Helene Weigel listening

According to my friends at that time, the two greatest theaters in the World were The Piccolo Scala in Milan, and The Brecht Theater (Theater am Schiffbauerdamm) in East Berlin.

Since I was in Berlin, I approached Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's widow and a great actress in her own right, who was also the director of the Brecht Theater after Brecht's death. I had no idea what I would be up against in East Germany. But amazingly, Weigel was marvelous. She had lived in the US and at that time lived in the US sector of West Berlin, Dahlem. She was happy to see a young American in Berlin, was enormously friendly, especially impressed by my musical credentials and my use of the Messraster, and anxious to have me do a complete reportage of the theater, which I promptly did.

I was given completely free rein to attend rehearsals and all performances, photographing from the boxes to the side of the stage and from the back of the hall (which was not large) during the performances. Nothing is posed. Everything is with the theater's own stage lighting. I wanted everything to be authentic. I did photos of all their productions at that time.

This sequence of photos is from a "Brecht Evening", which was an evening of poems and songs by Brecht. The performers sat in semi-circle around the stage and listened while they took turns reading or singing. This sequence is exactly in the order as it is on the film while Weigel listened to one poem, read by Gisela May. It is made with an Olympia Sonnar 180mm lens, wide open.

I will also eventually post photos of Weigel reading, and a lot more of the Theater. But this sequence was a great favorite for Weigel's unfettered sensitivity and emotion.

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