More on Brecht

  The picture above is from the recent production of Threepenny Opera (the most famous play by Brecht) with Cyndi Lauper and Nellie McKay.  Here is the video preview for that production--direct from You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A3CR5K8-ys

YouTube also has audio recordings of Lotte Lenya's versions of songs from the Threepenny Opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7LpEkkAk0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V_iLXkx1Uo

Bertolt Brecht sings here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QXJ3OXWaOY

Although I've posted this blog from the dramaturg of Villanova's production of Mother Courage, I think that it's worth reposting for the information about Brecht:

http://villanovatheatretalk.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

I've posted this article on epic theater and Brecht's biography elsewhere as well, but I'm sure that you'll find it useful here:

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_epic_theater.html

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_bio.html

Deustche Welle, the German broadcasting service, has put together a picture gallery on Brecht and his work.  One picture is of Helene Weigel, his second wife and the most outstanding Mother Courage:

http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_imagegalerie/0,2172,2128266_page_1_lang_2,00.html

Here is a biography of Ms. Weigel.  Again, she is pictured as Mother Courage although she portrayed many other roles in her husband's plays.

http://www.artsalive.ca/en/thf/histoire/comediens.html#weigel

Brecht spent some time in the US while he was in exile from Germany.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2125885,00.html

Here is an article about the Brecht-Weigel House in East Berlin.  It includes some information about Ms. Weigel's work after her husband's death when she led the Berliner Ensemble, the theater company that they had founded together.

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/chnn/CHNN17HOU.html

In 2001, a movie was made about a day in Brecht's life:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,531391,00.html

Let's finish with some articles on Brecht's influence on later theater.  The first is from Brandeis University's production of The Good Woman of Setzuan.

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_influence.html

The next is from Deutsche Welle:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2127719,00.html

Prof. Edward Isser of the College of the Holy Cross discusses Brechtian influence on the performance of Shakespeare!

http://www.holycross.edu/departments/theatre/eisser/BrechtianShakespeare.html