Mole’s Star
based on the children’s book by Britta Teckentrup
puppet theatre for 3 year olds and older | first release | duration: 40 minutes
Director: Julia Sontag
Stage design, puppets and costumes: Betty Wirtz
Music composition and sound: Katharina Lattke
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Maurice Voß
A story of light and darkness, of stars and sparkling
The little mole has his home deep underground. But sometimes he is quite lonely on his own in the dark. Then, when he stretches his head once again up to the night sky and wistfully admires the twinkling stars, he wishes that they were all his. Indeed, his wish comes true, and all the stars of the night now shine in his home. How beautiful! But outside the sky is suddenly as dark as a raven’s wing, the night is pitch-black, and all the other animals of the forest cannot see anything anymore. There are no more stars to show them where to go. What to do about it? Whose stars are they anyway? For whom do they shine? For one on his own or for all?
Performance rights: Britta Teckentrup c/o United Agents LLP, London
Tom Thumb
based on the Grimm fairy tale
puppet theatre for 4 year olds and older | Duration: 45 minutes
Director: Tomas Mielentz
Complete set design: Nadine Wottke
Cast: Paul Günther
A small boy on a great journey
A man and a woman desperately want a child, even if it is only as small as a thumb. Their wish comes true, after seven months they have a son who is indeed only the size of a thumb, but very clever and wise. He can sit on the brim of a hat and can steer a cart by whispering in the ear of a horse. He lets his poor father sell him for a lot of gold, knowing full well that his ingenuity will enable him to return home. But before that happens, Tom Thumb disappears into a mouse hole, he chases away thieves, ends up in the stomach of a cow and is even gobbled up by a wolf. However, everything turns out all right in the end.
Rumpelstiltskin
based on the Grimm fairy tale | adapted for the stage by Susanne Koschig
puppet theatre for 4 year olds and older | duration: 50 minutes
Director: Susanne Koschig
Stage design, puppets and costumes: Bärbel Haage
Music: Udo Hemmann
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Tomas Mielentz
From a mill to millions
"My daughter can spin straw into gold!" boasts the miller and thereby causes serious problems for her. Greedy for gold, the king believes the miller, and threatens the daughter with death if she does not perform this feat for him. An imp secretly offers to help her. Thereby he not only saves her life but also provides her with wealth and happiness. However she is at risk of losing everything when the imp demands the payment she promised: the baby of the miller’s daughter, who has now become queen. She may only keep her child if she can guess the name of the imp.
Four Tales of Heaven and Earth
Legends and tales from France, Greenland, Russia and North America | first release
puppet theatre for 5 year olds and older | duration: 70 minutes
„A Stone Soup” by the French writer Anaïs Vaugelade - translated into German by Tobias Scheffel
„The Bone Woman” based an Inuit fairy tale
„The Slender Birch Tree” based on a Russian fairy tale
„The Golden Cranes” based on a Native American legend
Director: Martin Vogel
Set design, puppets und costumes: Nadine Wottke
Music and sound: Andres Böhmer
Cast: Kathrin Blüchert / Karoline Vogel, Paul Günther, Tomas Mielentz, Maurice Voß
Four stories. Four puppeteers. Four tales from the four cardinal points tell us about happenings between heaven and earth. About an old man, who is given firewood and gold by a slender birch tree; about cranes, who yearn for a journey to the far south; about a young fisherman, who finds a skeleton in the cold Arctic Ocean and about a stone, which provides the animals with a sociable evening. Four mini-plays about stones and bones, about feathers and wood. They are about people and animals, about freedom and greed, but above all, about the wonderful power of love and community.
