The , abbreviated (), is a community theater on the former premises of the Georg-August-Universität medical center. The stage is situated in the former anatomical theater. The theater's name refers to this, standing for (operating room, OR).
History The theater was founded by the drama section of the German Department in 1984. Its primary mission is to give opportunities to students for training and hands-on experience in a theater.
The theater evolved to the largest student theater in Germany. It has become one of the largest of its kind across Europe.
Venue
The former operating room has two opposing straight elongated stands, east and west. The rows of benches rise very steeply, allowing an unobstructed view. The northern face of the building has a large window, that is usually covered with a black sheet of molton. The southern gallery may be used for additional seats. This arrangement then virtually creates a thrust stage.
There is no glass dome separating observers from the scene. Unlike during an operation focused on one spot in the middle of the hall, actors can – and do – use the whole width and length of the stage. This, combined with the bench structure, tend to give the theater an intimate atmosphere.
A separate staircase for the audience has been attached to the building's southwest. While the stage level can be reached via an elevator, the gallery can not. Nonetheless, the crew is determined to find means allowing everyone to attend shows.
A dressing room, a make-up room and a workshop, beside other facilities, are located laterally to the stage, underneath the stands and gallery. Below the main stage, the former ER's operating room serves the as a rehearsal stage. Some productions used it as a stage for public audience, too. However, the former barrel vault-like operating room is limited to 30 persons. Yet it is accessible by wheelchair via ramps, as it is slightly below street level.
Properties and costumes are stored in the attic of an adjacent building, if they are not in use in current or upcoming productions.
From October 2014 till March 2016 a damage of the roof forced the to use other irregular venues. Unfortunately this coincided with the 30-year anniversary of the theater. Alternative venues were for example a (secondary) stage at the city theater , as well as the stage of the , but also non-theater surroundings such as the assembly hall at the former grounds of the local private university, now also property of the Georg-August-university, and the 's own rehearsal stage the former ER's OR.
In the course of building repairs a ventilation system has been built in into the 's own attic. It helps managing excess heat emitted by a full house and lighting.
Operations Productions are shown en suite. One ensemble "moves in" into the , sets up the stage setting and performs final rehearsals, and then has public performances usually over the course of two weeks, until they "move out" again yielding the stage to the next ensemble. This cycle allows up to 12 productions to premiere per year, totaling about 130 shows.
Casts and crews are predominantly students, but a sizable number of the participants are university staff and towns-people as well. Enrolled university students can obtain credits in some courses of studies.
Directors have to go through a vetting process, by being an Assistant Director for one production at the first. The remaining tasks have more or less formal requirements, but there is a culture of passing forward skills and knowledge: Senior affiliates instruct novices, who themselves may eventually become senior members too.
There is only one position funded by the department, accompanied by some (student) assistants. All participants are otherwise volunteers. The admission pricing policy is non-profit, nonetheless subsidies and sponsoring support the budget. Enrolled students of the Georg-August-Universität can attend shows for a compulsory flatrate. A bar serving bottled drinks belongs to the theater's services.
Most plays are in German. The "English drama workshop" stages a play in English once per year. There have been productions incorporating German sign language, too.
There is no limit to the range of genres. Classical plays as well as contemporary dramas are shown. Since 2004 the theater also hosts a budding dramatists competition. The eventually winning play is guaranteed to have its world premiere in the .
+ stagings (excerpt) title premiere notes Andorra Antigone Age of Cannibals Arsenic and Old Lace in English August: Osage County Baal Beautiful Thing Bent Boeing-Boeing The Brothers Lionheart A Clockwork Orange Closer The Comedy of Errors The Country Wife in English Death and the Maiden Dream Story Educating Rita 8 Women The Fire Raisers Four Rooms in English Frau Müller muss weg! Ghosts Heart of Stone Hedda Gabler Herr Lehmann An Ideal Husband The Imaginary Invalid An Inspector Calls Jake's Women Killer Joe Krabat Ladies Night Les Liaisons Dangereuses Lysistrata musical adaptation The Maids A Midsummer Night's Dream in English A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy Mr. Marmalade A Murder Is Announced 1984 in English Pictures at an Exhibition The Pillowman Possible Worlds Pygmalion in English A Report to an Academy Romeo and Juliet modern adaptation Ronia, the Robber's Daughter The Seagull Shoppen Survivor own dramatization The Sound of Music in English The Taming of the Shrew in English Tango Tartuffe The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas Vernon God Little We're No Angels What the Butler Saw in English Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Due to the coronavirus pandemic the theater temporarily shut down its operations mid March 2020, like virtually all theaters in Germany. All productions were put on hold and will be shown as soon as rehearsals become possible again. Nonetheless, -related classes were still held, although predominately via distance teaching.
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