Albrecht Roser's earliest success came in 1951 with his first string puppet, CLOWN GUSTAF, an impish, humorous character. As he built new marionettes and created new scenes over the years, his program of one-marionette vignettes, GUSTAF AND HIS ENSEMBLE, was born.
PERFORMANCE
Roser has toured with resounding success throughout Europe and North Africa,
7 tours through Asia and Australia, 17 tours in North and South America. Many of these tours were organized in cooperation with the German Cultural Institute.
FESTIVALS
With GUSTAF AND HIS ENSEMBLE, Roser has represented Germany at numerous festivals of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) and other organizations: 1958 Bucharest (gold medal), 1962 Braunschweig, 1971 Nashville, 1976 Moscow, 1979 London, 1980 Washington,
1984 Lansing and Dresden, 1994 Barcelona, 1994 and 1995 Tokyo,1998 Fairfax, Poland and Denmark, 1999 Lodz and Dublin, 2000 China; World Puppetry Festival in Magdeburg; New York: Jim-Henson-Festival.
LARGE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
1983 "Dance of the Raven" - a Legend of Creation, 1988 "Don Juan" (music: Ch. W. Gluck)*, 1991 "Mozart Divertimento" (music: Mozart)*,
"A Soldiers' Tale" (music: Igor Strawinsky)*, *productions for the European Music Festivals of the Internationale Bach Akademie, Stuttgart.
1996 "A Soldiers' Tale", in cooperation with ARLEKIN Theatre in Lodz, Poland, two awards at the Theatre Festival Torun; 1998 "The Music Box" (music: Claude Debussy), in cooperation with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra within its childrens concert series.
TELEVISION
Over a period of 30 years, Roser has directed and performed in numerous productions for German television, such as "Telemekel and Teleminchen", "Der starke Wanja", "Der dritte. Ton",
"Die Nachtigall", "Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt".
GRANNY FROM STUTTGART moderated numerous productions, making her own very personal comments on the state of the world like on the TV series "WAS DIE GROßMUTTER NOCH WUßTE" SWR, Germany.
THEATRE
In 1983 Roser co-founded the FITS Figurentheater Stuttgart, with several other puppet theatre groups of Stuttgart.
TEACHING AND WORKSHOPS
In 1977, Roser was invited to spend a semester as guest artist at the University of Connecticut USA by the Department of Puppetry. As a result of this experience, he became instrumental in the establishment in 1983 of the Figurentheaterschule Stuttgart, a school for puppetry at the Conservatory for Music and the Dramatic Arts, where he was professor and head of the department.
"Internationales Institut, Albrecht Roser: Die Marionette, Bau und Spiel"
Since 1996 annual International Summer Academies in Germany, and at the State University of Connecticut, USA, and in Varazdin, Croatia and now in his private Studio in Remshalden-Buoch.
Workshops are offered for beginners and for professionals about string-puppetry.
You will find information under "teaching".
STAGE JUBILEE
CLOWN GUSTAF, the head of the distinguished GUSTAF AND HIS ENSEMBLE, celebrated his 50th year on stage in 2001 - a phenomenon for both a string puppet personality and the world of puppetry.
