On the occasion of Bertolt Brecht's 100th birthday the International Brecht Society is conducting its 10th Symposium under the title: Brecht 100<=>2000 Culture and Politics In These Times. The program focuses both on the future, on Brecht at the threshold of the new millenium, and on the past, on Brecht's position in the context of twentieth-century modernism. The international dialogue of scholars and theater practitioners raises a challenge to pass beyond geographical and political boundaries and to resist the reductionism that characterizes Brecht's creative work either as the product of "exhausted classicism" or the "exploitation of women." Combining the aesthetic and political relevance of his texts and theater practices, we will be addressing Brecht's position in the social developments of the twentieth century, its utopias, contradictions, conflicts, and failures, as well as the perspectives Brecht offers for rethinking the relationship between culture and politics.
The Organizing Committee for the 10th Symposium of the IBS
Siegfried Mews (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA)
John Rouse (University of California, San Diego, USA)
Marc Silberman (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA)
Florian Vaßen (Universität Hannover, Germany)
Greeting from Michael Morley, outgoing IBS president
In his piece earlier this year for the The Guardian, Michael Billington made a reasoned yet emphatic plea for the importance of Brecht for the British theater: much of what he had to say is applicable to theaters and cultures throughout the world. In summing up Brecht as "the enemy of complacency" he surely points to that aspect of Brecht's life and work which needs constantly to be emphasized, and I should like to think that the events at this Symposium to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth-papers, panels, and performances-will all acknowledge this as perhaps his most important legacy. Given his own assertion that he intended to remain unbequem, that is, uncomfortable, it would also be in keeping with this view and Billington's to proceed, as Brecht puts it, to "stir the ghost."
I welcome all participants to the Symposium and invite them, on behalf of the IBS and the Symposium organizing committee, to respond to and assess Brecht's contribution in terms analogous to these:
...So stritten über ihn sich die Gelehrten
Solang er wäre, bliebe er verschwunden
Solang er noch nicht ist, muß er noch werden.
Unless specified, all symposium meeting rooms are in the Price Center complex.
Thursday, 28 May
3:00-5:30 Buses circulate between hotels and Price Center
3:30-4:45 Arrival and Registration [Ballroom Foyer]
5:00-11:00 Van circulates between hotels and Price Center
5:00-6:00 Keynote Address [Ballroom B]
Robert Brustein (American Repertory Theatre; Harvard University)
"Brecht's America and America's Brecht."
6:00-10:00 Van circulates between hotels, Price Center, and theaters
6:30-8:00 Buffet dinner hosted by IBS (no-host bar) [Ballroom A]
7:30-8:00 Bus from Price Center to theaters
8:00-11:00 Video presentations and discussion led by Hans-Thies Lehmann and Susanne Winnacker (Universität Frankfurt)
9:45-11:15 Buses circulate between theaters, Price Center and hotels
Alternate events (all starting at 8:00pm)
Happy Birthday, Brecht (directed by Di Trevis, London; guest production from the University of California, Davis)
[Forum Studio Theater]
Nora, by Ingmar Bergman, adapted from Ibsen's A Doll's House (directed by Les Waters; La Jolla Playhouse)
[Mandell Weiss Theater]
Spring Awakening: A Radical Distillation, adapted from Wedekind (directed by Anne Kauffman; MFA Program, UCSD)
[Bldg. 409 Small]
Friday, 29 May
8:00-9:30 Buses circulate between hotels and Price Center
8:00-9:00 Coffee and Refreshments [Library Lounge]
8:00-2:30 [Library Lounge]
Registration and Information table
Book Exhibit, Courtesy of the German Book Office
9:00-10:30 (4 parallel sessions)
1. Hanns Eisler Centenary Session [San Francisco/Santa Cruz room]
Moderator/Respondent: David Robinson (Georgia Southern University)
Joachim Lucchesi (Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule Berlin) "Eure Arbeit war glücklich"? Die Musik zur Maßnahme
Albrecht Betz (Germanistisches Institut der RWTH Aachen) Eisler-Brecht-Adorno.
