German Play
German 304
Kabarett: 1920s in 20/20
In this course, we will “play” in both senses of the word. At the beginning of each class, we will have fun with games and activities in German. During the quarter, we’ll be putting together a cabaret production to perform in the final week of class.
The Golden Twenties are here again! The 1920s were a time of great social upheaval and creative energy in Weimar Germany. Democracy was in crisis. The media were increasingly partisan. Divisions in society were growing more and more extreme. But “die goldenen Zwanziger” were also a time of great hope and one of the most exciting eras for art and music in German history. A particularly popular and influential art form was cabaret theater (Kabarett). Known for political satire, slapstick hijinks, playful music, wild dance, and gallows humor, the cabaret revue shows took many forms, but always aimed for entertainment, innovation, and relevance. Weimar artists were on the vanguard of sexual equality, LGBTQ acceptance, and minority rights. Kabarettisten were savage in their mockery of Nazis and the far right. The huge popularity and critical brilliance of the political humorists, however, could not save democracy in the Weimar Republic or prevent the Nazis from taking power in 1933.
In this course, we’ll watch videos, listen to recordings, and read texts of Weimar-era cabaret from the 1920s before producing our own version for 2020. (Think Saturday Night Live meets vaudeville, but in German!) We’ll also think critically about why the progressive culture (high and low) of Weimar Germany ultimately failed to preserve humanist values, and what parallel risks the 2020s might hold in our own era of rising nationalism, partisanship, and xenophobia.
Objective: to refine and extend your command of the German language by reading scripts, discussing texts, writing sketches, acting out parts, and directing others in scenes. And—most importantly—to have fun while doing it!
Requirements: participation in class discussions and activities; production of sketch; memorization of lines for roles; and preparation for and performance in the final production before a live audience.
Readings and performance in German; discussions in German and English.
Prerequisite: German 103 or equivalent.
No previous acting or stage experience required!