Werkbühne

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Werkbühne

Werkbühne e. V.
Founded	1979
Legal form	Registered association (eingetragener Verein)
Member of	Ver­band Baye­ri­scher Ama­teur­thea­ter
Location
Headquarters	Q163024
Country	Germany
Links
Website	werkbuehne-dreefs.de
Social media	Facebook · Instagram
View on Wikidata

The Werkbühne (Werkbühne Kronach, Werkbühne für den Landkreis Kronach) is a theatre in Kronach, Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, run since 2016 by the association Werkbühne e. V. under the artistic direction of Daniel Leistner. It began in 1979 as the rehearsal stage of the school theatre of the Kaspar-Zeuß-Gymnasium in Kronach and is the origin of the Faust-Festspiele.

History

The Werkbühne was set up in 1979 by Ulf Mattiesen and Hans-Jürgen Schmitt, then directors of school theatre at the Kaspar-Zeuß-Gymnasium, at the Melchior-Otto-Platz in Kronach, first as a rehearsal stage and later also for small performances. In 1984 it moved to the Klosterstraße as the Neue Werkbühne am Kloster, an open venue used by the school theatre and several independent groups. The most successful of these, the student theatre Freie Werkbühne Kronach founded in 1985, toured Bavaria and Thuringia, was invited to the Bavarian theatre days (Bayerische Theatertage) and received the culture promotion prize of the district of Kronach in 1990.

When the district office took over the building in 1994, the ensemble staged an open-air Faust I in the arsenal courtyard of the Rosenberg Fortress, directed by Daniel Leistner, for the Lucas Cranach state exhibition. Its success led the town and district of Kronach to commission the team around Ulrike Mahr and Daniel Leistner to found the Faust-Festspiele Kronach in 1995. Former members of the ensemble produced small studio projects at the Kronacher Kunstverein from 1998 to 2001. In autumn 2001, at the town's request, Leistner re-founded the Werkbühne in the old market hall of the renovated Historisches Rathaus, where it presented a studio production each autumn as the town's theatre.

After the town of Kronach ended the Faust-Festspiele in autumn 2015, Leistner and several actors decided to continue the Werkbühne. The newly founded association Werkbühne e. V. moved to neighbouring Marktrodach, where it played from 2016 to 2019 in the production hall of the former Dreefs switch factory and in the hall of the restaurant Stegner's. In early 2020 the association was able to return to Kronach, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic it could not play for two years; it resumed in autumn 2022 at various venues in Kronach.

Repertoire

The Werkbühne has mostly played classical and modern comedies and dramas, from Sophocles and Shakespeare to Nestroy, Grabbe and Horváth, together with revues and staged readings.

Productions (incomplete)

Year	Title	Author	Notes
1985	Gaslicht – Das Haus der Lady Alquist	Patrick Hamilton	Freie Werkbühne; Gas Light
1986	Die Hose	Carl Sternheim	Freie Werkbühne
1987	Die Wahrheit über Arnold Hau	Gernhardt, Bernstein, Waechter	Freie Werkbühne
1987	König Ödipus	Sophocles	Freie Werkbühne; Oedipus Rex
1988	Der Sturm	William Shakespeare	Freie Werkbühne; The Tempest
1988	Faust I und Faust II	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Freie Werkbühne, with the school theatre of the Kaspar-Zeuß-Gymnasium
1989	Faust I	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Freie Werkbühne
1990	Die Stühle	Eugène Ionesco	Freie Werkbühne; The Chairs
1991	Das glühend Männla	Kerstin Specht	Freie Werkbühne
1991	Die Fährte des Drachen	Daniel Leistner	Freie Werkbühne
1992	Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung	Christian Dietrich Grabbe	Freie Werkbühne
1993	Amphitryon	Heinrich von Kleist	Freie Werkbühne
1994	Faust I	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Open-air, Zeughaushof of the Rosenberg Fortress
1998	Das Silvester-Konzertchen		Revue; Kronacher Kunstverein
1999	Die Jahrtausendwende – Revue		Kronacher Kunstverein
2000	Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung	Christian Dietrich Grabbe	Kronacher Kunstverein
2001	König Hans, der Glückliche	Luc Bahl	Kronacher Kunstverein
2001	Frühere Verhältnisse	Johann Nestroy	Historisches Rathaus, Kronach
2002	Lysistrate	Aristophanes	Lysistrata
2003	Die Schweden vor Kronach	Andreas Bauer
2003	Lucas Cranach – Der Sündermaler	Andreas Bauer	About Lucas Cranach the Elder
2003	1000 Jahre Kronach – Der Rückblick		Revue
2004	Der Heiratsantrag and Der Bär	Anton Chekhov	A Marriage Proposal and The Bear
2005	Der Rehbock	August von Kotzebue
2006	Figaro und die Schuld der Mutter	Beaumarchais	The Guilty Mother
2008	Loriots dramatische Werke	Loriot	Sketch evening
2009	Der Neffe als Onkel	Friedrich Schiller
2010	Miles Gloriosus – Der Prahlhans	Plautus	Miles Gloriosus
2011	Der Wirrwarr	August von Kotzebue
2012	Die keusche Witwe	Lope de Vega
2013	Leonce und Lena	Georg Büchner	Leonce and Lena
2014	Himmelwärts	Ödön von Horváth
2016	Die Hammelkomödie oder Der honigsüße Anwalt Herr Peter Patelin		Dreefs, Marktrodach
2017	Charlys Tante	Daniel Leistner after Brandon Thomas	Marktrodach; Charley's Aunt
2018	Im weißen Rössl	Oskar Blumenthal	Marktrodach; The White Horse Inn
2019	Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung … oder … In der Hölle wird gescheuert!	Christian Dietrich Grabbe	Marktrodach
2022	Die kleinen Verwandten, Das Säuglingsheim and Gelähmte Schwingen	Ludwig Thoma	Three one-act plays; Studiobühne of the Kreiskulturraum, Kronach
2023	Der Pottensteiner Teufelspakt	Daniel Leistner	Staged reading; Studiobühne of the Kreiskulturraum
2025	Ritter Unkenstein	Karl Valentin	Staged reading; Karibik-Bar, Kronach
2025	Faust I	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	30th anniversary of the Faust-Festspiele; Kühnlenzpassage, Kronach

Organisation

The Werkbühne and the Faust-Festspiele share their origins and their artistic director: Daniel Leistner, intendant of the Faust-Festspiele since 1995, also leads the Werkbühne. After 2015 the festival moved to Pegnitz and, from 2022, to the Schüttersmühle in the Klumpertal near Pottenstein.

Awards

In 1990 the student theatre Freie Werkbühne Kronach, from which the present ensemble descends, received the Kulturförderpreis des Landkreises Kronach.