MEDIATHEK

At the beginning of the working process of “Schwarze Bären oder Die Erfindung der Republik!” / “Black Bears or The Invention of the Republic!” there was the idea of creating a play for and about the city of Weimar in collaboration between actors as well as singers of our ensemble. We focussed on the question how and why Weimar still is a creative place-to-be for artists and celebrities as well as a popular vacation destination for tourists. Where do the visitors come from and what do they wish to experience here? Furthermore it was of interest to us to investigate on how the reputation of being provincial that still comes with Weimar fits in the picture of the constant afflux.

This description of Weimar as a “transit room” we found in the notion of a guest house – a place of chance encounter, of depart and arrival. One of the oldest guest houses in Weimars is called “Zum Schwarzen Bären” / “The Black Bear”. The black bear on it’s entrance sign works as an orientation for visitors; it symbolizes safety and protection, but also stands for something dangerous to get away from. To work on that assumption together we invited eight actors and singers of the DNT (Deutsches Nationaltheater) ensemble to a 10 day workshop in November 2013. Besides exchanging personal experiences and reflections of Weimar, we explored the city and surroundings and did researches throughout local archives. With the material gathered, director Enrico Stolzenburg, playwright Kai-Ivo Baulitz and composer Dietrich Eichmann guided musical and scenic improvisations.

During the workshop we found the most striking character of the city in the historic situation of the (Weimar) National Assembly in the year 1919 at the theatre in Weimar (which was then given it’s name “Deutsches Nationaltheater / German National Theatre). About 10.000 guests (assemblymen, officials, journalists and constables) came to Weimar to work on the new democratic constitution, far away of the riots in Berlin.

The starting point for the text and music of the final music theatre piece were experiences and results of the improvisation workshop. The text of Kai-Ivo Baulitz works as the matrix of the piece. Dietrich Eichmann composed musical modules for the characters and situations parallel to the formation of the text. The final arrangement of the composed parts and the dialogues to one piece was compiled by the entire team and ensemble in April/May 2014 during the rehearsals.