April
23,
2004
German
Theaterfest Set for April 29
The Department
of German Studies at MHC is busy setting the stage for its German
theater festival and
competition, Deutsches Theaterfest, scheduled to take place Thursday,
April 29 from 9 am to 5 pm in Chapin Auditorium.
The twenty-seventh annual competition will feature elementary-
to college-level students of German from 17 schools in New England
and the mid-Atlantic states. The students will perform short
dramatic scenes (in German) before a jury of German and
theater teachers from several Massachusetts high schools, faculty from the Five
Colleges, a playwright/film producer, the artistic director of the Massachusetts
International Festival of the Arts, and representatives of the festival's
sponsors: the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Boston
and the Goethe Institut Boston. Prizes will be awarded at the elementary/middle
school, secondary school, and college levels.
Performances will include adaptations of fairy tales, such as The
Brementown Musicians and Hansel and Gretel; original plays; an adaptation of Mozart's
The Magic Flute; and excerpts of plays, such as Brecht's Three
Penny Opera and Dürrenmatt's The Visit. Mount Holyoke students will put on an
original play, not be judged in the competition, and participate as stagehands,
stage managers, lighting technicians, greeters, and prop coordinators. In addition
to 100 participants, the organizers are expecting approximately 150
middle and high school students, who will come to watch the
performances.
Donna Van Handle, senior
lecturer in the Department of German Studies and dean of international students,
is organizing the event, as she has for the past 17 years. "Every spring
German language students from all levels of instruction look forward with great
anticipation to their annual trip to Mount Holyoke to participate in the Deutsches
Theaterfest," Van Handle said. "I think the theaterfest has become
so popular and well known around the country because it offers students the opportunity
to use the language they've learned in a contextually meaningful way. At
the same time they also realize that language learning can be lots of fun."
Mount Holyoke faculty who will serve as jury members are Joyce Devlin, professor
of theatre arts, and Vanessa James, professor of theatre arts. Joining them from
the Five Colleges will be Mary Paddock, assistant professor of German studies
at Smith College, and Ulrike Brisson, coordinator of German language classes
at the University of Massachusetts.
As the Germans say, hals-und beinbruch (break a leg)!
he unhe
counter is
1,225
|
