Curriculum Vitae

• Since Apr. 2013: Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Media Culture and Theatre, University of Cologne and the Theatre Collection (TWS), Germany. Programme Manager of the Department.
• Oct.-Dez. 2018: DAAD-Short-term-appointment at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
• May 2018: Hosting the international Workshop “Materiality of Performance – performance Residues”, funded by the post-doc Program “Network & Exchange”, UzK.
• Since Apr. 2017: Project for provenance research, Theatre Collection Cologne (TWS).
• 2017: PhD from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, title: »The Scene of the Marvellous – Shakespeare’s Fairies in Music Theatre in the Interplay of Music and Machinery« (JGU Mainz). summa cum laude. Honoured with the Martin-Lehnert-Award of the German Shakespeare Society. Published 2018 with J.B. Metzler/Springer.
• 2016-2017: Co-Curator of the Exhibition “Im Spielrausch – Von Königinnen, Pixelmonstern und Drachentötern” Museum of applied Arts, Cologne (MAKK).
• 2010-2013: Assistant Lecturer at the Institute of Film and Theatre Studies and Cultural Anthropology (Dept. of Theatre Studies), Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. Programme Manager of the Department of Theatre Studies.
• 2013-2014: Co-Curator of the Exhibition “A Party for Will! Eine Reise ins Shakespeare-Universum”, Museum of applied Arts, Cologne (MAKK), Humanities Research Centre York (UK).
• 2011-2013: Member of the international PHD-Programme Performance and Media Studies (IPP) at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.
• Oct. 2005 - July 2010: Studying Theatre Studies, Musicology and Cultural Anthropology at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. Emphasis on music theatre aesthetics and history; Elizabethan Theatre. July 2010: Magistra Artium (1,1).
• Feb.- July 2008: Studying at the University of Utrecht, Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen, Theaterwetenschap. Emphasis on culture management.

Awarded Grants

• Short-term-appointment by the DAAD at Tel Aviv University, Oct-Dec. 2018
• Martin-Lehnert Award, by the German Shakespeare Society, 2018
• International Workshop „Materiality of Performance“, granted by the Network & Exchange Program, UzK, May 2018

Associations

• IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research, member since 2013)
• Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft (member since 2013)

Research

Research topics

• Music Theatre
• Shakespeare reception
• visual perception
• theatre historiography and the interplay between sound and scenery
• scenery and stage effects in the 19th century

Research Projects

Since 2018:

Convener of the international working group „Listening to the story of the curtain – perspectives on the material conditions of theatre performances“, Network of Post-Doc and Senior Scholars, supported by the NetEx Program, UoC.

The key term Materiality of Performance has recently drawn attention in the international scholarly discourse. Indicating a shift in the focus, from the “pure” textual or performative analysis, to the material conditions of cultural performances as well as the ‘materials remains’ as such. Whereas in cultural studies, archaeology (Maran, DeMarrais), Anthropology (Houlbrook/Armitage) and Sociology (Rose, Löw/Volk/Leicht/Meisterhans) perspectives on materialism have been extensively discussed in a series of publications, Theatre Studies has been reluctant in its engagement with this topic. First steps have been done with a focus on materiality in the context of puppetry (Posner/Orenstein/Bell 2014), costumes (Monks 2010, Barbieri 2017), theatrical objects (Schweitzer 2014), and Shakespeare studies (Lin 2012). The working group aims to broaden this impact by focussing more strongly on the material conditions in various aspects of performances be it the role of props, the corporeality of actors or the machinery as material co-actor. We propose a methodological perspective on the materiality of theatre which puts its performative qualities in the focus and look unto the agency the materiality itself unfolds.

2017-2019:

Project for provenance research concerning the holdings entering the collection between 1933 - 1945, Theatre Collection Cologne (TWS). Supported by UoC and TWS.

Book-Project: Stage design and its practices of audio-visual narration in 19^th century theatre.

My research focusses on scenography and the practices of audio-visual narration inscribed into stage designs (BildRaumPraktiken). The main focus is on 19^th century theatre in central Europe, with a special focus on transnational exchanges between the countries. I am exploring how theatre takes part in the formation of visual perception and vision guidance. Theatre is analysed next to stereoscopic entertainment media, such as peep boxes or picture experiments, aiming to show how a set of different media consolidate mechanisms of visual narration such as moving images, transparency effects, special depth or blending. I would like to explore the spread of ‘canonical’ scenarios (with Diana Taylor (2003) thought as unit of materiality, visuality and acoustic) on the basis of key scenes of the repertoire, such as the wolves canyon in „Der Freischütz“ (C.M. v. Weber, 1823), the witches kitchen in „Faust“ (Goethe, 1829) or the travels in „Oberon“ (C.M. v. Weber, 1826). This repertoire of extraordinary scenes shows the edge of musical thinking in relation to visual movements and material (and technological) conditions of performances. Very often these scenes are paradigmatic not just in musical or dramaturgical matters but also in their reflection on contemporary developments of (media-)technologies.

Publications & Presentations

Monography

• Taubert, T. Sofie. 2018. Die Szene des Wunderbaren. Die Shakespeare-Elfen im Wechselspiel von Musik und Maschine. (Szene & Horizont, Bd. 2). Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.

