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Problems of Describing Acting in
Theatrical and Musical Productions in the GDR
Konstanze
Mach-Meyerhofer (Berlin)
Documentation et Art de
l'Acteur
Records and Images of the Art of the Performer
18ème Congrès International, Stockholm 3-7 septembre
1990 /
18th International Congress, Stockholm 3-7 September 1990
Editor: Barbro Stribolt (Drottningholms Teatermuseum).
Stockholm : 1992, p. 135-138
The art of the performer
is central to this year's SIBMAS congress and this
corresponds to our own experiences of the changes that
have taken place in GDR theatre practice since the 1970s
and also to one of the topical points of interest in our
documentation work: we are increasingly confronted with
productions whose preparation, rehearsal, performance and
effect no longer follow the usual model of production
development. The directors of these performances no
longer enter the production process was a fixed concept
in mind, defy a pre-set interpretation of the plot and
analyses of figures.
These productions deliver no messages to the audience and
above all demand associative thinking through the many
scenic metaphors that are employed. In doing so this type
of theatre concept leads away from progressive and
classical traditions to a different understanding of its
function. To explain these changes it should be pointed
out that subject experiences have altered in the age of
the "high-tech revolution": consumption and
production processes, indeed life processes as a whole,
are neither rationally comprehensible nor experienceable
for the concrete subject.
Hence the subject loses homogeneity due to the fact that
a relationship between self-experience and
self-recognition no longer exists. Since, in contrast to
other art forms, the performer is simultaneously
instrument and creator, these changed historical
experiences are reflected in his acting performance. This
is why the actor of today, when presenting a homogenous
character in a play, acts contrary to his own perceptions
and hence enters into a crisis.
This conflict between subjective experience and classical
character is seized upon and used productively by certain
directors such as Robert Wilson, Heiner Müller, Ruth
Berghaus and Alexander Lang because they find themselves
in the same situation as the actors. They are primarily
able to turn this conflict to productive use through
employing associative thinking as a mobilising element of
acting performance.1
In doing so actors discover that, after an initial
distancing, they have the feeling that they are led back
to themselves.2 In this way the actor's performance moves
centrestage in theatre and in the consciousness of those
who document theatre. Inevitably new problems of
description and location arise with such a view of
theatrical art. I would like to describe this using the
example of the documentation of a production.
The director and theatre expert Frank Castort, born in
1951, produced Das Trunkene Schiff (The Drunken
Ship) at the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin in 1988, based
on motifs from Paul Zech's play.
As usual, the job of making the documentation was given
by us to one of the persons involved in the production. 3 In the preface, which discusses
purpose and method, the documentation is described as
being the accompanying minutes to an artistic work
process. In other words, a methodology was not adopted in
advance but rather it developed from within, from the
course of events followed by the production and its
chronology.
The documentation is divided into the following sections:
starting situation - preliminary conceptual work -
rehearsals - performance.
Starting situations
A description is given
of how the production fits into the theatre programme as
a whole; a selection of primary and secondary sources
accompanies the history of the play and the biographies
of Rimbaud and Zech; this is followed by the
bibliography, the play by Paul Zech, the biography of the
director and the selection of the cast. It is interesting
that Castorf chose two actors who had previously
experienced his method of working as a support for
inexperienced actors.
Preliminary Conceptual
Work
In a chapter entitled
"Views and Intentions of the Director", the
documentalist arranges and summarises conversations with
the director before the beginning of rehearsals so as to
be able to make substantial statements on the kind of
approach taken by the director to the play as a whole.
The most important thing for the director is that there
is no central matter of concern, but rather a broad and
general interest in themes and ideas. Associated material
is then collected, based upon a number of peripheral
points and themes.
Theplay by Zech is the first layer, the second layer
consists of historical scenes (such as the Paris Commune,
Africa or the Third World) and the third layer is made up
of the characters. Castorf changes the persons in line
with his view of theatre and work with actors, and allows
the tense relationship between six people to unwind on
stage.
(In contrast to the play, where Zech has Rimbaud pass
through and be served by constantly changing episodal
figures, with Castorf all actors are almost constantly
present on stage.) In addition certain aspects of
Rimbaud's biography interest him as well as parallels to
this figure (such as Baal, Zarathustra, Mozart and Jim
Morrison) as well as textual material - amongst others on
the Paris Commune and African languages. The director
introduces all these aspects into the first conceptual
discussion with the performers.
