A BIT ABOUT US

It had been an endeavor of mine for some time to bring German Cabaret and theater to the stage in San Diego! I am very excited that this has become a reality and we are already going into our 4th season! 

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I founded the German Theater Group San Diego in October 2016 with 13 interested people which has now grown to over 25 dedicated and enthusiastic actors and several more backstage volunteers whose mission is to bring quality German Theater to San Diego and Southern California. Many of our actors have had little or no on-or-off-stage experience. In January 2018, we became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as a subgroup of the German American Societies of San Diego.

The success of our first production in 2017, “An Evening with the Comedian Loriot” at Ocean Beach Playhouse, motivated us to continue with the cabaret-productions “So ist das Leben” (That’s Life!) in 2018 and “So ein Theater!” (Oh, what Drama!) in 2019.

In Germany, “Kabarett” is a form of entertainment that consists of mixed elements of music, sketches, monologues, dialogues, and lyric poetry. They are humorous, satirical, poignant, erotic, and often very political. Our productions evolve from the traditional German Cabaret and draw from skits, poems and musical numbers by classic, known, as well as unknown German artists. We are not only taking a humorous and often sarcastic look at daily life but also touch on a few current political and cultural issues in Germany.

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Our fourth show, the upcoming cabaret “Lach mal wieder!” (Let’s laugh again!) on April 23 & 24, 2022 follows that same concept, but this time we wrote the entire second act “A German in America” on our own, drawing from experiences we have had and heard about when we came to this country! We hope you can identify with some of the “cultural observations” about becoming accustomed to those “strange American ways”!

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My first and most important “Thank You” goes out to everyone in this theater group—for their courage, patience, time, talent, and trust to follow me on this journey to bring German theater to Southern California!  I couldn’t work with a more dedicated, smart, and funny group of amazing individuals! Everyone pitches in and puts a lot of time and effort into these productions. Thank you for all your help, dedication, friendship, and laughter!!

I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the German American Societies of San Diego and their Board for taking us under their wings and providing us with warm hospitality, valuable support, and assistance in all matters! I would like to especially thank the former president, Wendel Jenkins, the current president, Joel Contreras, the secretary and amazing sound and light tech, Laurence Parme, the membership secretary, Monika Parme (thanks for feeding some “starving” actors during rehearsals!), as well as all helpers from box office, food organizers, ushers to the club crew for their exceptional leadership, reliability, and trust! A big thanks also to our band for their talent, reliability, and time!

My biggest thanks goes to YOU—our audience every year! Thank you for returning to see yet another German show, for laughing with us, for your praising comments, and for making our productions a success!

Finally, I would like to thank all the sponsors for their generous donations and their support in bringing German culture, awareness, and entertainment to the San Diego community.
 

Danke schön!

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Astrid Ronke

Director