One biography, two perspectives

A great deal of respect for a classical composer, dozens of young people and a university: the musical theatre project “#Clara S.” shows that this combination can work very well.

“I can’t think of a stronger personality,” says Dr Cornelia Bartsch of the composer Clara Schumann. Bartsch, who currently holds the professorship for Cultural History at the Institute of Music, is one of the initiators of the musical theatre project “#Clara S.” In co-operation with the university and the Oldenburg State Theatre, Year 12 pupils from the Kreyenbrück Integrated Comprehensive School are currently adapting Schumann’s biography for the stage. The occasion is Schumann’s 200th birthday, which falls in 2019.

The composer’s life offers plenty of material for a musical theatre piece: Schumann was regarded as a musical child prodigy from an early age. Together with her husband, the composer Robert Schumann, she had eight children, most of whom she raised on her own – Robert fell seriously ill and eventually died at the age of 46, forty years before his wife. Experts believe that Clara’s skills as a pianist clearly outshone her husband’s. She also gained recognition as a composer. For Bartsch, it was clear that she wanted to be part of the project launched by Michael Hagemeister from the cultural management agency meister:kultur. “A sick husband, a large family and a society in which a woman was not supposed to earn a living – Clara had to cope with all of that. And yet she managed to forge her own path. I find that deeply impressive,” she says.

In a rehearsal room at the university, two female students and one male student are working on a scene in which Clara’s controlling father becomes violent during a violin lesson. Two weeks to go until the premiere. It is late afternoon; tiredness hangs in the air. Sitting next to theatre educator Stefanie Becker, who is directing the play, is teacher-trainee Thea Reutepöhler. She is busily taking notes, and the two of them consult each other briefly from time to time. Reutepöhler is supporting Becker as her assistant director in developing the play and is working with the pupils on the scenes and during rehearsals. She is studying music and mathematics to become a secondary school teacher and has already learnt a great deal about working with young people through this project. She, too, has no trouble putting her admiration for the composer into words. “I find it really fascinating what she achieved as a woman at that time and the impact her music still has today,” she says.

Still images and seminar papers

The students have been studying the composer since last summer semester. Bartsch and her colleague Christiane Abt ran seminars on musicology and practical music, the outcomes of which the pupils at IGS Kreyenbrück later used to develop scenes and musical pieces for the stage. For their research, the students took on various roles themselves. “I really enjoy applying theatre-based teaching methods in my seminars,” explains Bartsch. Alongside traditional text analysis, the students re-enacted scenes from Schumann’s biography or created still images that illustrated the relationships between the various characters. Bartsch values discovering new layers of the material in this way. The result is often more lasting than text-based work alone. “In my opinion, this kind of approach even has a positive effect on the seminar papers the students submit at the end of the seminar,” she says.

Like Reutepöhler, the students now hold various roles in the production of the musical theatre piece, for example as singing teachers or on the programme booklet editorial team. The pupils, in turn, are taking on the roles of actors and musicians. Since the start of the school year, they have been rehearsing for this in the ‘Drama’ subject and music classes.

Young adults and classical music

Whilst the students and the Year 12 pupils normally work separately on their tasks, they exchange their findings during workshop weekends. This is where different perspectives come together: students who have studied Schumann’s biography academically and pupils who incorporate their own perspectives into their performances. Bartsch is fascinated by this process: “We’ve brought Schumann’s biography and our own perspective to the school. Now, on stage, we see how the pupils retell the story to us in their own way.” For Bartsch, introducing young people to classical music is one of the project’s highlights. “The young people have told us how boring they used to find classical music, but now they’re interested in it. And I think that’s brilliant,” she says.

Meanwhile, Reutepöhler continues to rehearse with the pupils; the scene is repeated several times. The pupil playing Clara’s brother Alwin is slowly starting to feel a ache in her arms from pretending to play the violin. The young adults, the director and Reutepöhler bounce creative ideas for the scene back and forth. Reutepöhler jots something down in her notebook once more. She likes this approach: “I find it exciting to work so creatively with historical material and to discover how a academic topic can be conveyed in different ways. As a future teacher, I’m benefiting greatly from this.” Nevertheless, the wide variety of tasks also presents her with a major challenge. “I’ve learnt a lot about time management,” she says. “Alongside my other degree subject, my ‘normal’ life and my four bands, I have to manage things well to juggle all these tasks.”

“#Clara S.” will be performed on 9 and 10 November in the university auditorium (Haarentor campus, Building A11, Ammerländer Heerstraße 69). The performance on 9 November begins at 7.30 pm, and on Sunday at 5 pm. Tickets cost 8 euros at the box office, or 5 euros for concessions. During the performance on 10 November, the Music Education Promotion Prize – which the project has been awarded – will also be presented. It is awarded by Musikland Niedersachsen gGmbH and the Lower Saxony Savings Banks Foundation.