Performance rights „A Stone Soup“: SACD, Paris/Frankreich, German translation „Steinsuppe“: Moritz Verlag, Frankfurt/M.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen | adapted for the stage by Tomas Mielentz
puppet theatre for 6 year olds and older | duration: 40 minutes
Director: Tomas Mielentz
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Nadine Wottke
Music and sound: Philipp Hiemann
Choreographic advice: Stefan Kirmse
Internship: Antonia Fohmann
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Melissa Stock (Student of Contemporary Puppetry at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts)
The wonderful world of living toys
An old kiosk full of wondrous things is home to twenty-five toy soldiers looking exactly like each other. Only the last one is different. He is missing a leg. But he is just as steadfast and brave as his brothers. He falls in love with the enchanting little toy-dancer who, just like him, stands on just one leg. But there is someone interfering. Or was it a gust of wind that blew the brave tin soldier off the window sill and down into the street? An exciting odyssey begins: the tin soldier rides through the gutter in a paper boat, meets a water rat and is swallowed by a fish. Will he ever see his beloved dancer again?
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
based on E.T.A. Hoffmann, with music by Peter Tchaikovsky
puppet theatre for 8 year olds and older | Duration: 55 minutes
Director: Christian Georg Fuchs
Stage design and costumes: Mila van Daag
Marionettes: Peter Lutz
Stage decoration and objects: Studio Theater Waidspeicher
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Tomas Mielentz
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikowsky: The Nutcracker. Ballet in two acts, Op. 71. Russian National Orchestra. Mikhail Pletnev. 2011 Ondine Oy, Helsinki.
The fantastic story of the Nutcracker who defeats the Mouse King
On Christmas Eve, Marie finds a special present under the Christmas tree. A nutcracker that comes to life in the night and protects Marie from the evil seven-headed Mouse King. But no one believes the girl's nocturnal experiences, except for the godfather Drosselmeier, who knows the secret of the Nutcracker and how to redeem him.
Hoffmann's famous, more than 200-year-old fantastic tale about nocturnal adventures, living toys, dramatic fights and a journey into the wondrous realm of dolls is told with ballet music by Peter Tchaikovsky.
Pinocchio
based on Carlo Collodi | adapted for the stage by Frank Alexander Engel
puppet theatre for 8 year olds and older | duration: 65 minutes
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Music and sound: Sebastian Herzfeld
Cast: Heinrich Bennke, Tomas Mielentz
The adventures of the famous wooden puppet in the conflict between duty and disposition
The woodcarver Geppetto creates a puppet from a piece of wood – it is to be his son Pinocchio. However Pinocchio does not stay at home with his father, but runs away. Disregarding all warnings and full of curiosity and hunger for life, he hurls himself at the temptations of the wide world. For isn’t it much more exciting to go to the puppet theatre, than to sit around at school? Without knowing the world, Pinocchio becomes a plaything between good and evil. He falls for false promises and becomes entangled in tall tales. After his many adventures, will he finally succeed in becoming a real boy?
The realization of this production is supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.
Gold Power Love Death – The Song of the Nibelungs
narrated by Frank Alexander Engel based on various sources of the medieval saga | puppet theatre for 12 year olds and older | duration: 80 minutes
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Make-up: Nadine Wottke
Music and sound: Sebastian Herzfeld
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Melissa Stock*, Heinrich Bennke, Tomas Mielentz
*Student of Contemporary Puppetry at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts
The old song of love and betrayal, of loyalty and revenge
In the beginning there were gods, giants, dwarfs. And gold. An immense treasure promising wealth and power. But the gold is cursed. It brings no happiness to its human owners. In the end, everyone is dead. All of them? What about Brunhild – the legendary, once invincible, mighty queen from the far north? She is no longer mentioned in the Nibelungenlied after the quarrel with Kriemhild and the murder of Siegfried the dragon-slayer. In our version of the old saga, we tell her story. The story of unrequited love, of betrayal and hatred, of greed for enormous wealth and power, of loyalty and delusion and of a terrible revenge that leads to the downfall of once mighty kingdoms.
