The University Theater
For over 30 years, the adjunct lecturer Thomas Butz was the director of the Mannheim University Theater. The group was called “Compagnia Palatina” and it was one of the oldest university theater groups in Germany. Together with the actresses and actors, Butz developed over 40 plays, for which he received the university medal in July 2003. After 2003, it turned quiet around the university theater.
In September 2019, the university theater group was re-established under the direction of Christine Heinzel. In the fall semester 2019, the rehearsals for the first production of the newly founded group began. They were working on the comedy “Ach diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke” (“Oh, this void, this unspeakable void”) based on the best-selling novel by J. Meyerhoff and G. Mehmert. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, only in May 2022 did they successfully perform the piece at the Theaterhaus G7. On 26 May 2022, the newspaper Mannheimer Morgen reported on the premiere, “This first performance was warmly received and celebrated—an honerable opening.”
Over the course of two semesters, the theater group rehearses a new play. Students can join the group and either act on stage or work behind the scenes in the directing, dramaturgy, or technical team.
Director of the University Theater
Credit: Anna Logue
The director of the University Theater, Christine Heinzel, is a graduate of the University of Mannheim and has been a member of ABSOLVENTUM from the very beginning. Upon completing her studies in business administration with a focus on marketing and psychology, she was working for several international TV and advertisement companies for more than 15 years. After a four-year stay in the USA with her family, she now works as a teacher in the Studium Generale program at the University of Mannheim, at the University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, and as a trainer at public administrative institutions in Baden-Württemberg.
In addition to her career in marketing, she has been involved in the amateur theater scene in the Bergstraße region since 1999. She initially started as an actress, before becoming an assistant director and eventually the director of over 30 full-length productions with various amateur theater groups.
Because of this practical work and the completion of a continuing training as a drama teacher at the Theaterwerkstatt Heidelberg, she has considerable experience in the training of actresses and actors, staging techniques as well as production management. In her work she focuses on modern pieces or contemporary adaptations of classics.