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| July 2008 Newsletter |
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I WANT TO BE INFORMED OF THE NEXT NEWSLETTER AS SOON AS IT IS ONLINE |
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German language courses - News & Information The German-Maltese Circle is again offering German language revision courses during summer for students who are in Forms 1 to 4. These courses consist of 18 lessons of one and a half hours each and will start on the 10th July. Also on offer are short courses of 10 sessions for children in Years 5 or 6 in Primary Schools who wish to get familiar with the German language. Members who sat for examinations at the end of the 2007-2008 language courses are informed that the results will be mailed to all candidates during the month of July. In the meantime please note that applications for the 2008-2009 German language courses are expected to open late in August. For information on ALL courses which are being offered – click here !
Members with a good
knowledge of the German language are reminded that Dr Jacobs
will be leading his conversation/discussion meetings at
the Circle on Fridays, 11th July, 25th
July and 8th August All sessions start at 6.30p.m. |
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Guided Tour of Playmobil
The guided tour specially organised for members of the German-Maltese Circle, through the state-of-the-art factory halls of PLAYMOBIL in the Hal-Far Industrial Estate last month was yet another successful venture. Following Mrs. Helga Ellul’s welcome and interesting overview on the history of the company, the participants were divided into small groups with either English or German speaking leaders who explained the very intricate processes of producing millions after millions of these colourful little figures made for export. Questions by the participants showed their genuine interest in the manufacturing sequence. To round off, a glass of champagne was offered by the hostess followed by a light dinner and congenial talks outside on the cool terrace during the hour of sunset. Festa Opera Malta in Frankfurt/Main
The German-Maltese Association, Adenau, had earlier announced this event for its members. Consequently a few couples gathered in Frankfurt, where they also met before the official programme H.E. Dr. John Grech, the Maltese Ambassador in Germany with whom they spent a cheerful time together. It belongs to the story that these members of the German-Maltese Association are also long standing members of the German-Maltese Circle and are spending multiple holidays in Malta and Gozo every year! In the photo from the left are: Rolf Lehwalder, Bettina Launer, Christian Launer, Renata Lehwalder, H.E.Dr John Grech, Heide Mengeringhausen, Bernd Schiffarth and Bernhard Mengeringhausen. Auf Wiedersehen ! The German-Maltese Circle bids “Auf Wiedersehen” to Pfarrer Dieter Frey and his wife, Gerda, who after a short period of 10 months in Malta will return to Germany in July. Mr Frey was the Pastor of the Andreas Gemeinde. We also bid farewell to Frau Ingeborg Beggel and to her husband Ing. Emerigo Casi. Mrs. Beggel has since 2005 held the position as Deputy Head of Mission and First Secretary of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Her portfolio included administration within the Embassy as well as economic and trade relations between Malta and Germany. |
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“Alte Oper” in Frankfurt was last month the venue for Festa
Opera Malta, a performance of arias sung by the well known
Maltese Tenor, Joseph Calleja and his wife Soprano Titiana
Lisnic. This performance was the highlight of the
2008 Malta Kulturfest which included performances by the ETNIKA
Band as well as an exhibition with sculptures in iron, bronze
and ceramics and paintings of four Maltese artists, namely
Antoine P.Camilleri, Joe Genovese, Charles Sammut and Mario
Sammut. | Attention all Members!! - Exciting Events for May at Messina Palace |
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Irene Christ |
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After schooling she attended the Medizinische Fachschule (Medical College) in Neustrelitz with the aim to become a nurse. Nevertheless, after having achieved this, she decided that acting was her real call of life and became a student of the Drama School in Rostock, an old and important harbour city at the mouth of the river Warnow into the Baltic Sea. The area was then part of East Germany, but the young Irene was lucky against many odds to exit legally to West Berlin. Here she was able to apply her acting abilities and worked with several directors on stage as well as for the film industry. A special example would be the film “Schlaraffenland” (“Cockaigne”) which was made in 1991 under the direction of Michael Verhöven. This film - close to Irene’s heart - unfolds the story of a family having fled from East Germany. Years followed at the theatre “tri-bühne” in Stuttgart, “where I played the roles of young girls only”, she remembers with a whimsical smile. Various other German stages followed, for example Kiel, and five years at the prestigious Schauspielhaus in Bochum, then Düsseldorf and the Volksbühne in Berlin. To her great satisfaction the roles entrusted to her became invariably more adult and serious like Miss Julie of August Strindberg, Princess Leonore in Goethe’s Torquato Tasso, alternating with classic and modern plays. Besides the obvious success on the stage, it is very important for an actor to work with famous directors. She especially mentioned Leander Haußmann, whose