August Wilhelm Iffland at the Mannheim School

Abstract

A pupil of Conrad Ekhof, as well as a model 'idealist' performer for the Goethe engaged in the elaboration of the Weimarer Klassik, from 1779 and until 1796 (when he took over the directorship of the Nationaltheater in Berlin), August Wilhelm Iffland (1759-1814) acted at the National Theater in Mannheim. Placed from 1778 under the direction of von Dalberg (1750-1806), the theater - marked by the most modern criteria of directorial practice, attentive to the evolution of acting and the training of the actor - became for Iffland a true 'school,' whose teachings he would treasure in the years of his full artistic maturity. Cross-referencing the reading of theater protocols, the actor's autobiography and the body of his theoretical reflections, the article sets out to investigate the value and formative function of the so-called Mannheimer Schule.