The heavily-subsidized state theatre system of West Germany is often regarded as a model for emulation by the funding agencies of the English-speaking theatre. Yet the situation of such theatres can give rise to its own problems: and in this case-study of the rehearsals of Fassbinder's Katzelmacher at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, Munich, in 1985. Lynn Sobieski (who was assistant dramaturg on the production) analyzes the resulting personal and artistic conflicts, in the context of a system which encourages a degree of complacency in the bureaucracy, and arguably permits some self-indulgence to the directors – while discouraging those of the first ‘post-war generation’ from giving real opportunities to their successors. Lynn Sobieski is presently teaching in the Department of Drama of the University of Texas at Austin, having recently been awarded her doctorate from New York University for her dissertation on ‘The Crisis in West German Dramaturgy’. Her collection, Postmodernism and Contemporary Performance, will be published later this year, and she is currently working on a study of performance art groups in Britain.
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