now hear the voice which cries out for pity!"
What role does compassion play in this distorting mirror of total capitalism? It has two faces, like most things in Brecht. Thus, The Threepenny Opera on the one hand puts an anachronistic figure of nineteenth-century capitalism on the stage in the character of the businessman Peachum, making it literally look old. On the other hand, its portrayal of capitalism is modern and exemplary in terms of its elaborately styled facades. It shows us the characters’ ability to theatrically perform themselves, which allows them to exploit the other characters’ outdated patterns of emotion. When at the beginning Peachum explains how he uses theatrical means in a precisely calculated way in his factory of lies to generate pity in people in order to run a successful business, he is not only revealing the business secrets of his company “The Beggar’s Friend”, but also the structuring principle of the play itself. Ultimately one of the questions this begs is: to what extent do pity and charity lead to the reduction of structural injustices and suffering and to what extent do they maintain them? Is pity the essential prerequisite to fighting injustice? And in the case of Macheath, where is the injustice in the end? Not only is Macheath saved from the death penalty, he is also awarded privileges that enable him to live a bourgeois life and pursue a profitable business as a respected banker. Business that merely supports a different form of exploitation than the crimes Macheath was committing before. The injustice continues and is merely dressed in a façade of pity. Behind this lies a narcissistic identification with a form of violence that views the world as its property and at the same time demands love. Macheath celebrates his salvation and with good reason presents himself as the victim of Peachum’s perfidious scheme, while at the same time is hatching new plans for how he can exploit his success as the public’s darling, in order to make even more money at the expense of others. This emotional game, as Brecht and Weill make us experience viscerally in the theatre, makes objectively examining and fighting social injustices impossible. Or have you not thoroughly enjoyed yourself?
The introductory essay by Sibylle Baschung was first published for the premiere of the Dreigroschenoper at the Berliner Ensemble (13 Jan 2021). The text has been shortened and edited for this program.
Director's Note
The Art of Taking Weight Matters Lightly
Director Barrie Kosky on his interpretation of The Threepenny Opera and the ambiguous mystery of the score.
Kurt Weill, this really must be said clearly, is as important for the history of music theatre as Wagner. And his songs should be put on the same level as those of Schumann, Schubert, Brahms and Richard Strauß. But instead of writing about the loneliness of the German forest, Weill wrote about the loneliness of the German city.
Like Brecht, he plays with genres and theatre forms, but yet his compositions are completely new, distinctive. After three bars, you immediately recognise that this music is by Kurt Weill. He doesn’t take a piece by Bach and add something Kurt Weill to it. He plays with the idea of Bach.
Of course, by doing this he makes the idea of epic music theatre, in other words the idea that the mechanisms of the music in The Threepenny Opera are demonstrated, a little more complicated, because the effect isn’t just demonstrated, it also has an effect!
In Brecht’s texts, it’s clearer to me when he’s quoting or demonstrating something: a sentimental or melodramatic farewell dialogue between Mackie and Polly, old-fashioned expressions that are intended to parody the elevated language of the theatre and mask the antisocial behaviour of the characters. In contrast, prosaic and coarse speech. Here you have to decide with the actors to what extent you want to emphasise this, show it, exaggerate it or not. But the way that Weill handles the music, the way he keeps things open, makes it much more difficult to decide how to do it.
In my view, we’re dealing with a composer here, who combined 5000 years of the Jewish tonal tradition with the highpoint of German, protestant church music and the jazz of the modern city. This can only be found in Kurt Weill’s music and means a total break with the whole Wagner tradition, which had dominated up till then. … It’s about people, about their feelings and the issues that matter to them. The way I see it, Weill’s music combines the exile of the desert with the exile of the twentieth century and the loneliness of the big city.
The Threepenny Opera is also always about the drama that happens in the theatre and the drama that we seem to so enjoy creating in our own lives too.
