Talk:Round Heads and Pointed Heads

Steffin

I didnt anticipate that Steffin's collaboration would be so controversial- "Mitarbeiter: M. Steffin" is on the title page of both the collected works and Willert's translation ("Collaborator"). Ed, is there an edition that doesnt name her, or are you lucky enough to know the play from an actual stage production? Sparafucil (talk) 05:36, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

As far as I am aware, no other edition in English names her as co-author (I'm not familiar with Willerts), and, yes, I've done three mountings of an adaptation of the play, using various translations, and will start another in January. As for "Mitarbeiter", I don't speak German, but a mechanical translator I passed it through gave multiple possible meanings: "collaborator, co-worker, staff, assistant, associate, colleague, ghost writer, employee". It's very possible that Brecht chose this word specifically for the ambiguity of its meaning, but in any case I don't believe that your cite is sufficient to credit Steffin as co-author of the play, and I've therefore changed your text to read "with uncredited contributions by". I think to have her listed as straight-out co-author, you're going to need a citation in English which says so explicitly. Ed Fitzgerald _{t / c} 08:02, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Her co-authorship is easily enough cited - have added a source and a few other bits of info. DionysosProteus (talk) 17:22, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Dionysos. I still think she might be singled out as the only credited collaborator, but Eisler did of course have a hand in the text as well as the music. Sorry Ed, I meant Willett of course, and I'm still curious about which translations you've worked with. Good luck and please tell us more about the January show. Sparafucil (talk) 03:12, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

What I've been working on is a piece called "Uncivil Wars: Collaborating with Brecht and Eisler" which is an adaptation by director/choreographer David Gordon based on the Feingold translation. It's gone through a number of quite different permutations, from straightforward presentation of the Feingold translation in a workshop at the Actors Studio, to its current state, which is Gordon's reflections on Brecht, collaboration, and the play overlayed on top of a heavily edited and somewhat re-written version of the script, with almost all of the Eisler songs included. (In between, one version we workshopped at Cornell University was based on the N. Goold-Verschoyle translation.) It was performed in public last year at The Kitchen in NYC, but was (deliberately) not opened for review so that the development process could continue. This time around, we're again workshopping it at Skidmore College prior to doing it at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I've been the stage manager for all these productions.Ed Fitzgerald _{t / c} 20:10, 17 December 2008 (UTC)