At the end he puts a gun to his head and cries. Then the curtain falls. The audience takes a moment before applauding, first hesitantly, but then all the more frenetically. Michael Siegert’s most beautiful stage moment is over. He played a sixfold murderer there, the play is called “Tannöd”, and although the production dates back a few years, Siegert still raves about it. “The atmosphere was so real, so moving, it was amazing. I always had goosebumps. It wasn’t difficult for me to cry either.” It was then at the latest that he understood what good theater can do.
Good acting – Michael Siegert’s passion has been with him for a long time, and now even more so: he was elected the new boss of the Markt Schwabener Theaterverein. And if you take a closer look at the 38-year-old’s career so far, which he calmly and yet pointedly talked about at a meeting in the theater at Burgerfeld, it’s not really surprising.
Siegert was born in 1984, just before the Markt Schwabener Weiherspiele celebrated its very first premiere. Siegert’s parents’ house is right next to the small lake, so that even little Michael could hear the songs and the applause through the open window on many summer evenings. Josef Schmid, founder and initiator of the pond games, lived in the neighborhood. “And when it came to improving the pocket money, my brothers and I didn’t deliver newspapers, but helped set up the floating stage,” says Siegert. “It was incredibly funny and exciting.” He was also allowed to take on small extra roles as a teenager. “The pond games – that’s childhood for me. That’s why my heart is particularly attached to it.”
This is what it looks like when the theater association rehearses on the pond.
(Photo: Theater Association/oh)
So Siegert came into contact with the theater association early on, with its actors, but also with the many helpers behind the scenes. But it still took a while before he was supposed to get into it more deeply, as he made his first experiences as an actor in the theater group at the secondary school. Incidentally, together with Ferdinand Maurer, who today plays a key role in shaping the productions at the pond as an author, director and actor.
The two up-and-coming players only came to the theater association when Marga Kappl under its roof young stage founded a group for teenagers and young adults only. And that’s when Siegert finally caught the acting bug: “It was just a great supporting program under the best conditions,” says the 38-year-old, while letting his gaze wander through the club’s own hall. “And soon I was allowed to play bigger, very nice roles.”
But Siegert was not only creative at the theater association at the time, he founded the group together with Maurer and other young actors nudistwho has been doing furious improv theater for many years, and also at the Border theater of Ludwig’s heirs by Sebastian Schlagenhaufer from Grafing, the market Schwabener is there. “It was a slow disconnect that certainly didn’t do any harm,” says Siegert in retrospect and laughs – after all, he has always remained loyal to the theater association. As an actor, a member of the committee and, for the past few years, also as the person responsible for the stage design.
Siegert has created a program that can be used to display the pond scenery as a 3D design. “That’s very important for the planning,” he explains, “because that way everything can be checked in detail. Can you see everything from every seat in the audience, or is something being covered? Do the watercraft even fit between the parts of the stage? Or where can you put them Park the carriage?”
This is what it looks like when Michael Siegert simulates the design of the lake stage on the computer.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Craftsmanship, technology, organization, acting: Yes, Michael Siegert, it seems, has many talents – in this respect he is probably an absolute stroke of luck as the new chairman. But choosing a career was less easy for him because of his many interests, he says. In the end, it turned into a degree in communications technology in Munich. Today the 38-year-old, who is currently single, works at the Bavarian radio, where he is responsible for technical innovations. “To do this, I do a lot of workshops and keep doing pilot projects.”
Siegert’s predecessors, Schmid and Franz Stetter, only took over the management of the club when they were retired. The latter once said that managing the Weiherspiele was like running a small company. In this respect, he sees the office as a challenge, says the new, young chairman, “the footsteps are big”. But thanks to the opportunity to work from home, he hopes to be able to be present at the pond often during the hot phase. And Michael Siegert also wants to continue to be on stage. “I just need that – for Gfui,” he says and grins. However, whether he will still have enough time as chairman for his other hobbies, hiking and sailing, is not yet clear.
In any case, Siegert starts his term of office with a lot of momentum and new ideas. The corona pandemic has also severely damaged the Markt Schwabener Theaterverein, he says: some things simply fell asleep and one or the other comrade-in-arms was unfortunately lost – but numerous shoulders are urgently needed, especially for the Weiherspiele. “That’s why I really want to motivate more people to be active with us again. Be it on stage or around it – everyone is very welcome here.”
In the summer of 2023 there may not only be theater on the Schwabener Weiher market, but also other events.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
But in order to be attractive to new members, you have to offer something – that’s why the new boss wants to give the club a boost and make more offers. “We have a lot of ideas, acting seminars, for example, would be nice, or a weekend in a hut.” In order to find out which activities and structures would make sense, the association committee has already set up working groups on various topics.
Another idea, according to Siegert, is to give the summer weeks at the pond a kind of festival character with various accompanying events in addition to the theatre. “It is still uncertain whether anything will come of it, because we are dependent on subsidies on this point, and of course we still need to make arrangements with the authorities and local residents.” And the Markt Schwaben theater people are also open to criticism from outside: During the Weiherspiele 2022, the audience was asked for feedback via QR code for the first time, says the new boss. “We want to know what we can do better!”
Incidentally, Michael Siegert is optimistic when it comes to the club’s offspring: “My niece is only seven, but has already registered for the school theater elective. That honored me very much.”
If you would like to get in touch with the theater association: simply send an email to [email protected].