For me, the desire for connection and commitment is just as inherent to the music as the loneliness and sense of being lost in a world, through whose set of rules people have to find their way, and where as an individual they’re forced to watch out for themselves, left alone with their own interests and needs. Peachum sings: “Man’s right to happiness on this earth is fundamental, for he lives only a short time.” The characters in the play don’t manage to achieve this happiness or each of them only do for a short while. The only couple that has a lasting relationship are Mr and Mrs Peachum, who have a set-up where they do business by exploiting pity.
A viable community that acts in the best interests of everyone is never established in the play. Although the characters might be united temporarily in a gesture of compassion – it leaves a flat feeling behind, lots of solitary people and an unjust system.
I’m interested in the art of taking weighty matters lightly. I hear echoes of Karl Valentin here, who was extremely important to Brecht, or Chaplin, whom he admired. I believe that there is also an element of freedom in comedy, which characters and authors use to resist being appropriated by others. By whomever is trying to appropriate them.
Biographies
CAST
Tilo Nest
Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum
Tilo Nest studied acting at the Salzburg “Mozarteum”. Since 1986, he has worked at Schauspielhaus Bochum, Theater Essen, Schauspiel Köln, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Theater Basel and Schauspielhaus Hamburg. He was a member of the Vienna Burgtheater’s acting company from 2009 and 2015. Tilo Nest’s first film work was Peter Sehr’s Kaspar Hauser in 1993 and he has been working in film and television ever since. Tilo Nest tours with a number of musical programs, notably as “ABBA jetzt!” with Hanno Friedrich and Alexander Paeffgen, and he has been working as a director increasingly since 2011. He joined Berliner Ensemble in 2017/18.
Constanze Becker
Celia Peachum
Constanze Becker studied at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts. She performed in Leipzig, Düsseldorf and at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and worked with Jürgen Gosch, Michael Thalheimer and Karin Henkel, among others. In 2008 she was voted Actress of the Year by Theater heute. Since 2009, she has been a member of the ensemble at Schauspiel Frankfurt. Here she played among others in Medea and Penthesilea by Michael Thalheimer. For her performance in Medea, she received the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring and the German Theater Prize "Der Faust". Constanze Becker has been part of the Berliner Ensemble since the 2017/18 season.
Cynthia Micas
Polly Peachum
Cynthia Micas studied acting at the University of the Arts in Berlin and performed at HAU, Deutsches Theater and Maxim Gorki Theater. In 2013, she was engaged for four years at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, where she worked with Sebastian Nübling and Sebastian Baumgarten. In 2014, she was nominated Actress of the Year by the critics' survey Theater heute and received several nominations for Young Actress of the Year. In 2017/18, she moved to the Residenztheater/Bayerische Staatsschauspiel Munich and appeared in numerous productions there. Cynthia Micas has been part of the Berliner Ensemble since the 2019/20 season.
Gabriel Schneider
Macheath, aka Mackie Messer, & Filch
Gabriel Schneider was born in 1993 in Neunkirchen in Saarland. After graduating from high school, he attended the “Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch”, where he completed his acting studies in 2015. This was followed by engagements at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and at Kampnagel Hamburg. From 2016 to 2021 he was a permanent ensemble member at the Konzert Theater Bern. There he appeared, among other roles, as Ulrich in The Man Without Qualities and as the Andenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin. He has been back in Berlin since the 2021/2022 season. He has made guest appearances at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Berliner Ensemble, the Renaissancetheater Berlin and the Theater Basel. From the 2023/24 season he will be a permanent ensemble member at the Berliner Ensemble.
Kathrin Wehlisch
Brown
Kathrin Wehlisch studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. She was a member of the acting company of Theater Basel between 2000 and 2005, where she worked with directors Stefan Bachmann, Barbara Frey, Sebastian Nübling and Nicolas Stemann. During her tenure at Deutsches Theater Berlin from 2005 to 2009, she worked closely with Jürgen Gosch. From 2009, she had regular guest engagements at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and with Karin Beier at Schauspiel Köln. In 2013, Karin Beier invited her to join the company of Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. From 2016, Kathrin Wehlisch once again worked as a freelance actor at theatres like Deutsches Theater Berlin, SchauSpielHaus Hamburg and Teatro Arriaga Antzokia in Bilbao. She joined Berliner Ensemble in 2017/18.