The section on "Preliminary Conceptual Work" is
additionally complemented by a description of the stage
area, including a ground plan, and its conditions for the
style of the play. All material from this preparatory
stage cover the requirements of the art of the performer
in the rehearsal and performance process.
The Rehearsals
Here the performer
appear for the first time as the producer. The
documentalist has prepared 70 pages of rehearsal notes
which assimilate all the views that have been expressed,
observe and critically pursue their realization and
describe the solutions which are found. He analyses and
summarises these notes in the light of "working
methods at rehearsals". I should like to quote from
these notes.
The first rehearsal phase consists of the
continuation of the associative collection of material
together with the actors, which the director initiated in
the preparatory stage.
An outline version, further texts, associations, ideas
and themes are explored in greater detail. In doing so a
basic idea for the scene, or at least an idea for the
approach to acting, is developed. In this phase playing
is heavily in demand, as Castorf prefers the display of
internal feelings through metaphors in place of the
reading out of texts. It is to be observed that actors
and director meet one another and allow themselves to
become involved with one another in a spirit of enormous
openness. It is only in this way that the actors overcome
their difficulties with this type of direction which they
are not used to.
The result is a material collection of newly invented
scenes, developed together with the performers. In the second
rehearsal phase the director concentrates on the
dramatic course of events and the rhythm of the
production. As the relationship between Verlaine and
Rimbaud had developed into the main plot during
rehearsals - the performer in the role of Verlaine had
developed into the main driving force of the production -
in other words, the centre had been discovered, it was
then decided upon what served to support this and what
had hence become redundant. This was a difficult phase as
the relaxed atmosphere typical of the first improvization
phase was lacking.
The result of the second rehearsal phase was the final
dramatic version of the sequence of scenes that had been
worked out which also forms part of the documentation. In
the third rehearsal phase the director had the
production played through time and again and in his
criticism after the rehearsal he limited himself to
stances, ways of playing and ensemble acting.
As a result of the rehearsals, a new version of the text
was worked out, accompanied by the director's comments.
The Performance
The documentation
contains a series of 115 consecutive performance photos,
which have not captured every alteration of the
arrangement however. The aim is to document and
illustrate the most important proceedings in the
production. The photos are assigned to the corresponding
text or director's comment. In contrast to the
conventional photographing practice - the photographs are
taken from differing positions - they form a sensitive
commentary on the characteristic of the production. The
performance documentation naturally also includes the
programme, advertising material, poster and closes with
critics' comments. Unfortunately there is no video
recording.
I intended to make it clear through these remarks that
the described method of documentation - to fix and
describe a production process adequately and in terms of
aesthetic effect - makes it possible to document a
particular kind of production (for which normally the
conventional methods of documentation fail) and to
capture and describe the creative contribution of the
performer to the production process.
The idea was not one of taking a positivistic shorthand
(although it would be conceivable to add further elements
to the documentation), but rather of describing selected
work processes. We are presently making greater efforts
to collect alongside the programme, text version,
performance photos, reproductions of scenery and costume
designs, critics' comments, video and tape recordings
documents containing statements by the producers such as
rehearsal notes, minutes of conversations with the
director, the actors and other members of staff.
We have abandoned production descriptions which only ever
include one possible interpretation of the meaning of an
event and instead stimulate the description of a selected
scene by different observes. In doing so we attempt to
come to terms with our aim which is to have a stimulating
effect on theatre practice.
But who is going to help us answer the question: to what
extent is a collection of subjective comments of interest
in terms of theatrical history? To what extent will these
still serve in the future to gain insights into the
theatre of today? It remains to be said that a changed
understanding of the function of theatre calls for a
search for suitable method of documentation of these
productions. In our view all documentation institutions,
collections and museums should take up this issue.
Notes
1 Compare Siegfried Wilzopolski: Das
Assoziative im Theaterspiel, dissertation written at
the Hans Otto College of Performing Arts in Leipzig,
l985. (back)
2 Compare Gerd Irrlitz: Die
Kultur der Gegenwart. Die Suche nach einem Subjekt
dieser Diskurse and Maik Hamburger. Das Subjekt auf
der Bühne. Shakespeare Days 1989 in Weimar,
Shakespeare-Jahrbuch Bd. 126, Weimar 1990.(back)
3 Ralph Reichel: Documentation of
the production Das Trunkene Schiff commissioned by
the Verband der Theaterschaffenden der DDR 1989. (back)
18th Congress
SIBMAS Home Page
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November 21, 2000
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