Musik-Film-Kulturindustrie
David Blake (University of York) Hanns Eisler as Teacher
2. The Alienation-Effect: Sources and Consequences [Gallery B]
Moderator/Respondent: Wendy Arons (University of California, San Diego)
Mary Louise Hill (Syracuse University) The Radio as an Apparatus of (Feminist) Communication
Jonathan Kalb (Hunter College, City University of New York) Müller and Brecht: "Das Vaterbild ist das Verhängnis"
Juliet Koss (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Brecht and Russian Estrangement
3. Theater-Politik [Santa Barbara/Los Angeles room]
Moderator/Respondent: Gerhard Fischer (University of New South Wales)
Ralf Simon (Germanistisches Seminar Bonn) Zur poetischen Anthropologie der Komödie in Brechts Messingkauf
Marianne Streisand (Humboldt Universität Berlin) Brecht und das "Politische"
Petra Stuber (Universität Leipzig) Der Gast, der blieb
4. Poetry I [Gallery A]
Moderator/Respondent: Siegfried Mews (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Ehrhard Bahr (University of California, Los Angeles) Los Angeles in Brecht's California Exile Poetry: Hell or Haven?
Tom Kuhn (St. Hugh's College, Oxford) From Ovid to Brecht: Topoi of Poetic Banishment
Vera Stegmann (Lehigh University) Bertolt Brecht and Pablo Neruda: Poetry and Politics
10:30-11:00 Coffee and Refreshments [Library Lounge]
10:30-2:30 Van available on demand for transport to hotels; inquire at registration table
11:00-12:30 (4 parallel sessions)
5. Recent Brecht Productions [San Francisco/Santa Cruz room]
Moderator/Respondent: Jim Carmody (University of California, San Diego)
Marna King (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Puntila as a Site for Alienation and Despair
Susanne Winnacker (Universität Frankfurt) Brecht's Maßnahme 1997
Maarten van Dijk (University of Waterloo) Brecht and Postmodern Shakespeare Scenography
6. Gestus [Gallery A]
Moderator/Respondent: Joachim Fiebach (Humboldt Universität Berlin)
Robert Cohen (New York University) Brecht's Fear and Misery of the Third Reich and the Status of the Gestus
Hans-Thies Lehmann (Universität Frankfurt) Fabula docet / Diskretion des Sinns: Zum Konzept der Fabel bei Brecht
Patrice Pavis (Université de Paris 8, Vincennes) Brecht's Notion of Gestus in the Light of Contemporary Theory and Productions
7. Poetry II [Gallery B]
Moderator/Respondent: Hans Peter Herrmann (Universität Freiburg)
Anna Campanile (Università degli Studi di Pavia) Schönes Musizieren. Vergleichende Anmerkungen zu Brechts und Benns Lyrik
Albrecht Kloepfer (University of Tokyo) Brechts Aufsatz "Über reimlose Lyrik mit unregelmässigen Rhythmen" im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ästhetik und Realpolitik
Karen Leeder (New College, Oxford) "BBs spät gedenkend": Revisionen der Nachgeborenen
8. Brecht in Latin America [Santa Barbara/Los Angeles room]
Moderator/Respondent: Lorena B. Ellis (Queensborough Community College, City University of New York)
Vilma Botrel Coutinho de Melo (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte) Mr. Keuner in the Country of Soap Operas
Sara Joffré (Callao, Perú) Bertolt Brecht in Perú
Adam Versényi (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) Myopic or Multifaceted? Latin American Theater Through the Brechtian Lens
Lunch Break 12:30-1:30
1:30-5:00 Brecht films [Gallery B]
1) Life of Galileo (stage production by Joseph Losey at the Coronet Theatre, 1947, with Charles Laughton, 30 min.)
2) Die Mutter (stage production by Manfred Wekwerth at the Berliner Ensemble, 1958, 147 min.)
1:15-2:45 Video screening, [Gallery A]
Im Visier des FBI: Deutsche Autoren im US-Exil (Johannes Eglau and Alexander Stephan, 1995, 60 min.), introduced by Alexander Stephan.
1:15-2:45 The Electronic Brecht [Santa Barbara/Los Angeles Room]
Jutta Landa (University of California, Los Angeles) Brecht's Threepenny Opera as Performance Text: A CD-Rom Presentation
Marc Silberman (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Life of Galileo on CD-Rom: The Beta Version
Kerry Cox (University of Wisconsin, Madison) The Internet Brecht Website
2:30-4:30 Van available on demand for transport to hotels. Ask someone wearing a colored name tag.
