Theatergruppe - information in English

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Our last English production:

After our previous two English language productions, staged in summer 2002 and spring 2003, we've staged our third play in its original English language in February 2004. With the continuing support of Larry Zani, who encouraged us to do English language plays in the first place, we ended up doing Beth Henley's charming "Crimes of the Heart", which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1981.

"Crimes of the Heart" is the warm-hearted portrayal of three very different sisters and their cousin struggling to work up their past and make sense of their lives. There is responsible Lenny, who has sacrificed herself to care for their ailing grandfather; carefree Meg, who left behind her family and lover to pursue a (failed) singing career; the newly rebellious Babe, who faces prison for shooting her abusive husband and their presumptuous, judgemental, social-climbing first cousin, Chick.

Set in the mid 70s at the reunion in their hometown of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, the play offers a hilarious mix of conflicts, crises and revelations.

Performance dates were:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2004
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2004
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2004

Our performances were staged in the AudiMax of the university (building 42, room 115).

See our "Crimes of the Heart" production page for more infos.


"On An English Language Play at the University of Kaiserslautern"

A few years ago, my daughter Rachel had a burning desire for and very good skills in theater. At that time, she played a very captivating role as one of the mischievous sisters in Kaiserslautern American High School's production of the murder comedy, "Arsenic and Old Lace". The auditorium seats were full with every show and the audience long remembered and spoke of Rachel's performance and that of her fellow students.

Some time later, I saw a message in the weekly German newspaper, Wochenblatt, about the University of Kaiserslautern's theater group doing the German version of "Arsenic and Old Lace". Curious to see and compare their performance with what the American students had done, I went. Though I did not understand all words spoken, it was a most enjoyable performance. Some of the set design, costumes and character movements were different from the American version, but the play showed great dedication and talent on the part of the university students.

After this German performance, I stuck around to speak with some involved in the play. Knowing the lack of English language plays and yet the large English speaking population in the Kaiserslautern area, I began to think that if the university theater group were up to the challenge, a lot of Americans and others would gratefully come to attend an English spoken play.

One of the university theater group's stalwarts, Ingo Muench, was quite enthused with the idea of performing an English language play. As a younger student at an international school in Luxembourg, Ingo had done some small English playlets. But that was back then and now the thought of doing a play in English really appealed to him.

Over the next few months, more discussion and planning went on with Ingo and then with others from the theater group. We looked at numerous play possibilities before the group finally decided on Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers". And with a lot of effort and heart, and some funny rehearsal moments in between, the English language play was performed three times in June of 2002. A more than 25-year history of the university's theater group now had a new chapter.

"Last of the Red Hit Lovers" was well received by both Americans and Germans and international persons in the audiences, which grew with each performance. And then it was over. All the build-up, the efforts, the audience elations and then like every play, no more performances once the last curtain comes down.

Fortunately, the interest in doing an English language play was still there. So, in May 2003, two mostly unknown, but well scripted one-act plays were performed on the university's Audimax stage. This time, two local Americans joined the German cast and a retired British military officer with theater background lent his expertise. Again, the plays were well received by the audiences and a sense of a tradition was being felt.

So, what to do in the third year? As occurs with university organizations, changes in persons with the theater group continued. Again, numerous plays were considered and finally Beth Henley's "Crimes of the Heart" was chosen. The challenge now will be the first play with a Southern US accent to be acquired by the cast. Once again, a local American will join the cast, the British man is back again and an American schoolteacher will help make the play even more enjoyable than its predecessors.

From a common interest in theater, spurred by a daughter, this German-American-International alliance has developed and will hopefully continue for many years. So, please make plans to be with us when "Crimes of the Heart" is performed this coming February.

--- Larry Zani
Kaiserslautern

Our English language play in april/may 2003


Following on its very successful performances of Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red-Hot Lovers”, the University of Kaiserslautern Theater Group successfully staged two very stimulating one-act plays "Ruling Passion" and "The Car" both in English on 29 April plus 2 and 3 May, at 8 pm. And for the first time in the theater group’s 25 year history, these performances included two American actresses.

See our production page HERE including a german newspaper critique (with photo), background info about the plays (PDF booklet) and cast list.

Additional information is available by emailing the theater group at: theater@rhrk.uni-kl.de


The english language production last year


"The Last Of The Red Hot Lovers"
by Neil Simon.