Max Reinhardt | |
|---|---|
 Reinhardt in 1911, photograph byNicola Perscheid | |
| Born | Maximilian Goldmann (1873-09-09)9 September 1873 |
| Died | 30 October 1943(1943-10-30) (aged 70) New York City, US |
| Resting place | Westchester Hills Cemetery |
| Occupation(s) | Theatre director,theatrical producer, actor |
| Spouse(s) | Else Heims (1910–1935; divorced; 2 children) Helene Thimig (1935–1943; his death) |
| Children | Wolfgang Reinhardt Gottfried Reinhardt |
Max Reinhardt (German:[maksˈʁaɪnhaʁt]ⓘ; bornMaximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-borntheatre andfilm director,intendant, andtheatrical producer. With his radically innovative andavant-garde stage productions, Reinhardt is regarded as one of the most prominent stage directors of the early 20th century.
For example, Reinhardt's 1917 stage premiere ofReinhard Sorge'sKleist Prize-winningstage playDer Bettler almost single-handedly gave birth toExpressionism inthe theatre and ultimatelyin motion pictures as well. In 1920, Reinhardt established theSalzburg Festival by directing an open air production ofHugo von Hofmannsthal'sacclaimed adaptation of theEveryman Medievalmystery play in the square before the Cathedral with the Alps as a background. This remains an annual custom at the Salzburg Festival to this day.
Toby Cole andHelen Krich Chinoy have dubbed Reinhardt, "one of the most picturesque actor-directors of modern times", and write that his eventual arrival in the United States as arefugee from the imminentNazi takeover of Austria followed a long and distinguished career, "inspired by the example of social participation in theancient Greek andMedieval theatres", of seeking, "to bridge theseparation between actors and audiences".[1]
In 1935, Reinhardt directed his first and onlymotion picture in theUnited States throughWarner Brothers, theExpressionist film adaptation ofWilliam Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream, starringMickey Rooney,Olivia De Havilland, andJames Cagney. The film was banned by theMinistry of Propaganda in an infamous example ofcensorship in Nazi Germany. This was due not only toJoseph Goebbels' belief that Expressionism wasdegenerate art, but even more so due to theJewish ancestry of director Max Reinhardt,Classical music composerFelix Mendelssohn, and soundtrack arrangerErich Wolfgang Korngold; whose work was already banned by Goebbels as allegedlydegenerate music.[2]
Reinhardt also founded the highly influential drama schoolsHochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" in Berlin,Max Reinhardt Seminar, the Max Reinhardt Workshop (Sunset Boulevard),[3] and the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop. Even though Reinhardt did not live long enough to witness the end ofNazism in 1945, his formerly expropriated estate atSchloss Leopoldskron near Salzburg was restored to his widow and his legacy continues to be celebrated and honoured in the modernGermanosphere for his many radically innovative contributions to theperforming arts.
_Max_Reinhardt.jpg)
Reinhardt was born Maximilian Goldmann in the spa town ofBaden bei Wien, to Jewish parents Rachel Lea Rosi "Rosa" Goldmann and her husband Wilhelm Goldmann, a merchant fromStupava, Slovakia. Having finished school, he began an apprenticeship at a bank, but already took acting lessons.
In 1890, he gave his debut on a private stage in Vienna with the stage nameMax Reinhardt (possibly after the protagonist Reinhard Werner inTheodor Storm's novellaImmensee). In 1893 he performed at the re-openedSalzburg City Theatre.[4] One year later, Reinhardt relocated toGermany, joining theDeutsches Theater ensemble under directorOtto Brahm in Berlin.[5]
Reinhardt was one of the contributors to the Swedish avant-garde theatre magazineThalia between 1910 and 1913.[6] In 1918 Reinhardt purchasedSchloss Leopoldskron castle in Salzburg.[7]
In October 1922 Reinhardt was in the audience whenThe Dybbuk was staged by theVilna Troupe at the Roland Theater in Vienna. Reinhardt rushed backstage and congratulated the actors. At the time he was already recognized in Austria as distinguished theater director.[8] A couple of months before his endorsement forThe Dybbuk, Reinhardt had again successfully stagedJedermann (Everyman) for theSalzburg Festival.[9]
Reinhardt fled due to the Nazis' increasing anti-Semitic aggressions. The castle was seized following Germany'sAnschluss annexation of Austria in 1938. After the war, the castle was restored to Reinhardt's heirs, and subsequently the home and grounds became famous as the filming site for the early scenes of the Von Trapp family gardens in the movieThe Sound of Music.
