One of puppetry’s greats passed away this weekend, Albrecht Roser. In the puppetry community the term Master Puppeteer is used sparingly, but Albrecht was a master. The things this man could do with a puppet would leave you breathless. I think seeing him perform his stork marionette at the Center for Puppetry Arts was the first time I wept because of the sheer beauty of manipulation.
I had the great fortune to train with Albrecht at the National Puppetry Conference back in 1994. That’s Albrecht gesturing at a giant head out of paper that he made for an adaptation of A Soldier’s Tale. I’m the very young woman seated with the bowed instrument.
Many of you have seen the paper-folding technique that I use with many of my puppets. Most recently, I tweaked it to work with wood veneer for Odd and the Frost Giants. I learned it from Albrecht and Ingrid at this workshop.
He invented the technique, as I recall, during WWII as a way to continue making puppets with wartime shortages. This was not a man who would stop creating.
He was vibrant and enthusiastic about his art form and generous. Oh, but he was generous in teaching and in life. To say that Albrecht had a profound influence on my career would be to undervalue his gift.
Albrecht Roser, you will be sorely missed.
Below is the English translation (by Robin Walsh) of the press release of his passing.
On the death of Prof. Albrecht Roser, May 21, 1922 – April 17, 2011
His last show, in July 2008 in his atelier theatre in Buoch was a high point. Then he had a stroke, from which he was unable to recover. A well grounded artist, a philosopher, a poet, an amazing puppet maker, an unequaled puppeteer – he died on Palm Sunday at age 88.
Born in Friedrichshafen and raised in the Schwabish town of Stuttgart, he spent four years in Russia during the war. He returned to civilian life as a outwardly uninjured 23 year old and began a years long search to find a sense, a reason for his survival. His meeting with a marionette, a witch, and his later study in marionette construction with Fritz Herbert Bross would become an key experience. Dead material changed itself on stage into wonderful Life.
Bross gave his entire knowledge and discoveries to his 29 year old student. Then Clown Gustaf sprang into being and made Roser, through his inexhaustible personality, surprisingly into a puppeteer. He was Roser’s alter ego, his mentor, his guide, his inspiration on stage from 1951 to 2008. There is nothing equivalent in the world of puppet theatre. The public was enchanted for 57 years, at this wonderful art of the performance of life.
Roser traveled for decades through many continents with Gustaf and his Ensemble, as a messenger for the art of marionettes. The Ensemble played in Germany not only in theaters, but also for companies and universities. Famous parts of the Ensemble include “The Frog Concert,” “The Stork on his Morning Stroll,” “Clown Puenktchen and his Happiness,” “The Beauty of the Night.” The final part of the show, the Oma from Stuttgart, the schwaebish grandmother who always knew exactly what was up, was the greatest attraction. She spoke all languages with a familiar accent, in Europe as well as in Asia.
In a Zen monastery in Kyoto there was an exchange between a Roser marionette and a Noh mask, a gem that for Roser became a gauge for his own work. America fascinated him for its openess for the unusual. Roser was invited by the University of Connecticut for a 6 month guest professorship. This led to his International Summer Academies that occurred in various countries, to his Master classes and his setting up the Study of Figure theatre at the Hochschule for Music and Art in Stuttgart in 1983. Also there, for over 20 years, he built up the FITS Figure theatre with Stuttgart puppeteers.
His various puppet films and puppet television were shown on SDR television for over 30 years. Roser created “The Raven Dance” and, for the European Music Festival of the Bach Acadamie, the “Gluck’schen Don Juan.”
In the last years he pulled back to his atelier theatre. The performances there were mostly sold out and the public loved the workshop atmosphere, and he loved his public in all worlds.
In Roser’s own words:
“So have I searched my entire life to serve, to serve Joy. It was a wonderful, well loved and well lived Life – full of everything that belongs to Life, in no way easy, full to the brim with work, that also in its way brought with it joy.”MEMORIAL on 30th of April, 2011 at 3:00 pm
in the Church of St. Sebastian in Remshalden-Buoch
I’m so sorry. When a master crafter passes, it’s a loss to us all. How lucky that you were able to work with and learn from him.
I’m sorry for your loss, Mary. He sounds like a quite wonderful man.