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ITI president Manfred Beilharz's views on worldwide theatre

ERSHAD KAMOL
MANFRED Beilharz, the ITI president has come to participate in the week-long theatre festival and seminar arranged by International Theatre Institute of Bangladesh. This is for the second time that the ITI president is taking part in an international festival under ITI outside Paris.
Discussing on various issues of ITI and world theatre he says, 'The ITI is a non governmental organization of the UNESCO established in 1948 in Prague in former Czechoslovakia by eight European countries with the aim to creating awareness against the cruelty of the World War 2 and at the same time work for peace. It has now 84 national members. Actors, directors and theatre critics can be members of ITI. Many rich countries of the world like Japan, Germany, France and others are giving financial support to the ITI.'
Beilharz does not have a very clear concept about theatre in Bangladesh. He has gone through only two
Bangladeshi productions outside Dhaka--one is a dance display and the other is a theatre production by the vice-president of the central committee, Ramendu Majumdar. He says, 'I know that you are an amateur theatre activist with potentiality. I am eager to know about your theatre from this ongoing festival.'
Beilharz is practising theatre for many years in Germany. He is a director-an artistic director and the managing director of a theatre group in Germany named Haatstheatre Wiesbaden. He is also the president of the German Theatre Association. In Germany, all of the theatre activists get good remuneration from the theatre groups but in his group each of the 600 members--actors, designers, orchestra musicians and others--are paid on a monthly basis. Theatrical groups in our country are subsidised by the city governor and by the German Federal Government as well. He says, 'I think, Theatre should be allowed to be practiced without interference of any local or international politics. The government, in Germany considers us as the "artistic opposition". And ITI has allowed to work without facing any international political pressure.'
He is very much influenced by German drama legend Bertold Brecht. He says, 'Recently I have directed Shakespeare's A Mid Summer Night's Dream. One of the critics in a German newspaper said that I have handled Shakespeare as if it were done by Brecht himself. Brecht got his "alienation" technique partly from Shakespeare and partly from Japanese "Noe" and "Indian Classical Narrative technique".'
His favourite drama person is Brecht. Among others he likes German classic Heinrich Von Kleist and German expressionist Frank Wedekind. At the international theatre level, he is impressed by the works of few young talents of Russia, Iceland, Turkey and Japan. He further adds, 'I am hopeful to find some talents in your country through this festival.'
Remarking on the common experimental theatre that is being practiced all over the world, he says, 'Non verbal theatre lacks the power to express the theme and is worse than mime. But it can overcome the language barrier as no word is used in this type of play. In this way, non verbal theatre can be a solution as it has no language and is comprehensible to all.'
Beilharz laughs when asked about his winning awards in theatre. He says, 'In Germany, those who have crossed seventy get awards and I have not yet crossed that age limit. But a few plays directed by me have got the position among the ten best plays in Germany.'