Currents Summer 2020 Vol. 36, No. II | Page 42
THE ENGLISH
THEATER
OF HAMBURG
PLAN B: CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO
2020’s HISTORIC CHALLENGES
BY MARINELL HAEGELIN
Clifford Dean (left) and Robert Rumpf in the English Theatre‘s new home, 1981 © ETH
Plan A: a fairly large theater office with
bookcases lining two walls, a couple
of nicely spaced desks, and a small
seating area in one corner. The English
Theatre’s co-founders, Robert Rumpf
and Clifford Dean, are quietly working,
each absorbed in the task at hand. The
rest of the team is also hard at work.
Time: 19:40ish, Saturday evening, early
March, 2020
The director for the coming play, Dean,
wearily stretches while reading his notes
regarding blocking the action. Having
chosen the dramatic romantic comedy
more than a year ago when planning
the 2019-2020 season, he’s fiddled
with ideas about its execution since
the rights were secured. Launching a
new production is an obstacle course of
challenges and myriad details that only
intensify as the premiere date closes in.
Yet once house lights dim and the magic
begins, everyone’s reminded why they
love theater so much. Now that Apologia
has successfully launched, its director,
Paul Glaser, is working on music for the
spring production, Outside Mullingar.
Rumpf is creating its study material
for students from schools in Hamburg
and surrounding areas. The clock is
ticking. Dean has finalized casting with
Gordon Griffin, their London casting
director these 40-plus years, and the
actors arrive in a couple of weeks; notes
have been sent to Mathias Wardeck for
the Irish-influenced set he’s designing,
and Patricia Royo has good ideas about
costumes. Then the office doorbell
rings, prompting them to close down—
until tomorrow.
Plan B: reinventing the season with
respect to the historic global COVID-19
pandemic; time: the present.
Challenging yes, daunting no, at least
not for Clifford Dean and Robert
Rumpf, who had already realized a
next-to-impossible dream. In 1976,
the two Americans founded a private
professional English-language theater
in Germany’s second-largest city. The
English Theatre of Hamburg opened its
doors at its current venue in 1981 in the
extensively-renovated rooms of the first
floor of Hammonia Bad in Mundsburg,
Hamburg.
Of course there weren’t some 45 other
theaters launching at the same time
then. The general director (Robert
Rumpf), artistic director (Clifford
Dean), and managing director (Paul
Glaser) promptly conferred, and Plan B
was conceived.
With the help of the regular subsidy that
the theater receives from the Ministry
of Culture, the theater will continue
to exist for the foreseeable future.
Landlords for the office and theater
premises have also been helpful in that
they are asking for half of the usual
monthly rent, but this is a temporary
concession. The theater is still waiting
to find out if additional help will come
from the Hamburg Senate.
Streaming plays that have already
been produced at the English Theatre
of Hamburg has the potential to be of
great help. Theater lovers all over the
world (Peru, Australia, New Zealand, the
US, etc.) have already streamed some of
these shows, but the greater the number
of people streaming, the more the
theater will be financially helped.
Streaming a show costs only €3,99 (or
people can buy the “support us” ticket
for €9,99) and anyone can stream from
anywhere in the world. Directions for
streaming can be found on the theater’s
website: www.englishtheatre.de. Any
questions concerning this service can
be directed to [email protected]
With help from the powers that be
in Germany, and with the help and
understanding of individuals both
nationally and internationally, it looks
like the theater will have a future beyond
this plague’s momentous challenges for
humanity. On that note of optimism
and hopefulness, the directors and the
theater’s dedicated permanent staff are
looking forward to season 2020-2021.
That clock never stops ticking, you
know, when you’re in show business.
42 In Hamburg