Laura Balzer
Lucy
Laura Balzer first studied painting (subject class Olav Christopher Jenssen) from 2012 - 2015 at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig. While still a student, she switched to acting and studied from 2015 - 2019 at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch. During this time she played the character Shen Te/ Shui Ta in The Good Man of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Peter Kleinert at the Schaubühne. With the ensemble piece Messiah from Hesse, directed by Marius Schötz, the production won the Max Reinhardt Prize at the Acting School Meeting 2018 in Graz. Laura Balzer works as a freelance actress, most recently at the Burgtheater Wien.
Julia Berger
Spelunken Jenny
Julia Berger is a German actress and musical theatre performer. As one of the youngest graduates of the Berlin University of the Arts for dance, singing and acting, Julia Berger already played in Cats at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz during her studies. This was followed by numerous engagements, including MammaMia!, Saturday Night Fever, Orpheus in the Underworld, Hair, We Will Rock You, Hinterm Horizont and Nimsgern's Der Ring. As a singer, she can also be heard in various band projects. Her vocal repertoire ranges from classical to swing, jazz, pop and metal. She also works as a dubbing artist and has appeared in the Netflix children's series The Octonauts, among others. For Die Dreigroschenoper, Julia Berger is working at the Berliner Ensemble for the first time.
Dennis Jankowiak
The Moon Over Soho
Dennis Jankowiak studied Musical/Show at the UdK Berlin, where he graduated with honours in 2010. In 2007, Dennis won the national singing competition in the musical category under the musical direction of Adam Benzwi. He appeared on stage as Freddy in My Fair Lady at the Admiralsplast in Berlin. He made his debut as Danny in Leben ohne Chris at the Neukölln Opera and then took on the role of Frederik in Piraten. This was followed by roles in the German-language premiere of Song for a New World in Dessau and as Timmy in the play Vom Geist der Weihnacht at the Capitol Theatre in Düsseldorf. Dennis also appeared on stage as Alfred and Nightmare Solo in the musical Tanz der Vampire in Stuttgart and at the Theater des Westens and then took on the roles of Albert and David in Gefährten.
CREATIVE TEAM
Barrie Kosky
Director
Barrie Kosky, born in Melbourne in 1967, was artistic director and head director of the Komische Oper Berlin for ten years from the 2012/13 season onwards. Kosky is one of the most sought-after opera directors in the world; his work has taken him to stages and festivals such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Frankfurt Opera, the Zurich Opera House, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Bayreuth Festival. At the Berliner Ensemble, his interpretation of The Threepenny Opera is the fourth new production of the play at the theatre where it premiered almost one hundred years ago.
Adam Benzwi
Musical Director
Adam Benzwi is a Berlin pianist, arranger and conductor. Benzwi works closely with the Komische Oper Berlin, where he debuted in 2013 as musical director of Ball im Savoy, followed by Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will!, Die Perlen der Cleopatra was his third collaboration with Barrie Kosky. Paul Abraham's Fairy Tale at the Grand Hotel in 2017 and Ich wollt, ich wär ein Huhn with Anne Sofie von Otter were further productions in this collaboration. The new production of The Threepenny Opera at the Berliner Ensemble is one of the current productions. Adam Benzwi also took over the musical direction of Barrie Kosky's All Singing, All Dancing Yiddish Revue and Chicago at the Komische Oper Berlin.
