Walter D. Asmus (born 1941 in
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
) is a German theatre director.
Career
Asmus studied German and English Literature, Philosophy and Theatre Sciences in Hamburg, Vienna and Freiburg and spent a year in London in the late sixties where he lived in the vibrant Camden Town with the North Villas set. Experience as an actor and director at University drama groups. First publications (Theater heute, Shakespeare yearbook)
After two years as co-director of Theatre in der Tonne (
Reutlingen
Reutlingen (; Swabian: ''Reitlenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it has a population of 115,818.
Reutlingen has a university of applied sciences, which ...
), he worked at the
Schiller Theatre in Berlin as assistant director/
dramaturgical collaborator and director. There he met
Samuel Beckett in 1974 and was assistant for the author's renowned production of "
Waiting for Godot", 1975.
Asmus worked with Samuel Beckett (theatre and television) until the authors death in 1989 (
That Time
''For the song "That Time" by Regina Spektor see Begin to Hope''
''That Time'' is a one-act play by Samuel Beckett, written in English between 8 June 1974 and August 1975. The play was specially written for actor Patrick Magee, who delivered it ...
/
Footfalls
''Footfalls'' is a play by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work ...
/
Play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
/
Come and Go
''Come and Go'' is a short play (described as a "dramaticule" on its title page) by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in January 1965 and first performed (in German) at the Schillertheater, Berlin on 14 January 1966. Its English language ...
/ Waiting for Godot/
...but the clouds.../
Ghost Trio/
Eh Joe
''Eh Joe'' is a piece for television, written in English by Samuel Beckett, his first work for the medium. It was begun on the author's fifty-ninth birthday, 13 April 1965, and completed by 1 May. “It asfollowed by six undated typescripts (nu ...
/
What Where
''What Where'' is Samuel Beckett's last play produced following a request for a new work for the 1983 Autumn Festival in Graz, Austria. It was written between February and March 1983 initially in French as ''Quoi où'' and translated by Beckett ...
).
Since 1976 he was freelance director at the Schiller Theater,
Staatstheater Darmstadt
The Staatstheater Darmstadt (Darmstadt State Theatre) is a theatre company and building in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, presenting opera, ballet, plays and concerts. It is funded by the state of Hesse and the city of Darmstadt. Its history began in ...
,
Staatstheater Kassel,
Thalia Theater,
Theater Freiburg
Theater Freiburg is a theatre in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Freiburg Theatre, sometimes also referred to as Stadttheater Freiburg (Freiburg municipal theatre), formerly Städtische Bühnen (Municipal Stages) Freiburg, is the oldest and bigg ...
and internationally. 1983-1986 he was director at
Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. He was Professor in the acting department at the
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (german: Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, italics=unset, abbreviated to HMTMH) is a university of performing arts and media in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. Dating ...
ufrom 1986ntil he became emeritus in 2006. He was Head of the Department since 1994.
Asmus directed all of Samuel Beckett's plays internationally.
His 1991
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928.
History Beginnings
The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlai ...
(Dublin) production of ''Waiting for Godot'' was revived several times with the same cast until 2008 and had en suite runs at the Gate Theatre. It went on tour to Chicago, Sevilla, Toronto, Melbourne, London, New York (Lincoln Center Festival), Beijing and Shanghai. US-tours in 1998 and 2006. It finished after an all-Ireland tour (32 counties, one night only) on October 3, 2008. This production of ''Waiting for Godot'' (starring
Barry McGovern
Barry McGovern (born 1948) is an Irish stage, film and television actor. He was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin.
Background
McGovern is a former member of the RTÉ Players and the Abbey Theatre Company. He has worked in theatre, film, r ...
,
Johnny Murphy
John Joseph Murphy (July 14, 1908 – January 14, 1970) was an All-Star American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball (1932, 1934–43, 1946–47) who later became a front office executive in the game.
Yankees' relief ace
After ...
,
Alan Stanford
Alan Stanford (born 1949) is an English-Irish actor, director and writer. He has worked in the theatre for many years, including a 30 year association with the Gate Theatre as both actor and director. He is well known for playing George Manning ...
and
Stephen Brennan) was regarded by reviewers and academics alike as "definitive". In 2000 Asmus was Co-director of the international Beckett-Festival "Beckett in Berlin 2000", Berlin.
Selected theatre productions
*1977 ''Happy Days'', Bristol Music Centre Teatret, Copenhagen
*1978 ''Waiting for Godot'',
Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York - ''Endgame'', Bristol Music Centre Teatret, Copenhagen
*1979 ''Rough for Theatre I/II'', (world premiers), Thalia Theatre Hamburg - ''That Time'', ''Not I'', ''Footfalls'', State Theatre Darmstadt
*1981 ''Endgame'', Stary Teatret, Cracow
*1982 ''Krapp's Last Tape'', ''Not I'', ''
Ohio Impromptu'', ''
Rockaby
''Rockaby'' is a short one-woman play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1980, at the request of Daniel Labeille, who produced it on behalf of ''Programs in the Arts'', State University of New York, for a festival and symposium in ...
