Reinhardt, Max, 1873–1943, Austrian theatrical producer and director, originally named Max Goldmann. After acting under Otto Brahm at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, he managed (1902–5) his own theater, where he produced more than 50 plays. He was director of the Deutsches Theater after 1905 and of the smaller Kammerspiele, which he built in 1906. Reinhardt often used the entire auditorium for a production, seeking to bridge the gap between actor and audience by placing the spectator within the action. He staged gigantic productions, full of pageantry and color, and was especially noted for his direction of mob scenes. His settings, which incorporated the ideas of Appia and Craig, were masterfully executed. Among his world-famous productions were The Lower Depths, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Faust, Oedipus Rex, and The Miracle. He was also one of the first to stage the plays of the expressionists after World War I. In 1919 he opened an enormous arena theater, the Grosses Schauspielhaus ("Theatre of the Five Thousand"), and in 1920 he was among the founders of the Salzburg Festival Salzburg Festival, annual festival of music and drama held in Salzburg, Austria, for five weeks starting in late July. The festival may be considered a descendant of the Salzburg Music Festival Weeks that the Vienna Philharmonic gave irregularly between 1877 and 1910.
..... Click the link for more information. , where he annually staged Everyman with the Austrian Alps as his backdrop. In 1933 he was forced by the Nazis to flee Germany. In the United States he directed a movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and a stage pageant with music by Kurt Weill Weill, Kurt (k

rt` vīl), 1900–1950, German-American composer, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , The Eternal Road (1934, produced 1937). He became a U.S. citizen in 1940.

Bibliography

See H. Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt (1914, repr. 1964); J. L. Styan, Max Reinhardt (1982).

Reinhardt, Max

orig. Max Goldmann

(born Sept. 9, 1873, Baden, near Vienna, Austria—died Oct. 31, 1943, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German theatrical director. After studying drama in Vienna and acting in Salzburg, he joined Otto Brahm's company in Berlin in 1894. Reinhardt directed his first play in 1902 and managed a small theatre from 1903. He had directed more than 40 plays by 1905, when he became famous for his creative staging of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He bought Berlin's Deutsches Theater and remodeled it with the latest innovations in scenic design and lighting. Known for the extravagant theatricality and stunning visual effects of his productions, he won much praise for his staging of the religious spectacle The Miracle (1911). In 1920 he cofounded the Salzburg Festival, where he staged Jedermann (an adaptation of Everyman) in the cathedral square. He left Germany in 1933 and eventually settled in the U.S. A major influence on 20th-century drama, he helped increase the creative authority of the director.