Rebecca Ringst
Stage Design
Rebecca Ringst was born in Berlin in 1975 and studied stage and costume design with Andreas Reinhardt at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden as well as electronic art and video in Barcelona. She has worked regularly with Calixto Bieito since 2008. She has designed sets for the Komische Oper Berlin, English National Opera, Zurich Opera House, Stuttgart Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Nuremberg State Theatre, Den Norske Opera Oslo, Residenztheater Munich, Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Goodman Theatre Chicago, among others. She has worked with many renowned directors, such as Barrie Kosky, Andrea Moses and Elisabeth Stöppler. For her stage design for Stefan Herheim's Der Rosenkavalier in Stuttgart, she was named Stage Designer of the Year by Opernwelt magazine in 2010.
Dinah Ehm
Costumes
Dinah Ehm was born in Augsburg and trained as a dressmaker at the Augsburg Theatre. After working as an assistant at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, she studied costume design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden. She then worked as an assistant and wardrobe mistress at the Theater Basel and the Theater an der Ruhr in Mühlheim. After working as a cut designer in New York, she set up her own costume studio in Berlin. She has been working as a freelance costume designer for opera and drama since 2006, for example at the Staatsoper, Staatsschauspiel Stuttgart, Staatstheater Mainz and Stadttheater Bern. She has worked with Armin Petras, Ekat Cordes, Albrecht Hirche, Ingo Kerkhof and Cora Frost, among others. At the Komische Oper Berlin she designed the costume design for Pelléas and Mélisande directed by Barrie Kosky.
Ulrich Eh
Lighting
Ulrich Eh began his career as a theatre lighting technician in 1978 with Pina Bausch in Wuppertal. Since 1985 he has worked as a freelance lighting designer, mainly at spoken-word theatres in German-speaking countries, and as the lighting master at the Schiller Theatre, Berlin; the Schauspielhaus, Frankfurt; the Wuppertal Bühnen; the Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf; and the Berliner Ensemble. He has collaborated with many leading directors, including Robert Wilson, Claus Peymann, Einar Schleef, Jürgen Gosch, Luc Bondy, Leander Haußmann, Peter Zadek, Michael Thalheimer and Frank Castorf; and with the stage designers Achim Freyer, Karl-Ernst Herrmann and Johannes Schütz. His notable projects include the spatial installation for Jannis Kounellis’s Theban Cycle (The Bacchae, Oedipus the King, Seven Against Thebes and Antigone) with four directors in Düsseldorf and Epidaurus.
Holger Schwank
Sound Design
Born in 1969, Holger Schwank works internationally as a sound designer, sound engineer and music producer in various genres. A special focus of his work is the sound reinforcement of acoustic music in unusual environments, always in the crossover between the manipulation of existing acoustics and immersive electro-acoustic amplification. He works regularly on orchestral concerts at the Waldbühne, Berlin; has toured more than 70 countries; and has worked with many notable orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and with such prominent bands as The Pet Shop Boys.
Sibylle Baschung
Dramaturgy
Sibylle Baschung was born in Grenchen (Switzerland) in 1972. During her studies in history and German language and literature, she worked as an assistant director at the Theater Basel under the direction of Stefan Bachmann, then as an assistant dramaturg and dramaturg at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich. From 2001 she was engaged by Elisabeth Schweeger at Schauspiel Frankfurt and played a key role in the conception and programming of the schmidtstrasse12 venue, first together with Armin Petras and later with Florian Fiedler. From 2005 to 2012 she was invited to the "radikal jung" festival in Munich with productions by Christiane J. Schneider, Philipp Preuß, Florian Fiedler, Robert Lehniger, Antú Romero Nunes and Christopher Rüping. From 2006-2012 she held a teaching position for performance analysis at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. With the beginning of Oliver Reese's directorship in Frankfurt in 2009, she took over the direction of the Schauspiel Studio. In 2012 she became chief dramaturge and worked with Falk Richter, Christopher Rüping and Michael Thalheimer, among others (invitation to the 2013 Theatertreffen with Medea). In the same year, she was on the jury for the Mühlheim Dramatists' Prize. Since autumn 2017 she has been head dramaturge at the Berliner Ensemble.
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