The Wild Stage

* Since our original in-person performance was cancelled, please visit this YouTube playlist for video lectures, check back for updates on potential in person performances, and stay current by following @thewildstage on Instagram.

The Wild Stage is the culminating concert of an Advanced Research Fellowship from Roosevelt University’s Office of Student Research. The goal of the project is to elucidate German Kabarett performance practices from the Weimar Era. The project has been named for one of the most prevelant Kabarett clubs in Berlin during the Weimar Era, Die Wilde Bühne [The Wild Stage].

With only the most valued songs from the repertoire having been published, I have selected a variety of those available. Libraries and music publishers do not have vast holdings of this repertoire, so I made an effort to correspond with musicians in Europe that had access to the sheet music.

In our program, songs are presented in small vignettes, or in number format, as was standard Kabarett practice. Each song evokes a separate scene. We have interwoven our selections with dialogue. The song texts will be sung in German to preserve their idiomatic and cultural references, while the dialogues, which include preexisting sketch and original writing, will be presented in English. This is to ensure intelligibility when action moves quickly. Furthermore, this will serve to preserve the inherently accessible nature of Kabarett to a largely English speaking audience.

The program will include selections by composers such as Friedrich Hollaender, Mischa Spoliansky, Wili Kollo, and Bogumil Zepler, and librettists, such as Werner H. Heymann, Kurt Tucholsky (alias Theobald Tiger), and Alfred Hensche (alias Pol Platt).

Each of the performers have been thoroughly coached on performance practices that are not routined in classical singing. We have spent a great deal of time integrating rubato and sprechstimme. In general, we shifted our primary focus from the musical content to the dramatic implications of the text. We have been diligent in understanding each word of text. In order to deliver the text with authenticity, we have been coaching with native Berliners at the Goethe-Institut.

Not only has this experience been historically illuminating, but each member of the concert team has shown tremendous artistic growth. Kabarett is an art form that bridges the gap between the intellectual and the entertaining. Each performer has gained a new level of freedom and immediacy in our expression. Our hope is to convey realities of the human experience, whilst still remaining true to the satirical nature of Kabarett. Societal, gender, and political norms will be challenged, and those that challenge them will also be challenged. In short, as scholar and theater troupe director, Jürgen Henningsen pointed out, “‘Kabarett ist Spiel mit dem erworben Wissenzusammenhang des Publikums’ [Cabaret plays with the audience’s acquired context of knowledge].”1 Kabarett is an artform of contradiction.

Please enjoy a playlist of several original recordings and new interpretations of songs we will be performing. Click here to listen. Please reach out via email if you want to know more about this project.

THE WILD STAGE

CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 April 4th Pre-performance lecture 7pm | Performance 7:30pm

Roosevelt University Marks Hall AUD 964

430 S Michigan Avenue | free entry with valid ID

Sponsored by Roosevelt University’s Office of Student Research

Creative Team: Brady Collins (Director), Matthew Lorenz (Collaborative Pianist), Mark Crayton (advising mentor)

Cast: Brady Collins, Corrine Costell, Tyler J. Hast, CeCe Hastreiter, Alexander B. Kolyszko, Elizabeth Schroeder

1 Alan Lareau. The Wild Stage: Literary Cabarets of the Weimar Republic. Camden House. Columbia, SC: 1995.