Alumni at Bremer shakespeare company on March 3, 2016

A look behind the scenes: As guests in the bremer shakespeare company

At the beginning of March we visited the bremer shakespeare company (bsc) and had the chance to take an exclusive look behind the scenes of the theatre. The idea to visit the theatre came from former rector Prof. Dr. Wilfried Müller, who announced his pride about the independent alumni association at the beginning of the event: "Especially because of the new name we can no longer be seen as an 'Indian feather' on the rector's hat". Our First Deputy Chairman Michael Wolff also welcomed all alumni who attended and wished them a lot of fun.

Behind the curtain

Annette Ruppelt is responsible for public relations at the bsc. She guided us through the premises of the theatre, which was founded in 1983. The original venue was Böttcherstraße, in 1989 the company moved to Leibnizplatz in Neustadt and has celebrated its success there ever since. While we visited the stage scenery, browsed through the costume collection and looked over the team's shoulders behind the stage, Anette Ruppelt told us about the development of the bsc. "Unfortunately, theatre is no longer as important today as it was 20 years ago. Culturally there is now a more diverse offer, so we have to fight for every ticket sale," she explained.

Actors speak

That evening we took a look at theatre life: for example, the actors  don't have the necessary "performance" without the right shoes. A curse of the theatre is to make what was once played repeatable. After the tour we met the actor Peter Lüchinger in the "Falstaff" for a get-together. He replied to our question what he thinks about Bremen theatre critics: "Critics have no job in the theatre - they don't know what we do!" Instead of complaining, they should let themselves be inspired by the new interpretations, because theatre means above all joy and preoccupation with themselves.

Alumni conclusion

For the following performance of "Macbeth", which was attended by some of the alumni themselves, the actor had to go directly behind the stage after our round of talks. Until the beginning of the performance, the alumni were still sitting together for snacks and drinks and already drew their first conclusions: the bsc was particularly pleased that it was not so formal. "This is just where I like to go. All in all, I think the alumni events are great," said an alumna from the group. We would like to thank the bsc and our alumnus Wilfried Müller for the successful evening!