Erwin Piscator

Piscator, Erwin , (1893–1966), German theatrical director and producer who, with Bertolt Brecht, was the foremost exponent of epic theater, a genre that emphasizes the sociopolitical context rather than the emotional content or aesthetics of the play. He worked experimentally in Berlin after 1919. As director of the Volksbühne (1924–1927), and later at his own theater (on Nollendorfplatz), he produced social and political plays especially suited to his theories. His dramatic aims were utilitarian—to influence voters or clarify left-wing policies. He used mechanized sets, lectures, movies, and mechanical devices that appealed to his audiences. In 1928 he produced a notable adaptation of the Czech novel The Good Soldier Schweik. Piscator went to the United States in 1939 and became director of the Dramatic Workshop and the Studio Theater, which he founded at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

He had to return to West Germany during the McCarthy era in 1951. He was appointed manager and director of the Freie Volksbühne in West-Berlin in 1962 and promoted documentary theater analyzing the German national socialist past (e.g. Rolf Hochhuth, The Deputy). His stage adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace has been played in 16 countries since 1955 as well as three times in New York City. Piscator's influence on European and American production methods was extensive.