Open air theatre

This article tries to determine the origins of the Freilichtbühne  in Zons on the Rhine, Germany, an open-air theatre inaugurated in May1935, and which exists even today. The corresponding research is based mainly on the archival sources available in the Archiv im Rhein-Kreis Neuss (AiRKN) based in Zons, which is at present a part of the city of Dormagen.
These sources permit the identification of the main actors in the creation of the Freilichtbühne, who are, in this probable order of importance, the three men called the "Triumvirat", the Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein (VVV), a semi-official department of the Zons city administration, The Wirteverein (the inn-keeper association, but there were other members ,too),and the local branch of the National-Socialist Party, represented by their Ortsgruppenleiter, Mr. Bogdanski.
Their activities are largely determined by the "zeitgeschichtliche" background of the Twenties and beginning Thirties, which were formative years not oniy in modern German history, but more specifically in the personal outlook and formation, in the German sense of "Bildung", of the people epitomized here. At the same time, the documentary evidence highlights the major social, economic and political factors which enabled and led to the construction of the Freilichtbühne, in a couple of months from December 1934 to May 1935.
What the documents don't tell is the personal motivation and the "Bildungsweg" of the members of the "Triumvirat", the Cologne painter Theo Blum, the local school teacher Heinz Riffel and the writer Michel Becker, also from Cologne, who worked together for nearly ten years in order to achieve the Freilichtbühne  as a major nationwide "Festspiel" event and location that attracted thousands of spectators from 1935 until the first phase of the Second World War.
So, among many other loose ends, the personal history of these original and creative individuals remains to be outlined, along with an appreciation of the cultural, social and political impact of the "Festspiel" in those years.
Today, in the 2020ies, the Freilichtbühne hosts mainly fairy-tale productions for children, and political cabaret, i. e. the satirical treatment of current social and political affairs. This is a long way from the highly serious patriotic "Festspiele" based on local history, that the Freilichtbühne was originally built for.

The performance of opera and the post-pandemic slow recovery of the public, who have been hesitant to return to frequent attendance of cultural venues, has inspired the authors to analyze the acoustic behavior of the National Theater of Zagreb, by reflecting five specific scenarios. Starting from acoustic measurements undertaken inside the National Theater of Zagreb without any scenery in place, this research study compares the main acoustic parameters simulated with the scenery of Tosca in three different acts. A numerical model was realized by reproducing the geometry and the architectural features of this historic performance arts space. Before the simulations, the absorption coefficients applied to the digital entities were calibrated with the values gathered from the recorded impulse responses. After the calibration process, the acoustic simulations were also carried out with the presence of an audience at two percentages of occupancy.

This essay represents a Bengali translation of a very interesting and important talk given by the most venerable Lama Thubten Yeshe Rinpoche to a western audience many years ago. The central focus of the essay is that all human beings are fundamentally the same as far as their thoughts and emotions and pain and pleasure are concerned. He stresses that we need to acknowledge sincerely our psychophysical happenings and rather then trying to escape from them, we need to try to understand their nature and thus deal with them to finally overcome them.

The theatres of Antiquity, Greek and Roman, constitute public buildings of the utmost importance in the history of Western culture and in universal cultural heritage. Many of these spaces are being used for their original function with or without only minor adaptations. If they are well preserved and/or restored, these performance buildings attract large audiences to representations of classical and contemporary plays, thereby serving the purpose for which they were built in the Ancient Age. These theatres bear witness to the existing relationship between architectural work, visual and acoustic experience, and dramatic art. Although the majority are located in the Mediterranean region, these structures were also built in the major cities of the ancient world in Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, and beyond. This paper aims to summarise and critically review research published in the literature regarding their acoustic aspects, with particular emphasis on Roman theatres. These...

One of the most notable aspects in the late but intense boom in cinema attendance in Spain in the post-Civil War period-the years under Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975)-was the large number of open-air or summer cinemas, which totalled 1,758 out of the 9,399 cinemas surveyed in 1965. Located mainly in the southern half of the country and on the Mediterranean coast, this dazzling constellation of outdoor viewing practices, which included screenings in bullrings, roof-tops of movie theatres and some drive-in cinemas, left an indelible mark on the urban film experience still present in the memories of past generations.

Duilio Cambellotti. Mito, sogno e realtà. (Roma, 6 giugno – 11 novembre 2018). Exhibition Catalogue.
a  cura  di  Silvana  Editoriale,  con saggi  dei  curatori della mostra Daniela  Fonti  e Francesco Tetro e di Giovanna Alatri, Francesca Maria Bonetti, Alberta Campitelli, Carlo Fabrizio Carli, Monica Centanni, Anna Maria Damigella, Daniela De Angelis, Elena Longo, Nadia Marchioni.