When Florian Bille and his wife Wlada conjure up the play “Kasperl und die Wunsch-Laterne” on the small stage these days, he might think how nice it would be to really have this lantern in his hand. The first thing Kasperl wants is a sack full of money so that he can pay his rent. Florian Bille could also use it right now. Because his small marionette theater in Unterschleißheim has bled dry financially. He has often experienced difficult times. But now – after Corona and because of inflation – all reserves have been used up. “At the moment we are financially on the brink,” says Bille. “Actually, we’re already over.” The “Friends of the Bille Marionette Theater” association is therefore now launching a public appeal for donations and hopes that someone will help to solve the biggest problem: after umpteen moves, a permanent venue that is affordable is needed.
Wlada and Florian Bille are very popular with their small theatre. And yet it is always about survival.
(Photo: private)
The history of the Bille puppeteer family dates back to 1794. But things have not gone well for Florian Bille in recent years. In 2012 he lost the permanent stage at Bereiteranger near Munich’s Mariahilfplatz, where the theater had been at home for 27 years. The Billes found accommodation in the rooms of the visually impaired center in Unterschleißheim. Because of the pandemic, they had to get out of there and moved into an empty shop in the Isar-Amper center near the town hall. Because there was no second escape route, they needed a new place to stay at short notice at the end of 2021. The evangelical church community helped. It went to Genezareth House and then to Mary Magdalene House. There, too, the guest performance is now over because there are again problems with fire protection. Now the puppeteers are moving back to the center for the visually impaired – knowing full well that this is not a permanent solution.
Florian Bille experiences the schizophrenic situation that the theater in Unterschleißheim, which has existed for ten generations, receives a lot of support, but is always on the verge of collapse there. A solution was always found when the old venue collapsed. A regular audience has also been won and many supporters have been found, who once again start a call for help with their association. Nevertheless, Bille estimates the current situation to be even worse than in 2012, when at times it was not at all clear where the theater should be accommodated. The center for the visually impaired already accommodated him when it came to the rent, he says. But 800 euros are still “incredibly” a lot for the theater. The income could not be increased. A ticket costs eight euros. Even though many people have advised him to do so, Bille does not want to charge higher admission prices because he fears that the audience will then stay away. “If I raise, at some point I won’t have any more customers,” says Bille, who emphasizes that his family with a wife and two children is attached to the theater.
ÖDP city councilor Bernd Knatz would like to help the theater become a municipal venue.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The city was and is a support. This grants grants. But Bernd Knatz, husband of the chairman of the association, wants more. In October 2021, as ÖDP city councillor, he applied for the theater to be sponsored by the city in order to provide financial security in the form of an annual deficit compensation. As a long-term goal, the city council should decide on a declaration of intent to provide the puppet theater with its own municipal venue with adjoining rooms. So far nothing has happened. Bille says there’s a request for the city to increase grants. But he is skeptical given the strained city finances.
The family theater survived the war and the flight from the GDR
The operation of the theater will continue for the time being. The performances in the Maria-Magdalena-Haus are scheduled for the end of the year. The program for the old and new venues in the center for the visually impaired is set, starting on January 7 with “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The puppeteers are also working on a production of The Magic Flute. As a romantic fairy tale, this Mozart opera was made for marionette theatre, enthuses Brigitte Knatz, chairman of the association. The theater has “become a valued and popular institution in Unterschleißheim’s cultural life”.
Knatz hopes that someone who can provide rooms of 150 to 200 square meters or who knows where to find them will get in touch. These would have to have a room height of at least 3.50 meters, plus toilets and a place for the cloakroom and a kiosk. Storage areas and a workshop would be desirable. And: It must be possible to fulfill the requirements for fire protection. Not a point to be underestimated, as the Bille family in Unterschleißheim found out several times.
Since 1794 it has survived all adversities, most recently the Second World War and difficult times in the GDR, where the puppeteers experienced political pressure and were banned from working. The family crossed the then still open border to the west and started over in 1961 because the fundus had been left behind in the GDR. After a stop in Stuttgart, the traveling theater established a permanent stage in Munich, which Florian Bille took over from his grandfather in 2009. Since 2012 he and his wife Wlada have been fighting to finally settle down with the dolls.
Further information can be found on the homepage of the Marionette Theater Bille https://www.marionettentheater-ush.de/.