Host: Nic Leonhardt

Speakers: Nic Leonhardt (Host), Rebecca Sturm (theatre researcher, guest)

Exactly sixty years ago, on 13 August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected. It was not just any architectural structure, but was specifically intended to seal off the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the western part of the city of Berlin and the surrounding areas. The Wall was 167.8 km long –a stone wall of ideological, political and mental historical significance for the people on both sides of the Wall. Sixty years have passed since the Wall was built; it lasted 28 years. And although it fell in 1989, it has not lost its symbolic weight to this day.

In this episode of the Theatrescapes podcast, I talk to the young theatre historian Rebecca Sturm about the consequences of the building of the Wall for theatre in Berlin and in West and East Germany in the period after 1961.

Rebecca Sturm studied theatre studies at the LMU Munich and has been a research assistant in the ERC project Developing Theatre. Building Expert Networks for Theatre in Emerging Countries after 1945 (GA No. 694559) since 2016. Her PhD project examines the role of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) during the Cold War. Founded in 1948 under the umbrella of UNESCO), the ITI's aim from the beginning was to create a worldwide network of theatre professionals and to promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding. In her project, Rebecca Sturm particularly focuses on the two parts of Germany, East and West, which both became member states of the ITI in the 1950s.

About this episode:

The interviewees in this episode are theatre makers and theatre researchers Clara de Andrade and Gustavo Guenzburger from Rio, Brazil. The Centre for Global Theatre History has a long-standing relationship with the couple and UNIRIO. In early 2020, Clara and Gustavo were Visiting Fellows of the Centre and of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project "Developing Theatre" (GA No. 694559) at the Institute of Theatre Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. When they were about to return in March, the pandemic broke out...

In conversation with Theatrescapes host Nic Leonhardt, Clara and Gustavo talk about the challenges COVID-19 as well the political situation in Brazil have brought to both their practical and academic work since then.

The guests:

Clara de Andrade is a Brazilian actor, singer, teacher and researcher in Theatre Arts. Her main field of research is the transnational networks of the Theatre of the Oppressed and Theatre for Development. She has been working and researching at institutions such as UNIRIO, Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3) and was Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Global Theatre Histories & Developing Theatre Project at LMU Munich.

Gustavo Guenzburger is a Brazilian artist, activist, teacher and researcher in Theatre Arts. His main field of interest are transnationality and modes of production in theatre. He has been teaching and researching at institutions such as UNIRIO, UERJ, Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3) and was Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Global Theatre Histories & Developing Theatre Project at LMU Munich.

In this episode, Nic Leonhardt, theatre scholar and host of Theatrescapes, introduces into the programme and agenda of the new podcast.

About the host: Nic Leonhardt is a theatre scholar and senior lecturer in theatre studies at LMU Munich. Her research focuses on theatre history of the nineteenth and twentieth century and is strongly interdisciplinary and transnational in approach. Since 2016 she has been the senior researcher and associate director of the European Research Council project “Developing Theatre” at LMU Munich, as well as director of the Centre for Global Theatre History.