Josef Szeiler

Josef Szeiler ( born August 7, 1948 in Sankt Michael im Burgenland) is an Austrian theater director. As co-founder of the theater group TheaterAngelusNovus he is known primarily for his experimental approach to texts by Heiner Müller, Bertolt Brecht, Homer and ancient dramas.

Survey

Josef Szeiler was born in Sankt Michael im Burgenland. In the late 1970s he worked as a guest student Benno Besson for at the Volksbühne Berlin, where he met the playwright Heiner Müller, resulting in a close personal friendship and long cooperation.

Josef Szeilers first independent theater work in Vienna had Heiner Müller's text based battle. From this work out to be the foundation of the group TheaterAngelusNovus who understood their work in the theater in the first place as a continuous process of self-understanding based theatrical issues and not be presented to an audience in a conventional frame as done in the creation of theater productions developed. However, there were also regularly open to the public projects, such as Homer Read the 1986 took place at the Künstlerhaus Vienna, in which the Iliad was read in its full length in parallel both in German members of the group and visitors and even in the original Greek.

After dissolution of the group in 1988 Josef Szeiler initiated different projects, such as " FatzerMaterial. From the theater, therefore, is to say what you from the body says "in collaboration with Monika champion at the Institute for Theatre Studies at the University of Vienna, had the questions of theatrical documentation for emphasis, or HamletMaschine.TokioMaterial, a parallel production of Heiner Müller's Hamlet Machine to a Japanese production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Tokyo. In 1995, he staged at the Berliner Ensemble, Heiner Müller's Philoctetes, " the last theater work that looks Heiner Müller "

Szeiler was in 1998 co-founded the Group Theater Combine Vienna that produced, among others, 1999-2000 MassakerMykene the slaughterhouse St. Marx in Vienna.

Produced in 2007 Josef Szeiler with the established in the previous group "Configuration - Beyond the death" a theater work in Vienna's city of the child had all the antique texts by Heiner Müller as the basis, as part of the project a complete development of all texts by Heiner Müller was already planned for 1996 but following the death of the author did not materialize.

Post-dramatic theater

An essential starting point Josef Szeilers is the basic approach to time under the premise that the usual rhythm of theatrical productions (2-3 months preparation, two-hour evening performances ) serves more to confirm social relations pose as questions. In addition, the work is characterized by the abolition of the separation of audience and actors, as a logical continuation of the didactic approach of Bertolt Brecht. While pedagogical aspects are reflected, Szeilers is working ( as opposed to the work of Augusto Boal or Reiner Steinweg ) largely shaped by an aesthetic claim, play an essential role in the architecture and the interaction with the human body and the theatrical space. Production were, for example, for the repair of the Austrian Federal Railways or the slaughterhouse St. Marx in Vienna.

The German theater scholar Hans -Thies Lehmann identified the work of TheaterAngelusNovus and Joseph Szeiler as one of the main examples of post-dramatic theater where no longer the presentation of the dramatic text but self-reflection of the medium theater in focus. As other examples, post-dramatic theater are mentioned, among others, Robert Wilson, Jan Fabre, Robert Lepage, Frank Castorf, La Fura dels Baus and the Viennese action.

Theater as an art of social

Another important approach Josef Szeilers is the development of theatrical choir, derived from the ancient times. Unlike the musical choir, which is held together by the music and usually a central conductor, the choir is seen here as a homogeneous organism, always new finds from out in response to the current situation its lineup. In contrast to the directed choir, this requires the ability of the members of the chorus, individually always new to find with the group to synchronize, and the best individual position or movement. The approach used in concrete production was compared with that of football players that the current situation must be adjusted inventories and movements in training practice, which then always found new in the match and.

Working

  • Heiner Müller, The Battle

With TheaterAngelusNovus (1981 - 1988)

  • Samuel Beckett, Endgame
  • Heiner Müller 's Hamlet Machine
  • Aeschylus, Prometheus (1983 )
  • Bertolt Brecht, FatzerMaterial - Fragment (1985 )
  • 3 -year project Oresteia ( 1986-1988 ): Part 1 - Homer Read
  • Part 2 - Death of Hektor
  • Part 3 - Vienna / Moscow / Khabarovsk / Moscow / Vienna ( theater work in the Trans-Siberian Railway )

Without continuous group

  • FatzerMaterial -Theater/Dokumentationsarbeit at the Institute for Theatre Studies at the University of Vienna (1988 /89).
  • Human material 1 measure. Theater work in the Academy of Arts in Berlin (1990).
  • Heiner Müller: Hamlet Machine. Theater work of Josef Szeiler in Tokyo (1992).
  • Heiner Müller: Philoctetes (Berliner Ensemble, 1995).

With theater Combine Vienna

  • MassakerMykene (1999 - 2000)

With configuration Beyond Death

  • Beyond Death - hm3 (2007)
Robert Wilson (director) Greek chorus Integrated Authority File
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