Read the Original – The Berliner Ensemble Archive Live

The groundbreaking experiments on Bertolt Brecht’s stage were documented using every available means: on film reels and in photographs, but also in rehearsal books, performance reports, commentaries and reviews, one finds traces of intense, creative theatre practice – from the script through the rehearsal process to the debriefing following each individual performance.

Drawing on these treasures, Constanze Becker, a member of the Academy of Arts and of today’s Berliner Ensemble, and Gabriel Schneider, a member of today’s Berliner Ensemble, bring major productions from the theatre’s past – from *Mother Courage* (1949) to *The Captain of Köpenick* (1989) – back to life.

The staged reading is based on the Berliner Ensemble’s ‘logbooks’, which document all the theatre’s performances and rehearsals.

Thanks to the special programme for the preservation of written cultural heritage, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), these unique sources on theatre history have been preserved.

An event organised in cooperation with the Co-ordination Office for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage (KEK), as part of the 3rd KEK Annual Conference

• Featuring Werner Heegewaldt, Ursula Hartwieg (welcome address), Marieluise Nordahl (lecture), Constanze Becker, Gabriel Schneider (staged reading)