Krabat
by Otfried Preußler | adapted for the stage by Susanne Koschig and Matthias Thieme
puppet theatre for 12 year olds and older | Duration: 75 minutes
Director: Matthias Thieme
Stage and puppets: Martin Gobsch
Ravens: Nadine Wottke
Costumes: Coco Ruch
Music and sound: Andres Böhmer
Cast: N.N., Heinrich Bennke, Paul Günther, Tomas Mielentz
Black magic clashes with the power of love
The orphan Krabat gets a job as a miller’s assistant at the mill in Schwarzkollm. Here the master teaches the miller’s trade to him as well as the other apprentices – and additionally they learn the art of black magic. The price of the magic power and living in the mill is high. The mill is under a curse. Sacrifices must be made. At the end of each year one of the boys must die. Krabat decides to stand in the master’s way. But for that he needs the help of a courageous young girl. To save Krabat and to break the curse of the mill, the girl must be prepared to face a life-and-death ordeal.
The realization of this production was supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt and Ingenieurbüro Susann Schwarzenau.
Performance rights: Verlag für Kindertheater Weitendorf, Hamburg
Atlas of Remote Islands
by Judith Schalansky
puppet theatre for 14 year olds and older | duration: 75 minutes
Director: Christian Georg Fuchs
Media stage design: Raphael Köhler and Christian Scheibe / NIVRE Film & Studio GmbH
Puppets: Peter Lutz | Puppet costumes: Gisa Kuhn
Cast: Heinrich Bennke, Paul Günther, Maurice Voß
A journey of exploration to far off places
Thanks to Google maps and photos of the world from outer space, there is nowhere on earth that we cannot picture. Using electronic eyes, we can see almost every island. However, are we really there? Judith Schalansky dedicated her multi-award-winning book to the discovery of the world through maps. She put together reports and stories about faraway islands all over the world, “Islands I have never been to and will never visit”.
In a theatrical journey we travel to twelve of these islands, to far off sites and settings of history and stories. Twelve mini dramas present twelve strange, comical and unusual stories about far-off people and rare animals: a treasure hunter, a bird watcher, a Morna singer, the French emperor Napoleon, a polar explorer, a feminist aviation pioneer, an extinct sea cow.
The realization of this production was supported by Ingenieurbüro Susann Schwarzenau.
Performance rights: Copyright © 2009 by mareverlag, Hamburg
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
based on the novel by Peter Høeg | German stage adaptation by Andreas Harwath
puppet theatre for 16 year olds and older | Duration: 85 minutes
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Music and sound: Sebastian Herzfeld
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Kathrin Blüchert, Paul Günther, Tomas Mielentz, Maurice Voß
The story of a headstrong woman in search of the truth
A young boy falls from the roof of an apartment building in Copenhagen. For the authorities it is an accident, but for Smilla Jaspersen, a scientist who was friends with the boy, the tracks in the snow tell a different story. Like him, Smilla comes from Greenland and has a special feeling for snow and ice. In her search for the boy's murderer, Miss Smilla is confronted with questions about her identity and her own role within a world that is foreign to her.
Peter Høeg's bestseller tells the gripping story of a headstrong woman in search of the truth in a world where the economic exploitation of nature has long since followed its own laws without regard for losses.
Performing rights: Drei Masken Verlag GmbH München (www.dreimaskenverlag.de)
The novel FRÄULEIN SMILLAS GESPÜR FÜR SCHNEE by Peter Hoeg, translated by Monika Wesemann, has been published by Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich.
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakow
translated into German by Thomas Reschke | stage adaptation by Frank Alexander Engel
drama with puppets for 16 year olds and older | duration: 150 minutes (including break)
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Music and sound: Christian Claas
Cast: Kathrin Blüchert, Karoline Vogel, Paul Günther, Tomas Mielentz, Martin Vogel
The Devil is on the loose in Moscow
Mikhail Bulgakow spent twelve years writing his masterpiece, which could only be published after severe censorship in 1966/67. Since then it has enjoyed cult status far beyond Russia’s borders. The Devil personally appears with his assistants and causes chaos in Stalin’s Moscow of the 1930’s. A talking cat rides a tram, bank notes and people disappear in the variety theatre, the chairman of the literary club is missing. An author writes a story about Pontius Pilate and meets the love of his life, Margarita, who becomes a witch and flies over Moscow. Good and evil, God and the Devil, life and death all clash with each other in this Faustian story.
Performance rights: henschel SCHAUSPIEL Theaterverlag Berlin GmbH