In 1901, Reinhardt together withFriedrich Kayßler and several other theatre colleagues founded theSchall und Rauch (Sound and Smoke)Kabarett stage in Berlin. Re-opened asKleines Theater (Little Theatre)[10] it was the first of numerous stages where Reinhardt worked as a director until the beginning ofNazi rule in 1933. From 1903 to 1905, he managed the Neues Theater (present-dayTheater am Schiffbauerdamm) and in 1906 acquired the Deutsches[11] Theater in Berlin. In 1911, he premiered withKarl Vollmöller'sThe Miracle inOlympia, London, gaining an international reputation.[3]
In 1910,Siegfried Jacobsohn wrote his book entitledMax Reinhardt. In 1914, he was persuaded to sign theManifesto of the Ninety-Three, defending theGerman invasion of Belgium. He was signatory 66; he later expressed regret at signing.[citation needed]
From 1915 to 1918, Reinhardt also worked as director of theVolksbühne theatre.
On 23 December 1917, Reinhardt presided over theworld premiere ofReinhard Sorge'sKleist Prize-winningstage playDer Bettler, which had long been, "asuccès de scandale, an innovation, changing the course of theatrical history with its revolutionary staging techniques".[12]
According to Michael Paterson, "The genius of the 20-year old Sorge already showed the possibilities of abstract staging, and Reinhardt in 1917, simply by following Sorge's stage directions, was to become the first director to present a play in wholly Expressionist style."[13]
According to Michael Paterson, "The play opens with an ingenious inversion: the Poet and Friend converse in front of a closed curtain, behind which voices can be heard. It appears that we, the audience, are backstage and the voices are those of the imagined audience out front. It is a simple, but disorienting trick of stagecraft, whose imaginative spatial reversal is self-consciously theatrical. So the audience is alerted to the fact that they are about to see a play and not a 'slice of life'."[14]
According to Walter H. Sokel, "The lighting apparatus behaves like the mind. It drowns in darkness what it wishes to forget and bathes in light what it wishes to recall. Thus the entire stage becomes a universe of [the] mind, and the individual scenes are not replicas of three-dimensional physical reality, but visualizes stages of thought."[13][15]
Reinhardt's production of the play, which he had meticulously planned ever since he had purchased the rights from Sorge in 1913, proved enormously popular and productions immediately began to be staged in other German cities, such asCologne. After the 1918 Armistice, newspapers in theGerman language in the United States also published articles highly praising Reinhardt's production of the play, which singlehandedly gave birth to Expressionism in the theatre.[16]
After theNovember Revolution of 1918, Reinhardt re-opened theGroßes Schauspielhaus (afterWorld War II renamed intoFriedrichstadtpalast) in 1919, following itsexpressionist conversion byHans Poelzig.[17][18] By 1930, he ran eleven stages in Berlin and, in addition, managed theTheater in der Josefstadt in Vienna from 1924 to 1933.
In 1920, Reinhardt established theSalzburg Festival withRichard Strauss andHugo von Hofmannsthal,[10] always directing the annual production of Hoffmansthal'sacclaimed adaptation of the Medieval Dutchmorality playEveryman, in which theChristian God sends Death to summon anarchetype of theHuman Race to Judgment Day. In the United States, he successfully directedThe Miracle in 1924, and a popular stage version ofShakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream in 1927.[citation needed]
From the 1910s to the early 1930s, one of Reinhardt's most frequent collaborators was the Swedish-born American composer and conductorEinar Nilson [sv], whom he employed as the music department head of his theaters; during international trips, Nilson would also serve as an advance man for Reinhardt, traveling ahead to the next performance location to audition singers and actors. Reinhardt, moreover, often would utilize existing music by famous composers (for example,Mozart andMendelssohn) for his productions, which Nilson would arrange to meet Reinhardt's needs. Nilson also composed original music, such as the incidental music for Hofmannsthal'sJedermann.[19]
Reinhardt followed that success by directing afilm version ofA Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935 using a mostly different cast, that includedJames Cagney,Mickey Rooney,Joe E. Brown andOlivia de Havilland, amongst others. Rooney and de Havilland had also appeared in Reinhardt's 1934 stage production, which was staged at theHollywood Bowl.[20] The Nazis banned[2] the film because of the Jewish ancestry of both Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn, whose music (arranged byErich Wolfgang Korngold) was used throughout the film.
After theAnschluss of Austria to Nazi-governed Germany in 1938, he emigrated first to Britain, then to the United States. In 1940, he became anaturalized citizen of the United States.[21] At that time, he was married to his second wife, actressHelene Thimig, daughter of actorHugo Thimig and sister of actorsHans andHermann Thimig.[22]
By employing powerfulstaging techniques, and integratingstage design,language,music andchoreography, Reinhardt introduced new dimensions into German theatre. TheMax Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, which is arguably the most important German-language acting school, was installed implementing his ideas.