film “Sonnenallee”, after the book by Thomas Brussig, was shown in Malta at the European Film Festival some years ago. At this point it is perhaps opportune to mention some of the characteristics of the German theatre and opera world. It is correct to say that practically all theatres are heavily subsidised by either the Federal State or the particular city they are situated in. Occasionally two cities join forces and make use of one ensemble playing alternatively at the two respective theatres. Actors and actresses are mostly employed fulltime, but sometimes work free-lance and are then engaged as guest performers, which means they play at several theatres in different shows, each over one or two seasons, involving a lot of tiring travelling. In 1998 Irene Christ enrolled in an English Language Course on Malta, something like “Es war einmal” – Once upon a time - the sentence with which all fairy tales begin! “First I fell in love with Malta”, she said, “and then with my English teacher”, whose name was Julian Manduca (1958-2005), a Maltese journalist of the paper MaltaToday and a coordinator of the Maltese NGO Friends of the Earth. The subsequent years, they lived on and off in Malta and in Germany and married in 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark, being what they called a “neutral” country as far as their upbringing and background was concerned. With this decision they wanted to be fair to each other - not giving preference to the laws of either one country of their origin. In the same year they moved to Malta eventually finding an old beautiful house in Valletta - with many rooms and many stairs. One day, enjoying a peaceful moment at the Café of the Manoel Theatre, they decided to establish their own theatre company. Their main aim was to bring German directors to Malta who would work with Maltese teams. They called their company Actinghouse Productions, and their inauguration show in 2002 was “The Odd Couple” by Dario Fo and Franca Rame. The German director for this play was Frank Hörner. The performance was a big success and became the inspirational impulse for many more productions like “Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, “Fat Men in Skirts”, and various cabaret evenings. However, the good times came to an abrupt and tragic end when her husband Julian succumbed to a sudden heart attack in his best age of 46. Still grieving about her loss, though later in 2005, Irene accepted engagements in Germany and New York, while keeping her base in Valletta. She even picked up Actinghouse Productions again with “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams; and in 2007 for the first time she directed a play by the name “Tattoo” by the German playwright Dea Loher, performed at St. James Cavalier. Irene Christ’s oncoming project within Actinghouse Productions will take place in cooperation with the Malta Arts Festival 2008. She will be performing in two of Anton Chekhov’s beautifully written comedies “The Vaudevilles”. Hobbies? – Or plans for the future? Irene laughs and says: “Sport is easy, as my private Fitness Centre is the steep staircase in my house in Valletta!” And adding: “Yes, I read a lot”. As far as the future is concerned, she admits never to have made any long-term plans. Her motto is: “May God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.” She applies her creative energy and vibrating strength positively to the chances life is offering to her, and lives every moment intensely. |
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Irene Christ in "Vaudevilles" by Anton Chekov |
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As part of the Malta Arts Festival Actinghouse Productions will perform two short comedies by the master of writing Anton Chekhov (1860 – 1904). German actor Tobias Lehmann (Theater Leipzig) plays a ‘hen – picked husband’ giving a lecture ‘On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco’. For once out of his wife’s sight though he talks about anything but… Under Stephan Baumecker’s (Volksbühne Berlin) direction, Edward Mercieca, Irene Christ and Graham Arnold play the hilarious story of a widow, who decides after the demise of her husband to stay in mourning forever, and never to leave the house anymore, whilst her servant tries to persuade her to get back to life. Her peace is being terribly disturbed, when ‘The Bear’ comes in – a landowner who claims her late husband owes him money… and a passionate fight begins. Russian accordionist Yuri Chargyguine and violinist Nemanja Ljubinkovic from Slovenia accompany the show. For more information visit: www.actinghouseproductions.com |
| Important Notices The German-Maltese Circle’s Newsletter will not be published for the month of August. Instead, members will be receiving the brochure containing information on our language courses for adults, which will start in October 2008. As such kindly note the following sessions in the series GESPRÄCHSRUNDE in your diary:
Wednesday, 6th August
– Thema: Szenen aus Theaterstücken
Use the Library this Summer. Ask the front office for assistance. |
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Irene
Christ was born in the town of Röbel an der Müritz (Lake Müritz),
being the largest of the “1000” inland lakes of the Mecklenburgische
Seenplatte - the flat lake countryside of Mecklenburg. This
area is part of the very level low lying Northern German landscape
with dense forests, widespread agricultural land and a sky of which
one gets the impression that it is much higher than anywhere else in
Germany. 
Presented
by Actinghouse Productions on the 8, 9, 10 ,11 July at 21.00hours
