Sommerprojekt Theater Gegenstand

One of the biggest event in the year of the Theater GegenStand is for sure Sommerprojekt. Every year during the summer holiday break prepares the theatre a special program, which is different than the program of the theatre during the season. At first this project is much bigger than another theatre performances. It´s much more complicated for organization, finacial and also in artistic way. It´s based on platform site-specific open-air theatre program for a big number of audience and it is played usually 10-14 days. That makes this project one of the most important cultural events of the city and it´s also counted as one of the most interesting summer program in MittelHessen. Every year comes Theater Gegenstand with new topics and brings it into the untraditional place for theater (site-specific), and can bring new group of audience as well. It also needs more actors as a usuall theatre play (usually around 20-25 actors). So this projekt is also becoming an opportunity to play for new actors, which never played before, to try play for the first time, if they can have even a small role.

In the last years you could register at a different kind of topic at very different places. Last summer for example was Sommerprojekt created at main Trainstation in Marburg and called “Auf der Durchreise” from the years before it was for example Greek Odyssea which was played on the boats in the river Lahn, fairytales from Brothers Grimm, which studied here in Marburg and another interesting topics.

This year brought Theater GegenStand the topic of Don Quijote and put it into the present world with actual problems. The Directors of the projekt are Stefan Blix and Magdalena Kaim, which also created a very new text. Don Quijote is not anymore the crazy knight from Spain but odd citizen of the Marburg city. Sancho Panca which makes him company on his way is not anymore his true servant, but guy works for Diakonia which is sent by organization to help this strange man, which is interrupting people on the streets. New version shows actual problems people here in Germany as for example exaggerative bureaucracy. Don Quijote is, with his naive, romantic view of the world, trying to change it, but meets the problems, which he is not able to overcome. For example the ladies in the offices need their documents and stamps, whatever is happening and the hopeless fight against them we can easily compare to old story of Don Quijote with Windmills. When Don Quijote tries to protest for a better World, he finds that it is not so easy, because the activist are more interested in the form, management and marketing than the real meaning of their fight. Sancho Panca, which accompanies Don Quijote very reluctantly, later finds that the Don Quijote is really the “mad one”, but the World has a lots of nonsense rules, which we respect without asking why. Sancho understand Don Quijote more and more and at the end he has to fight on his own with much more complicated and permanent fight than just bureaucracy, which is death.

Theatre works with the main characters as are Don Quijotte, Sancho Pansa or Ducinea and big choir of another noc-specifizated characters, which are changing depence situation. They are also developing the main scenes to intermezzo, which are not so much dramatic, but more as dance, symbolic pictures, which are working perfectly with place, where the project happends: The old beautifull gothic cathedral Elizabeth Kirche, which allowed Theater Gegenstand to use the main part of the church.

The premiere of Don Quijotte oder Irre von Marburg is planning for Friday 15. July and I am happy, as EVS volunteer in Theater GegenStand I can be part of this project this time as an actor, without have perfect German. I belive in this amazing place, with great music, expresive costumes and make up and scenography can bring our new story of Don Quijote a very new view to audience.