International Brecht Society

The Brecht Yearbook

The new editor of the Brecht Yearbook has been appointed by the IBS President for a five-year term: Prof. Markus Wessendorf, who teaches in the Dept. of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai'i in Manoa. His term begins with vol. 43 (2018), and submissions to the open-topic volume are due by 31 October 2017.

Please click on the "Brecht Yearbook" tab above for further details.

Communications from the IBS

The IBS journal has shifted from a print publication to a freely accessible online journal / blog. Click here to see our new internet presence, updated about every 4-5 months!

https://e-cibs.org/

Das Brecht-Archiv / The Brecht Archive (Berlin)

Check here for the new website presence of the Brecht Archive at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin: http://www.adk.de/de/archiv/archivabteilungen/bertolt-brecht-archiv/

New Brecht books

Günther Heeg, Recycling Brecht: Materialwert, Nachleben, Überleben (Berlin: Verlag Theater der Zeit, 2017)

Erdmut Wizisla, Benjamin und Brecht. Denken in Extremen (Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 2017)

Christian Hippe / Annett Gröschner, Hrsg., Laxheit in Fragen geistigen Eigentums. Brecht und Urheberrecht (Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag, 2017)

Martin Kölbel und Peter Villwock, Hrsg., Bertolt Brecht: Notizbücher - Band 3: 1921 (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2017)

Frank D. Wagner, Minima Hegeliana. Brechts Denkbilder (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017)

Christian Hippe / Volker Issbrücker, Hrsg., Brecht und die Naturwissenschaften (Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag, 2017).

Nenad Jovanovic, Brechtian Cinemas: Montage and Theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, Peter Watkins, and Lars von Trier (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2017).

Joerg Esleben with Rolf Rohmer and David G. John, Fritz Bennewitz in India: Intercultural Theatre with Brecht and Shakespeare (Toronto: Toronto UP, 2017).

Milena Massalongo, Florian Vassen, Bernd Rupping (Hrsg.), Brecht gebrauchen: Theater und Lehrstück - Texte und Methoden. Milow: Schibri Verlag, 2017.

Questions about performance rights of Brecht's plays should be directed at the German Brecht publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag: suhrkamp.de/theater-verlag/vertragsanfragen_898.html

For English-language performance rights, click here for more details.

Drama Online is a new subscription portal for Internet access to the works of major playwrights, including Bertolt Brecht in English translation. For information, see:
http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/
and click search for "Brecht"

Brecht's Works in English: A Bibliography
Check this new website with over 2900 entries if you are looking for Brecht's plays, poems, songs, stories, or essays in English translation: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/BrechtGuide/

The digital Brecht Yearbook, vols. 1-35 (1971-2010) / Das Brecht-Jahrbuch digital, Bd. 1-35 (1971-2009): http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/German.BrechtYearbook

KURT WEILL FOUNDATION GRANT PROGRAM – Deadline 1 November
Financial support worldwide to not-for-profit organizations for performances of musical works by Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein, to individuals and not-for-profit organizations for scholarly research pertaining to Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, and Marc Blitzstein, and to not-for-profit organizations for relevant educational initiatives. For more information, see: http://www.kwf.org/pages/grants-a-prizes.html

Announcements

The IBS at the MLA Convention (Jan. 4-7, 2018), New York City

Session 177. “Totally Epic”: Brechtian and Wagnerian Aesthetics Today
Thurs., 4 Jan. 7:00 Pm-8:15 PM, Gibson (Hilton)
Presiding: Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon U)
1. Jinsong Chen (Purdue U, West Lafayette), “From Wagner to Brecht: An Aesthetic Analysis of Elfriede Jelinek’s Rein Gold”
2. Jack Davis (Truman State U), “Through Brecht to Wagner: Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Heiner Müller, Christoph Schlingensief”
3. Vera S. Stegmann (Lehigh U), “Žižek on Wagner and Brecht”
Respondent: Joy Calico (Vanderbilt U, Nashville)

Session 341. Brecht in the Middle East

Fri., 5 Jan. 1:45 PM-3:00 PM, Nassau West (Hilton)
Presiding: Marc Silberman (U of Wisconsin, Madison)
1. Mona Zaki (C of William and Mary), “Agency and Oppression: Reading Brecht in Egypt”
2. Robert Myers (American U of Beirut) and Nada Saab (Lebanese American U), “Brecht, Wannous, and Arab Theater”
3. Ela Gezen (U of Massachusetts, Amherst), “Brecht and the Turkish Stage”
4. Robert Lyons (Gothenburg U), “The Jenin Chalk Circle: Brecht’s Playscript and Alternatives with the Freedom Theatre in the West Bank, Autumn 2015”

The Brecht Yearbook / Das Brecht-Jahrbuch 41 will appear in December 2017.

IBS members and subscribers who paid dues in 2016 automatically receive this volume. Others can order the volume from the publisher, Camden House:

https://boydellandbrewer.com/series/brecht-yearbook/the-brecht-yearbook-das-brecht-jahrbuch-41-pb.html

Click on the tab "Table of Contents" to see the articles.

Vol. 42 with selected proceedings from the 2016 IBS Symposium at the University of Oxford will appear in March 2018:

https://boydellandbrewer.com/series/brecht-yearbook/the-brecht-yearbook-das-brecht-jahrbuch-42-pb.html

IBS Election
Every two years elections for the steering committee of the International Brecht Society take place. The nominees for 2016 and 2017 have been elected: Alle zwei Jahre findet die Wahl des Vorstands der Internationalen Brecht-Gesellschaft statt. Die Kandidatenliste für 2016 und 2017 wurde gewählt:

President: Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Vice President: Günther Heeg (Universität Leipzig, BRD)
Co-editors of 'Communications': Jack Davis (Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri) and Kristopher Imbrigotta (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington)
Secretary/Treasurer: Paula Hanssen (Webster University, St. Louis, USA) and Sylvia Fischer (University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida)