In December 2009 Pam and I went to watch a French play at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the city’s theatre. It was a stage adaption of “The Little Prince”. Funnily enough, the play was arranged by the American Drama Group in Europe. Usually their plays are in the English language.
Anyway, in February the American Drama Group will return to the Schauspielhaus Bochum with Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet“. The stage play will be shown on February 2nd and 3rd, 2010. We’ve got tickets for Wednesday 3rd.
The last play in English language we saw was Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Considering the experience of the French play, I think I know the concept of the stage setting. The stage settings are minimalistic but arranged very cleverly. I lack the words and language to describe this further. The concept of the stage settings seems to support easy traveling and compatibility to different and even very small stages.
We are looking forward to another interesting and entertaining evening.
“Practise English with Theatre” is the motto of this company in Essen. They use the stage of Stratmann’s Theater on Kennedyplatz in Essen. Due to the company’s webpage, they are going to play more in schools. The plays are somewhat adapted to be easily understandable by pupils. You can order textbooks of the modified play from the company.
Looks to me, that they aim on the audience to prepare the play at home before watching it on the stage. Due to the use of ‘theatre’ in URL and name, I guess they focus British Englisch-
Next winter they want to start with “Romeo and Juliet” again.
What to do with an English native speaker? Theater plays can be difficult to understand, especially German classic theater. How much worse is it, if you’re not a native speaker. How much worse is it, if there is a lot of elaborated language that’s not similiar to everyday language? Then, you’ll try to look for play in English language.
Married to a native speaker who is learning German limits you to some activities. TV? DVDs with subtitles, original (mainly English) soundtracks und dubbing are a good substitute. Cinema? Sometimes there are original movies with subtitles (OmU – Original mit Untertitel). Music? ok. Theater plays? Ballet, well ….. English.
Therefore I always have a look at the monthly schedule of the Schauspielhaus Bochum. Sometimes there is something in English, like a ‘revival’ of Johnny Cash. And even now in November, there will a guest performance by the American Drama Group in Europe. They’ll perform William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. A difficult, classical English play. Famous but hard. I think I should order the booklet for it before I’ll go there on November 7th.
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