Newsletter Winter 2011

Autumn has passed quickly. After die opening of „La battaglia di Constantinopel“ at the Museum of Fine Arts in  Vienna and the Music Theatre „Oskar Serti goes to the Concert. Why?“ which had more than 1600 spectators at its world premiere at the Vienna Concert House, I have been teaching Mask Theatre  at the Bavarian Academy of Theatre in Munich and travelled to Budapest due to an initiative that you will encounter a little later.

I wish you a very happy and romantic christmas!

The painting is by Picasso and is called „The Family oft he acrobate“ from 1905.

 

On the 1. February 2012 the "New Theatre" in Budapest will be transferred to two new directors, both very famous hungarian right wing leaders. This is the reason why C. Bernd Sucher, Gaby Welker, many theatre directors, actors, the Munich Film Academy, the Bavarian Theatre Academy, the Conservatory of Vienna and me started an European initative to protest against the rising intolerance in Europe.

 

I wrote a memorandum, which had aleady been preseted and read at a press conference last Wednesday in Budapest. The next day the hungarian press reported about it and in the afternoon the Mayor of Budapest renounced the nomination of one of the Neo Nazi directors as theatredirector oft he „New Theatre“ in Budapest. A first small success.

Nevertheless, on the 1.2.2012 before every theatre performance in Europe one actor should read the following memorandum, holding a key in his or her hand to symbolize their intention to open the heart of the public.

We ask as many theatres as possible to participate in this initiative.

 

Memorandum

I am reading a memorandum that will be read today in most theatres across Europe in the local language prior to the performance:

Today is February 1, 2012. Today in Budapest, one of the most important theatres in the city is being handed over to two new directors who have publicly espoused right-wing views for many years. They publish inflammatory pamphlets that are anti-Semitic, anti-Romani and racist. Starting today they will be the directors of a publicly subsidised theatre in a European capital. 
Their appointment breaks a taboo.

Instead of taking this breach as an opportunity to condemn Budapest, we should commit ourselves in our own country and lives to tolerance, diversity and solidarity for the weaker members of our society.
We are dismayed that political forces are at work in many European countries stirring up hatred, contempt and envy between people. Our intention with our theatre work is to overcome the divisive factors in our societies, to spark curiosity and to sharpen people’s senses for social truths – for the common good of all people, for peace and freedom in Europe. After all, we human beings are all free and equal in dignity and in rights; we are all citizens of one and the same world.
Today is February 1, 2012. Let us join together today to celebrate the first “European Theatre Day for Tolerance.”

 

You also find this memorandum on my homepage in German. More languages will follow.

 

https://kupferblum.com/news/3316/First_European_Theatre_Day_of_Tolerance

 

Right after christmas, on the 28.12.2011 at 18h, we will perform „Oskar Serti goes to the concert. Why?“ at the Philharmonie Cologne in Germany - after Vienna and Luxemburg. There are some tickets left.

 

Beginning of January I will be Artist in Residence at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York and will hold a lecture about the Estethics oft he opera in the next decennium and the reality of independent operas in Europe on 11.1.2012. This lecture will be followed by a discussion with representatives of the New York Opera Scene. You are heartly invited.

 

 In the summer term I will be teaching „Writing for stage“ at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. I am really looking forward to this.

Sincerely yours

Markus Kupferblum