The Good Woman of Szechuan
Wu Wei Theater of Frankfurt

MIT Artists In Residence, October 21 and 22, 1998

 

The Group

After completing his theater studies at Munich, Andreas Wellano performed widely at the municipal theatres in Munich, Frankfurt, Bonn, Basel, as well as at the experimental TAT Theater in Frankfurt. He then co-founded, with Angelika Sieburg and others, one of Germany's most famous "OFF-Theatre"-Groups, the "Schlicksupp Theatertrupp." With Angelika Sieburg, he founded the "Wu Wei Theater Frankfurt" in 1990. They have toured in China, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium and all over Germany. Wellano has held leading roles in such classic plays as Schiller's "The Robbers," Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and "All's Well That Ends Well," and a number of plays bei Bertolt Brecht ("Saint Joan of the Stockyards," "The Bakery," and "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich". Recent productions include Marco Baliani's " Picoli Angeli," a children's play "Lonely" by Börje Lindstöm, and the one-man show "In Search of Don Quixote" written and directed by Sieburg. Andreas Wellano regularly performs in a number of German films and television series.

Angelika Sieburg belongs to a well-known Austrian artist-family. She studied performance in Vienna and performed in the municipal theaters of Heidelberg, Hof and at the TAT Theater in Frankfurt. She was also a co-founder and member of the legendary "Schlicksupp Theatertrupp". With Andreas Wellano founded the "Wu Wei Theater Frankfurt" in 1990. They have toured in China, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium and all over Germany. She has had leading parts in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" and "The Tempest," Büchner's "Woyzeck," as well as Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" and "Saint Joan of the Stockyards." She recently starred in Marco Baliani's " Picoli Angeli," and in a children's play "Lonely" by Börje Lindstöm. She also wrote and directed "In Search of Don Quixote," a one -man show starring Wellano. Angelika Sieburg also regularly performs in German films and television series.

The musician Lutz Köhler has worked with Sieburg and Wellano since the 1970's in the "Schlicksupp Theatertrupp." He regularly composes and performs at the TAT Theater, Frankfurt and for the Wu Wei Theater.

Mara B. Sabinson is Director of Theatre and an Associate Professor of Drama and Film Studies at Dartmouth College. A professional director, actress and playwright, Ms. Sabinson's career has included collaborations on both coasts of the U.S. as well as Italy, Mexico, Germany, Holland, England and Sweden. She is also currently Director of Marketing and Communications for the African Grove Institute for the Arts, an organization to promote and preserve Black Theatre as an agent of social and economic change. This production of THE GOOD WOMAN... is the fourth time Ms. Sabinson has worked on this play. Other Brecht productions in which she has appeared include MOTHER COURAGE... (in the title role) and IN THE JUNGLE OF CITIES.

Julian K. Wheatley's only claim to acting experience is in role-playing in foreign languages, and attempting to communicate in foreign lands. He hasn't even been to Szechuan, though he has travelled extensively in other provinces of Southwest China. For the past two years, his role has been coordinator of the Chinese language and culture program at MIT; before that, he was at Cornell University for ten years, where he taught in both the East Asia and the Southeast Asia Programs. He has a Ph.D in linguistics from UC Berkeley, with a regional interest in languages of mainland Southeast Asian, especially Burmese and the minority languages of southwest China and adjoining regions. He is married to a New Orleanean, and has four daughters, who so far, study only European languages.