The Day-Old Theater Company

The Day-Old Theater Company

The Day Before

Although there may be some grandmas and granddaddies who vaguely remember the initial steps taken sometime in the last century (see the back file), we see fit to enlighten you about the history of the D.O.T.

The Day-Old Theater was founded at the Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz in November 1991. The D.O.T., an independent student theater group that stages plays in English, owes its existence to the local American Studies division. Through the university's direct exchange program, Daniel Recktenwald—then co-director at the Actors Theatre Louisville, one of the United States' trend-setting "independent theatres"—ended up in Mainz during his study year abroad.

As founding father und first director, Daniel helped the D.O.T. take its baby steps in 1992. Edward Albee's American Dream was its first production and its name-giver. A play by Tennessee Williams, Talk to Me like the Rain and Let Me Listen, followed shortly afterwards.

Since then, the group has come of age with a variety of plays of British, Irish and American origins, with at least one piece being produced every year.

Today

Against the Eternal Return of the Identical - theater stage - we stubbornly insist on creative variability. Topics like the make-believe harmony of the American South, social parochialisms in small-town Ireland, the insanity of the psychiatric profession in metropolitan London, the self-laceration of the rugged individualist, and female iconoclasm in the Old Testament, have come to life on our stage. Male and female directors alike work with mammoth- and mouse-size casts (18 actors filled the stage during a theater festival, just two in another), and, in all audacity, we experiment with slide-projectors, motion-picture cameras, Dry Ice guns, musical instruments, and last but definitely not least, the English language.

Constant factors in the D.O.T. are a loosely-knit but reliable network of members eager to participate on, above, behind, and below the stage, plus our goal of presenting our faithful audience with more than mediocre student theater - in spite of our financial limits. To this end, we invest our money and time in advanced theater training rather than expensive stage sets. As a group, we have organized two workshops in the past. For some of us, this work has already paid off. One of our members has graduated to being a professional director, another had the chance to partake in the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The Day After

Interested in becoming a Dotty? Author of a wonderful new play? Ready to pay us millions? Just curious? Seize the day contact us via e-mail: dot@anglistik.uni-mainz.de. Or call our hotline at 06131-31090.