Editor

• Beil, Benjamin/ Bojahr, Philipp/ Taubert, T. Sofie (Hrsg). 2017. Im Spielrausch. Streifzüge durch die Welten des Theaters und des Computerspiels. Glückstadt.

Articels

• Jan 2018. Erinnerung und Inspiration – Auftrag und Bedeutung eines Theatermuseums (Theatermuseum Kiel). In Schleswig-Holstein. Die Kulturzeitschrift für den Norden. S. 43-71.
• 2017. Bewegung und Raum. In Im Spielrausch. Streifzüge durch die Welten des Theaters und des Computerspiels hrsg. v. Beil, Bojahr, Taubert. Glückstadt. S. 21-31.
• 2019. Preparing Wonder and Spectacle for the Romantic Era - Carl Maria von Weber's Oberon as transfer between cultural tendencies and historical discourses. In Margins and mainstreams. Dance, opera and theatre around 1800 hrsg. v. Selvik/ Fiskvik /Gladsø. New York: Routledge.
• 2017. Die Musik in Max Reinhardts Shakespeare Inszenierungen und Bearbeitungen in Macbeth und Der Sturm. 28.-30.10.2013 Colloque Max Reinhardt, Paris. in Max Reinhard: L’art et la technique à la conquête de l’espace – Kunst und Technik zur Raumeroberung (Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik / Reihe A: Gesammelte Abhandlungen und Beiträge hrsg. v. Marielle Silhouette. Paris.
• 2015. Ming Tsaos Die Geisterinsel als Erforschung der Grenze zwischen Formlosem und Geformtem. In Sound and Performance. Positionen. Methoden. Analysen hrsg. v. Ernst, Wolf Dieter/ Niethammer, Nora/ Szymanski-Düll, Berenika/ Mungen, Anno. Bielefeld. S. 455-467.
• 2014. ‚Geister, Elfen, stellt euch ein’ Die Wunderbaren Wesen der Shakespearschen Imagination. In A Party for Will! Eine Reise ins Shakespeare-Universum hrsg. v. Hesse, Petra /Peter W. Marx. Berlin: Theater der Zeit. S. 166-182.
• 2014. William Shakespeares 'Othello' als Imagination des Fremden – Einblicke in das Bühnenleben eines Außenseiters. In Oper pur Köln. Das Magazin der Oper Köln. März 2014-Juli 2014.
• 2013. „Strukturen und Strategien der niederländischen Theaterlandschaft". Symposium des IAK Drama und Theater JGU. 25.6.2012. Erschienen in: Gall / Nickel (Hrsg.) 2013.Theaterlandschaften der Gegenwart. Rahmenbedingungen und Zeitbezüge im zeitgenössischen Drama. Tübingen. S. 255-266.

Presentations

• Around the Empire in 80 minutes. Imaginations of the foreign in 19th century set design, Vortrag im Rahmen der IFTR Conference, Belgrad, Juli 2018
• Where does the horizon lead to? The stage portal and the framing of the world in central European theatres,  Vortrag an der Tel Aviv University, Israel, November 2017
• Mediengeschichte I: Körper und Bild im 18. Jahrhundert, Vortrag im Rahmen der BA-Vorlesung »Mediengeschichte I «, Universität zu Köln, Wintersemester 2017/18
• Image-Space-Practices. Mechanisms of worldbuilding in 19th century set design, Vortrag an der JNU, New Delhi, Indien, September 2017
• Public Dis/Play: Curating an exhibition on theatre and play, Vortrag im Rahmen der International Summer Institute [SIC 2017], Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung Universität zu Köln, Aug 2017
• Der Ton macht die Musik – Analyseansätze zu Musik in Theater und Film, Vortrag im Rahmen der BA-Vorlesung Analysemethoden der Medienkulturwissenschaft, Universität zu Köln, Sommersemester 2017
• Klang I: Faszination Stimme – Medium Stimme, Vortrag der Rahmen der BA-Vorlesung »Mediengeschichte II«, Universität zu Köln, Sommersemester 17
• Shipwreck and hell - staged wonders and the interplay of sound and machinery, Vortrag an der Tel Aviv University, Israel, März 2017
• Of islands and woods – In search of nationhood, Berlin 1800, Vortrag an der JNU, New Delhi, India, März 2016
• „Where the bee sucks, there suck I“ - Microscopic view and the staging of fairies, Vortrag im Rahmen der IFTR Conference, Hyderabad, India, Juli 2015
• „Wo kann diese Musik sein? In der Luft oder auf der Erde?“ (Der Sturm, I,2) Über Wirken und Klang der Shakespeareschen Fabelwesen, Vortrag im Museum für angewandte Kunst Köln (MAKK), 30. März 2014
• "Shakespeare's Elfen zwischen Auge, Ohr und Verstand" Wirkweisen und Inszenierungstrategien des Übernatürlichen am Beispiel von Prospero's Books von Peter Greenaway und ‘The Tempest’ von Julie Taymor, Vortrag im Rahmen der BA-Vorlesung »Medialität der Sinne«, Kultur Theater Film der JGU Mainz, Wintersemester 2012/13