3:00-4:15 PLENARY I: Theater Directors on Brecht [Theater]
Moderator: Michael Morley (Flinders University)
Robert Brustein (American Repertory Theatre; Harvard University)
Saul Elkin (State University of New York, Buffalo)
Walt Jones (University of California, San Diego)
Di Trevis (London, United Kingdom)
Les Waters (University of California, San Diego)
4:30-5:45 PLENARY II: The Berliner Ensemble, Then and Now [Theater]
Moderator: John Rouse (University of California, San Diego)
Michael P. Hamburger (freelance dramaturg and translator, Berlin)
Klaus Völker (Hochschule für Schauspiel Ernst Busch Berlin)
Carl Weber (Stanford University)
5:45 Buses from Price Center to hotels
Dinner Break 6:00-7:30
7:30 Buses from hotels to theaters
8:00 Happy Birthday, Brecht (directed by Di Trevis, London; guest production from the University of California, Davis)
[Forum Studio Theater]
Closed performance for IBS Symposium participants. Followed by a discussion with the company.
Alternate events (all at 8:00pm)
Nora, by Ingmar Bergman, adapted from Ibsen's A Doll's House (directed by Les Waters; La Jolla Playhouse)
[Mandell Weiss Theater]
Spring Awakening: A Radical Distillation, adapted from Wedekind (directed by Anne Kauffman; MFA Program, UCSD)
[Bldg. 409 Small]
9:45-11:30 Buses return participants to their hotels after the various performances.
Saturday, 30 May
8:00-9:00 Coffee and Refreshments [Library Lounge]
8:00-9:30 Buses circulate between hotels and Price Center
8:00-2:30 [Library Lounge]
Registration and Information table
Book Exhibit, Courtesy of the German Book Office
9:00-10:30 (4 parallel sessions)
9. Brecht and Music [Gallery A]
Moderator/Respondent: Maarten van Dijk (University of Waterloo)
Peter W. Ferran (Rochester Institute of Technology) The Guide's Gestical Aria in The Exception and the Rule
April Seager (Washington University) The Trial of Lucullus in America: The Conversion of Brecht's Radio Play to Opera
Simon Williams (University of California, Santa Barbara) Wagner through the Eyes of the Enemy
10. Teaching Brecht in North America-A Special Session [Santa Barbara/Los Angeles room]
David Blostein (University of Toronto) Class and Classroom
Volker Gransow (York University) Communicating Brecht and Brechtian Communication
Pia Kleber (University of Toronto) Brecht, Truth, and Videotape
Peter Harris (University of Toronto) Bourgeois and Brechtian Wedding Banquets
11. Theorie und Praxis: Die zwanziger Jahre [Gallery B]
Moderator/Respondent: Robert Cohen (New York University)
Karl-Heinz Schoeps (University of Illinois, Urbana) Das Lehrstück nach dem letzten Erdbeben
Hans-Jörg Knobloch (Rand Afrikaans University) Der frühe Brecht: Dialektisches Denken oder Ratlosigkeit?
Nikolaus Müller-Schöll (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) Theater im Text der Theorie: Zur rhetorischen Subversion der "Lehre" in Brechts theoretischen Schriften
12. Das Lehrstück [San Francisco/Santa Cruz room]
Moderator/Respondent: Inge Gellert (Berlin, Germany)
Gerd Koch (Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule Berlin) Lehrstück und sozialistisches Lehrspiel. Ein Vergleich zwischen Hendrik de Man und Bertolt Brecht
Patrick Primavesi (Universität Frankfurt) Apparat ohne Zuschauer? Zur Durchquerung der Medien in Brechts Lehrstück vom Ozeanflug
William Rasch (Indiana University) Theories of the Partisan: Brecht, Carl Schmitt, and Revolutionary Politics
10:30-11:00 Coffee and Refreshments [Library Lounge]
10:30-2:30 Van available on demand for transport to hotels; inquire at registration table
11:00-12:30 (4 parallel sessions)
13. Mother Courage in America [Santa Barbara/Los Angeles room]
Moderator/Respondent: Tom Markus (University of Utah)
Robert Potter (University of California, Santa Barbara) Writing Mother Courage
Peter Lackner (University of California, Santa Barbara) Mother Courage at UCSB: Directing Robert Potter's "American Civil War Adaptation" in 1998
Michael Addison (Boonville, California) Great Actress, Big Wagon, Little Stage: Mother Courage in San Diego
14. Brecht in the United States [Gallery A]
Moderator/Respondent: Ralf Remshardt (University of Florida, Gainesville)
Peter Höyng (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) George Tabori's Brecht on Brecht: A Success Story
Michael Kater (York University) Brecht and Weill in the United States: A Complicated Relationship
James K. Lyon (Brigham Young University) Brecht and Holocaust Literature
15. Statik-Körper-Standbilder [San Francisco/Santa Cruz room]
Moderator/Respondent: Florian Vaßen (Universität Hannover)
Ingrid Dormien Koudela (Universidade de São Paolo) Die Utopie des epischen Theaters: Ein Theater der Zukunft?
