NEXT PRODUCTION
The play currently planned for the summer semester 2024 is our own adaptation of
Beauty and the Beast based on a version written for the Royal Shakespeare Company
Students from the Leibniz Universität Hannover are welcome. No experience needed, but good spoken English is important. Students who are interested should attend the first rehearsal, which will take place in the basement room K119 of the Economics building 1501 (Vorderhaus Conti campus) on Wednesday 3 April from 2pm till 6pm.
AUDIO PLAYS PRODUCED DURING THE CORONA PERIOD
Summer 2021: THE COMPANY OF WOLVES by Angela Carter
Winter 2020/21: MACBETH by William Shakespeare
Summer 2020: UNDER MILK WOOD by Dylan Thomas
Dr. Peter Bennett recently retired as a lecturer at the University of Hannover. He founded the theatre group in 1988 and has been directing it since then. So far, he has directed and supervised one new play almost each semester.
Introduction
Although based in the English department, the group is open to all students of the university. It is not a club. There is no fixed membership. One play is normally presented every semester, the group consisting of all those who have an acting role in the current production. In practice, each production’s cast consists of roughly a third who have played in two or more productions, a third who have already been in one production, and a third who are entirely new. The director has been there since the beginning.
The production style is economical, with emphasis on voice, body and movement. Staging tends to be minimalistic and basic with regard to scenery, sound and lighting. A decisive influence on production style and choice of play is the fact that there are usually at least fifteen people eager to participate, the majority of them women. Most modern plays in English have relatively small (and predominantly male) casts and are more or less naturalistic in that they do not work well if women play male parts. The group therefore tends to favour non-naturalistic drama, as can be seen from the production history.
The university has no theatre of its own, but the English Theatre Group has a good working relationship with the Theater in der List e. V. where the performances are held.