'',
Betty Nansen Teatret
Betty Nansen Teatret (Betty Nansen Theatre) is a theatre situated on Frederiksberg Allé in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It takes its name from the actress Betty Nansen, who managed it from 1917 until her death in 1943.
Histo ...
, Copenhagen
*1983 ''Waiting for Godot'', State Theatre Karlsruhe
*1984 ''Waiting for Godot'', San Quentin Drama Workshop,
Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the la ...
, Chicago/ Riverside Studios, London, in collaboration with the author
*1988 ''Waiting for Godot'', Gate Theatre, Dublin - ''Endgame'', Theater Freiburg
*1990 ''Waiting for Godot'', Betty Nansen Teatret, Copenhagen
*1991 ''Waiting for Godot“ Gate Theatre, Dublin ''Breath'', ''That Time'', ''A Piece of Monologue'' Betty Nansen Teatret, Copenhagen
*2003 ''Waiting for Godot'', 7Stages, Atlanta
*2004 ''Waiting for Godot'', ''Footfalls'', ''A Piece of Monologue'', Rubicon Theatre, Ventura
*2005 ''Endgame'', Dramatic Arts Centre, Shanghai. First production ever in Mandarin in China
*2006 Revival of ''Endgame'' in Shanghai - Stage adaptation of Beckett's Novella ''
First Love
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
'' for the Sydney Writers´ Festival (performed at Sydney Theatre Company)
*2014 "Not I", "Footfalls", "Rockaby" with Lisa Dwan. Royal Court Theatre, London. West End transfer (Duchess Theatre).
*2016 "Not I", "Eh Joe",
Østre Gasværk Teater, Copenhagen, with
Morten Grunwald
Walter Morten Grunwald (9 December 1934 – 14 November 2018) was a Danish actor, stage director and theatre manager.
Early life and education
He was born in Odense, Denmark, attended Odense Theatrical School in 1958, and graduated from the Roya ...
.
*2017 "Not I", "Footfalls", "Eh Joe",
Volksbühne Berlin, with
Anne Tismer and
Morten Grunwald
Walter Morten Grunwald (9 December 1934 – 14 November 2018) was a Danish actor, stage director and theatre manager.
Early life and education
He was born in Odense, Denmark, attended Odense Theatrical School in 1958, and graduated from the Roya ...
.
Television
*1976 Samuel Beckett's Berlin production of ''Waiting for Godot'' at the Schiller-Theater for German television
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
*1988 ''Rockaby'', ''Footfalls'' and ''Eh Joe'', with
Billie Whitelaw for German television station
SDR, Stuttgart
*1988 The San Quentin Drama Workshop production of ''Waiting for Godot'' from 1984 and Beckett's production (1978) of ''Krapp's Last Tape'' with Rick Cluchey. Both plays in French (with
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...
and
Roland Bertin
Roland Bertin (born 16 November 1930) is a French stage and film actor. He has appeared in at least 100 films and television shows since 1970.
Selected filmography
* '' Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir'' (1970) (a.k.a. ''The Little Theatre of ...
among others) for French TV stations
La Sept
La Sept was a French free-to-air television network and production company created on 23 February 1986 to develop cultural and educational programming for transmission via the TDF 1 satellite. In French, the word "sept" means the number seven; ...
and
France 3
France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info.
It is made up of a network of regional television services provi ...
and US station
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
, Paris
Film
*2000 ''Footfalls'' for the
Beckett on Film
''Beckett on Film'' was a project aimed at making film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett's stage plays, with the exception of the early and unperformed ''Eleutheria''. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films bei ...
Project, Dublin. The ''Waiting for Godot'' film for the same project was based on his 1991 production of the play at the Gate Theatre.
*2013 "What Where" produced by UWS (University of Western Sydney) in Sydney
Radio
*1995 Company for German station
SWR Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...
.
Publications
Numerous publications and interviews about the collaboration with Samuel Beckett in periodicals e.g. Theater Heute, Theater Quarterly and The
Journal of Beckett Studies.
Awards
*2004 Nomination for the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for best direction of a play (''Waiting for Godot'' at Rubicon Theatre, Ventura, CA)
*2009/ 2010 AIR AWARD (The Annenberg Foundation) and Artist-in-Residence at the Metabolic Studio Pipeline Project (Annenberg Foundation), Los Angeles.
References
*
New York Times: Proof: If Godot Exists, He's Likely to Be Irish*
*James Knowlson, Damned to Fame, The life of Samuel Beckett, Bloomsbury, London 1996, pp. xi, 607–9, 660, 690–1, 702
*Dougald McMillan and Martha Fehsenfeld, Beckett in the Theatre, John Calder, London 1988, pp. 66, 87, 88, 136, 136ff, 148ff
*SAMUEL BECKETT, Photographs by John Minihan, Secker&Warburg, London 1995, pp. 34/35
*John Fletcher, about Beckett, the playwright and the work, faber and faber (ff), London 2003
*Beryl S. and John Fletcher, A student's Guide to the Plays of SAMUEL BECKETT, faber and faber (ff), London 1978, p. 117
*Enoch Brater, Beyond Minimalism, Beckett's Late Style In The Theatre, Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford 1987
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmus, Walter D
1941 births
Living people
German theatre directors
People from Lübeck