Sigrid Thielking (Universität GH Essen) "L'Homme statue"? Brechts Inschriften im Kontext von Denkmalsdiskurs und Erinnerungspolitik
Erdmut Wizisla (Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv) Der Zaunpfahl als legitimes Instrument ästhetischer Veranstaltungen. Brecht und Frisch: Theater und Architektur
16. New Theories [Gallery B]
Moderator/Respondent: Susanne Winnacker (Universität Frankfurt)
Teresa Ritterhoff (Northwestern University) "The Gesture is the Mother of the Dialectic": Brecht's The Mother and the Pre-Oedipal Stage
Antony Tatlow (University of Dublin) Ghosts in the House of Theory: Brecht and the Unconscious
Judith Wilke (J. W. Goethe Universität Frankfurt) "Der Denkende jongliert mit seinem Haar." Figuren der Reflexion in Fatzer und Aus Nichts wird Nichts
Lunch Break 12:30-1:30
1:30-5:00 Brecht films [San Francisco/Santa Cruz room]
2:30-4:30 PLENARY III [Theater]
Film Screening: Liebe, Revolution und andere gefährliche Sachen (Jutta Brückner, 1998, 90 min., with English subtitles), followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.
4:30-5:30 Buses circulate between Price Center and hotels
5:30 Buses leave to take participants to Gaslamp district
Dinner 6:00-7:30 Gaslamp District (dinner on your own)
8:00-11:00 Culture Clash in Bordertown; the Culture Clash company, directed by Sam Woodhouse San Diego Repertory Theatre.
Followed by a discussion with Culture Clash.
11:00 Buses leave to take participants back to hotels
Alternate events (all at 8:00pm)
7:15-8:00 Bus circulates from hotels to theaters
Happy Birthday, Brecht (directed by Di Trevis, London; guest production from the University of California, Davis)
[Forum Studio Theater]
Nora, by Ingmar Bergman, adapted from Ibsen's A Doll's House (directed by Les Waters; La Jolla Playhouse)
[Mandell Weiss Theater]
Spring Awakening: A Radical Distillation, adapted from Wedekind (directed by Anne Kauffman; MFA Program, UCSD)
[409 Small Studio Theater]
9:45-10:30 Bus returns participants to hotels after each production
Sunday, 31 May
8:30am-7:30pm Bus excursion to Los Angeles
11:30-1:00 Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades (the Feuchtwanger House), lunch and reading by Fredric Jameson
(Duke University)
1:30-4:30 Guided bus tour of historical sites in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood by Cornelius Schnauber
(University of Southern California)
For those not busing to Los Angeles
Maps will be provided with bus routes to San Diego beaches, downtown San Diego, and Balboa Park (Museums and Zoo)
1:00 & 4:00 Performances by the the Fern Street Circus, outdoors at the corner of Park Boulevard and President's Way, Balboa Park. (John Highkin, Artistic Director of the Fern Street Circus, was a Hospizient at the Berliner Ensemble in the 1980s; also a musician, he has performed the music
of and written a play about Hanns Eisler.)
2:00 & 7:00 Nora, by Ingmar Bergman, adapted from Ibsen's A Doll's House (directed by Les Waters; La Jolla Playhouse)
[Mandell Weiss Theater]
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Site created: January 15, 1997.