The event, where for once the focus was not on an business topic or even on a business leader, was met with keen interest. The limited number of places available due to the Covid requirements was fully booked as soon as the event was announced. The program promised a look behind the scenes of the Schauspielhaus, crowned by a visit to a true theater classic – the play «Besuch der alten Dame».

On this evening in February, 20 people gathered in the foyer of the historic Pfauen Theater. Barbara Higgs, Head of Fundraising & Development and Member of the Management of the Schauspielhaus, welcomed the interested Alumni and led them “back-stage” to the side stage of the theater hall. Here – in the midst of props and technology – Higgs introduced the participants to the inherent secrets of making theater. How is a production created? What criteria are used to assign roles? How is the stage set created? Barbara Higgs answered these and many other questions in detail before leading the visitors onto the main stage. This unique and unusual view, directly from the stage into the still empty auditorium, impressed all participants equally.

After the obligatory group picture, there was still time for the introduction of the play that was on the agenda later in the evening: “The Visit of the Old Lady”. After the refresher on the classic by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, the group fortified itself with an apéro-riche in the neighboring restaurant and used the time for a lively exchange.

Then at 8 p.m. the curtain rose. A good two hours of theater followed, in which the visitors were confronted with questions about justice and revenge and left with the question of how a victim can become a perpetrator. The performance of the two actors Ziółkowska and Rudolph, who played all 35 characters themselves, was particularly impressive. Full of new impressions from the visit to the institution and the production, the 20 alumnae and alumni left late in the evening and are already looking forward to upcoming cultural highlights.

Text and photos: Gabriela Ursprung