Laienspiel#

Lay theatre (Laienspiel), theatre played by non-professional actors, especially groups of school children, students, workers, people in rural communities etc. In the German-speaking countries particularly promoted by the Youth Movement after 1900; strove to keep separate from professional theatre and theatrical societies, developed its own styles and used its own texts. In Austria, groups of lay actors banded together after World War I and performed medieval mystery plays and legends as well as religious plays by contemporary authors (R. Kralik and M. Mell and others) in front of churches and on public squares. Leading groups were the "Spielleute Gottes", theatre groups of the "Christlich-Deutsche Volksbuehne"founded in 1913, and the "Wiener Schottenspiele" performed by pupils of the Schottengymnasium secondary school directed by G. Terramare in the 1920s.

Literature#