Reinhardt took a greater interest in film than most of his contemporaries in the theater world. He made films as a director and from time to time also as a producer. His first staging was the filmSumurûn in 1910. After that, Reinhardt founded his own film company. He sold the film rights for thefilm adaptation of the playDas Mirakel (The Miracle) toJoseph Menchen, whose full-colour 1912 film ofThe Miracle gained world-wide success. Controversies around the staging ofDas Mirakel, which was shown in the ViennaRotunde in 1912, led to Reinhardt's retreat from the project. The author of the play, Reinhardt's friend and confidantKarl Gustav Vollmoeller, had French directorMichel Carré finish the shooting.
Reinhardt made two films,Die Insel der Seligen (Isle of the Blessed) andEine venezianische Nacht (Venetian Nights), under a four-picture contract for the German film producerPaul Davidson. Released in 1913 and 1914, respectively, both films received negative reviews from the press and public. The other two films called for in the contract were never made.[23]
Both films demanded much of cameraman Karl Freund because of Reinhardt's special shooting needs, such as filming a lagoon in moonlight.Isle of the Blessed attracted attention due to its erotic nature. Its ancient mythical setting included sea gods, nymphs, and fauns, and the actors appeared naked. However, the film also fit in with the strict customs of the late German and Austrian empires. The actors had to live up to the demands of double roles.Wilhelm Diegelmann andWilly Prager played the bourgeois fathers as well as the sea gods,Ernst Matray [de] a bachelor and a faun,Leopoldine Konstantin theCirce. The shooting forEine venezianische Nacht by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller took place in Venice.Maria Carmi played the bride,Alfred Abel the young stranger, and Ernst Matray Anselmus and Pipistrello. The shooting was disturbed by a fanatic who incited the attendant Venetians against the German-speaking staff.
In 1935, Reinhardt directed his first film in the US,A Midsummer Night's Dream. He founded the drama schoolsHochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" in Berlin,Max Reinhardt Seminar, the Max Reinhardt Workshop (Sunset Boulevard),[3] and the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop.
Max Reinhardt Seminar trainedKurt Kasznar.[24]
Max Reinhardt's Workshop[25][26][27] of Stage, Screen, and Radio (Sunset Boulevard) (Reinhardt School of the Theatre[citation needed]) trainedAnn Savage.[28][29]Joan Barry, andNanette Fabray (Reinhardt School of the Theatre in Hollywood).[30]
Reinhardt won the school,Ben Bard Drama (a playhouse on Wilshire Boulevard), fromBen Bard in a poker game.[31] Reinhardt opened the Reinhardt School of the Theatre in Hollywood, onSunset Boulevard.[3] Several notable stars of the day received classical theater training, among them actressNanette Fabray. Many alumni of these schools made their careers in film.Edward G. Kuster, for two years, was the personal assistant to Reinhardt, taught classes and directed plays. In 1938, Walden Philip Boyle, later, a founding faculty of the Department of Theater Arts at UCLA, worked with theMax Reinhardt Theatre Academy in Hollywood.[32] Students includeAlan Ladd,Jack Carson,Robert Ryan,Gower Champion,Shirley Temple,Angie Dickinson,Frank Bonner,Anthony James,Greg Mullavey,Charlene Tilton, andCliff Robertson In 1943, Reinhardt departed.[31] It later was known asGeller Theatre Workshop,Hollywood School of Acting, andTheatre of Arts Hollywood Acting School.[31]
In 2000, the school,Theatre of Arts, was associated with Campus Hollywood,[33] which included,Musicians Institute, andLos Angeles College of Music. In 2009,James Warwick was appointed president.
Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop trainedMala Powers.[34][35][36]
Reinhardt died of a stroke[37][38] in New York City in 1943 and is interred atWestchester Hills Cemetery inHastings-on-Hudson,Westchester County, New York. He was 70 years old. His papers and literary estate are housed atBinghamton University (SUNY), in the Max Reinhardt Archives and Library.[39] His sons by first wife Else Heims (m. 1910–1935),Wolfgang andGottfried Reinhardt, were well-regarded film producers. One of his grandsons (by adoption),Stephen Reinhardt, was alabor lawyer who served notably on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from his appointment byJimmy Carter in 1980 until his death in 2018. Another grandson,Michael Reinhardt, is a successful fashion photographer. In 2015 his great-granddaughter Jelena Ulrike Reinhardt was appointed as researcher at theUniversity of Perugia inGerman literature.
On 18 November 2015, theFriedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin inaugurated amemorial at Friedrichstraße 107 dedicated to the theatre's founders, Max Reinhardt,Hans Poelzig andErik Charell.[40]
Word comes from Hollywood concerning Marilyn Joyce Teeter, who left Mansfield recently to study theater. At the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop she played the lead. Sadie, inThe Moppet. Marilyn Joyce has appeared at the Knickerbocker Hotel, doing her Spanish dance, and besides making other appearances has several on schedule. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy S. Teeter, 60 Prospect Street.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
