April
25, 2003 German
Theaterfest Set for May 1
The Department of
German studies at MHC is busy setting the stage for its German
theatre festival and competition, Deutsches Theaterfest,
scheduled to take place Thursday, May 1, from 9 am to 5 pm, in
Chapin Auditorium.
The twenty-sixth annual competition will feature elementary- to
college-level students of German from seventeen schools in New
England and the mid-Atlantic states. The students will perform
short dramatic scenes (in German) before a jury of German and
theatre arts teachers from several Massachusetts high schools,
faculty from the Five Colleges, and representatives of the festival's
sponsors: the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany
in Boston, the Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes, and the Department
of Theatre Arts at Mount Holyoke. Prizes will be awarded at the
middle school, secondary, and college levels.
Performances will include adaptations of fairytales, such as Little
Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast; original
plays, including a Miss Germany contest; adaptations of novellas
and the film The Matrix, and excerpts of plays by Schnitzler
and Dürrenmatt. Mount Holyoke students will participate as stagehands,
stage managers, lighting technicians, greeters, and prop coordinators.
In addition to 150 participants, the organizers are expecting
approximately fifty middle and high school students, who come
to watch the plays and cheer on the actors.
"We hope that everybody will have a good time and that the
festival will motivate students to continue with German,"
said Elisabeth Krimmer, visiting assistant professor of German.
Krimmer and Senior Administrative Assistant Carmen Sullivan are
in charge of this year's event. Longtime organizer Donna
Van Handle, senior lecturer in the Department of German Studies
and president of the American Association of Teachers of German,
is on sabbatical this semester.
Mount Holyoke faculty who will serve as jury members are Joyce
Devlin, professor of theatre arts; Holger Teschke, visiting professor
of theatre arts; and Donald Sanders, visiting assistant professor
of theatre arts. Joining them from the Five Colleges will be Heidi
Gilpin, assistant professor of German at Amherst College, and
Mary Paddock, assistant professor of German studies at Smith College.
As the Germans say, Hals-und Beinbruch (break a leg)!
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