Special Programs

Stanislavski, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Actor Training in Berlin

The spring 2022 study abroad programs are currently planned to run; however, we must remain flexible in our response to changing developments due to COVID-19. The health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff is our first priority.

Create and perform realistic and devised theater. Strengthen and deepen your presence on stage. Craft performances that are intellectually informed, viscerally exciting, and theatrically courageous.

Experience a cosmopolitan city that holds a complex and crucial place in modern European history. Youthful, artistic, and hip, Berlin has traveled a path that led from the defining cultural avant-garde of the Weimar Republic to the devastation of World War II, from a divided city symbolizing the Cold War to today’s reunified and renewed capital.

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Kevin Kuhlke and Molly Johnson on Stanislavski, Brecht and Beyond in Berlin

Program Overview

Stanislavski, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Actor Training in Berlin is a one-semester program in theatre and actor training for advanced drama students. It is offered by NYU Berlin in conjunction with the Tisch Department of Drama, in affiliation with faculty from the world-renowned Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts, and the internationally acclaimed Berlin Schaubuhne.

Two actors facing each other during the class Epic Theatre Scene Showing

Actor presenting a piece during the Epic Theatre Scene Showing

Two actors, facing each other, performing during the Epic Theatre Scene Showing

Actor seated, presenting a piece during the Epic Theatre Scene Showing

Two actors, seated, performing during the Epic Theatre Scene Showing

Image of the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin.

Curriculum

Your semester abroad consists of your core program course and three additional companion courses, completing a full-time, 16-unit semester.

Please Note: Students studying abroad on a Tisch track are not eligible to pursue an internship (except for Theatre in Ghana). Tisch programs do not provide work visas.

Actor Training in Berlin (Core)

THEA-UT 9455 | 8 units

The curriculum will focus on the study and practical application of aspects of German theatre that have made and continue to make a significant contribution to international theatre practice. It includes the integration of the Russian based Stanislavski Method of Physical Actions with Brecht’s Epic Theater, Advanced Realistic scene study, classes with Gob Squad, Brecht scene study, Devised theater, Post Dramatic Theatre, movement, voice and rigorous actor-oriented Dramaturgical research. Students will study the history of 20th Century German Dramatic Literature, Dramatic Theory and Theatrical practice, German language, attend productions in several major theatres and take field trips to other cities in Germany. The program will culminate with workshop performances of several short plays by Brecht.

Students will also participate in the international FIND Festival hosted by Thomas Ostermeier and the Berlin Schaubuhne, for many years the premier theater in Germany. Designed to foster international artistic exchange this festival brings together a select group of international theatre students for ten days. They attend several contemporary professional productions, meet with the directors and participate in a series of master classes led by an international team of major teaching artists including Mr. Ostermeier.

The overall goal of the program is to enable students to create and perform realistic and devised theater that balances full physical and emotional embodiment with critical distance and actively interfaces the dramatic story and the theatrical context. This integrated approach aims to strengthen and deepen their presence on stage and their ability to create performances that are intellectually informed, viscerally exciting, and theatrically courageous.

German Theatre of the 20th Century

THEA-UT 9612 | 4 units

This course examines German theatre of the 20th century, from Expressionism to contemporary postdramatic forms of writing and performance. The course will first offer an overview of German theatre traditions before 1900 and will then engage in analyzing specific developments in German theater starting with Max Reinhardt and his work at the Deutsches Theatre Berlin. Other case studies will focus on Brecht’s epic theatre, theatre during the Third Reich, postwar theatre trends in East and West Germany, and current developments in reunified Germany. Not only will we closely read relevant plays and theory by the theatre makers of the respective periods but we will also explore aesthetics and performance issues as they have changed over time. As the involved practice of dramaturgy in Germany has greatly influenced theatrical developments, we will investigate this major aspect of theatrical work in Germany as a contribution to world theater and study how the extensive debate of ideas is being concretely realized in the theatre through the choices being made in a production. An integral part of the course will include visits to Berlin theatres, attending performances, which we will analyze in class, and engaging in discussion with contemporary theatre makers in Berlin.

German Language

Course Number TBA | 4 units

You will take one of the German language courses offered through NYU Global. Placement is based on your experience.

If you are a non-Tisch NYU student or visiting undergraduate student, please check with your home school advisor on how Tisch study abroad courses will apply to your degree.

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