Schaubühne Berlin under Thomas Ostermeier

Peter M. Boenisch is Professor of Dramaturgy at Aarhus University, Denmark and Professor of European Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. His specialist areas are theatre direction and dramaturgy, with a particular focus on the German- and Dutch-speaking countries, as well as the institutional aesthetics and politics of the European theatre system. His books include Directing Scenes and Senses: The thinking of Regie (2015), The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier, co-authored with the German theatre director (2016), and the volume Littlewood – Strehler – Planchon in the Methuen Drama series The Great European Stage Directors (co-edited with Clare Finburgh, Methuen Drama 2018). He also edited the 30th anniversary edition of David Bradby and David Williams’s seminal study Directors’ Theatre (2019). With Rachel Fensham, he is series co-editor of the series New World Choreographies.

Since 1999 under the directorship of Thomas Ostermeier the Schaubühne Berlin has become the most visible German theatre on the international stage. In this volume, Peter M. Boenisch, author of a major monograph on Ostermeier, achieves the rare feat of bringing together contributions both from the artistic team as well as together an impressive collection of distinguished scholars from around the world which mutually illuminate this remarkable theatre.

• List of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgements Preface - 20 years of the Schaubühne Berlin under Thomas Ostermeier: Ambitions, achievements, transformations by Peter M BoenischI. The Schaubühne Berlin under Thomas Ostermeier: Reinventing an institution 1) The first season: The Mission (1999) by Thomas Ostermeier, Jens Hillje, Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig 2) Between philosophical and sociological theatre: The political Regietheater of Peter Stein and Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne Berlin by Erika Fischer-Lichte3) The Schaubühne’s Civic Mission in the Age of Globalization: An Imaginary Island that Probes Society by Ramona Mosse4) ‘Audiences know their cause will be treated’: Making political theatre at the Schaubühne – Thomas Ostermeier in conversation with Clare Finburgh Delijani II. Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne: Reinventing ‘Directors’ Theatre’5) Socialist Realism, Capitalist Realism, Ostermeier Realism by Marvin Carlson6) Thomas Ostermeier’s Shakespeare productions: The mise en action of canonical plays by Jitka Goriaux Pelechová7) Hamlet out of joint: Variations on a theme in Thomas Ostermeier’s production, 2008-2020 by Elisa Leroy8) Sensing the North: Thomas Ostermeier and the Schaubühne in Brazil by Igor de Almeida Silva9) Confronting the present: Thomas Ostermeier’s post-conceptual Regietheater by Peter M. BoenischIII. The Schaubühne’s experiments across forms and borders: Towards a new realism 10) Theatre towards the liberation of thinking: Experimenting with realism(s) at the Schaubühne, 2000-2010 by Jens Hillje11) Re-scripting Realism: Katie Mitchell and Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne by Benjamin Fowler12) Encountering the rage from the South: Latin American theatre at the Schaubühne’s F.I.N.D. festival by Marina Ceppi13) Performing Bodies as a scenic playground of social realities: Choreographic Theatre at the Berlin Schaubühne by Sabine Huschka14) REST/less EXHAUSTION, SEMI-CALM: Some notes on Falk Richter and Anouk van Dijk’s Trust by Hans-Thies LehmannBibliography Index