The "chemically destroyed earth" has been a dream, written down by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in the late 18th century. However, in view of climate change and the countless disaster reports of recent years, this dream could soon become a cruel reality.
Photo © Elysium
We were delighted to welcome back Gregorij H. von Leitis and Michael Lahr von Leitis from the NY-based non-profit organization Elysium - Between Two Continents/The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, this time in a virtual format. They presented their program After Us the Deluge?, a literary journey about the ever-evolving climate change and destruction of the environment, which surprisingly has already been foreseen by many thinkers a long time ago.
You will hear texts from Lion Feuchtwanger, Bear Heart, Günter Kunert, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Tatanga Mani, Ohiyesa, Hans Paasche, Chief Seattle, Jura Soyfer, Bertha von Suttner and Henry David Thoreau, presented as usual by Gregorij von Leitis in his impressive theatre voice, with an introduction given by Michael Lahr von Leitis.
This online literature project has been jointly organized with our colleagues from the ACF Berlin.
When: Tuesday, April 13, 2021 to April 30, 2021
Where: online | acfdc.org
© Elysium
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The sheer size and complexity of the problems we are facing as a result of ongoing environmental degradation and the already clearly perceptible consequences of climate change, could tempt us to throw up our hands and proclaim with resignation or even defiance: "After me, the deluge." Or are we inspired by the clairvoyance and wisdom of the Native American Elders and the resistant texts of early pacifists and social critics such as Hans Paasche, Bertha von Suttner and Henry David Thoreau to change our attitude and powerfully counteract the destructive tendencies of our consumer behavior, so that generations after us will still have a future and not drown in the floods of melted Arctic ice?
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PERFORMERS
GREGORIJ H. VON LEÏTIS
Photo (c) Letizia Mariotti
Gregorij H. von Leïtis, Founding Artistic Director of Elysium, has been working as a director at various theatres in Europe and the US for 50 years. In 1985 he received the New York Theater Club Prize for his direction of Bertolt Brecht's “The Jewish Wife”. In 2003, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2016 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.
In 1983, he founded the Elysium Theater Company in New York, which he headed as Artistic Director till 1990, when he was called to be the Intendant (Artistic Director) of the Landestheater Mecklenburg in Germany. Since 1993 he has been again Artistic Director of “Elysium - between two continents”. In 1985, Gregorij von Leïtis founded the Erwin Piscator Award Society, which annually confers the Erwin Piscator Award. Since 1987, he has been committed to the integration of marginal social groups by way of theater. With the Elysium Theater Company he created the program “Theater for the Homeless”. Since 1992 Gregorij von Leïtis had been active as guest director, first at the State Theater in Linz, later also at the State Theater in Bregenz. In 1998 he produced Kafka's “A Report to an Academy” at London's Bloomsbury Theater, Ullman's opera “The Emperor of Atlantis” at the Guggenheim Museum and at the Miller Theater in New York, as well as the Italian premiere of Krenek's chamber opera “What Price Confidence”. In 1997, he recited the New York premiere of “The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke”, one of the last works which the composer Viktor Ullmann was able to finish in the ghetto and concentration camp Theresienstadt, before he was deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 and murdered there. Since then, he has performed this composition for speaker and piano internationally in more than 30 cities.
With Michael Lahr, he founded The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive in 1995, whose president he is.
MICHAEL LAHR
Photo (c) Letizia Mariotti
Michael Lahr studied philosophy and adult education at the College of Philosophy in Munich and at the Jesuit University Centre Sevres in Paris. He is author and editor of the book “The Erwin Piscator Award”, and a co-author of the volume of essays “Bilder des Menschen” (Images of Man). As a specialist in Erwin Piscator, the founder of the political and epic theater, he curated the exhibit “Erwin Piscator: Political Theater in Exile”, which so far has been seen in Bernried, New York, Catania, Salzburg, and Munich.
As the program director of Elysium he has unearthed numerous works by artists who had to flee their home country under the pressure of the Nazi regime, or who were murdered. Many of these compositions were performed for the first time in concerts in Europe and the U.S. He gives introductory lectures for all Elysium programs. At the same time, he lectures regularly on questions of general social and political significance at various universities in Europe and the US.
Michael Lahr is the Executive Director of The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, founded in 1995, which holds materials of artists such as Erwin and Maria Ley Piscator, Egon Lustgarten, Anna Moffo, Alice Herz-Sommer and others. He is also the Chairman of the Erwin Piscator Award Society and the editor of The Bridge Journal.
ELYSIUM – BETWEEN TWO CONTINENTS
Since the founding in New York City in 1983, Elysium - Between Two Continents has established itself as a vital force at the intersection of American and European cultures, fostering artistic and creative dialogue and mutual friendship between the United States of America and Europe. Fighting against discrimination, racism and Antisemitism by means of art are at the heart of Elysium’s mission. Elysium’s special concern has been to unearth and present works of artists exiled and persecuted by the fascist regimes of the mid twentieth century.
THE LAHR VON LEITIS ACADEMY & ARCHIVE
Art and education without borders. Learning and the transfer of knowledge as efficient tools to fight against ignorance, discrimination, and hatred. Familiarizing the young generation with the treasures of exiled art, to help them create a meaningful future that incorporates the lessons learned from history.