Musicals, operas, operettas or revues - more than 1,400 amateur music theatres (AMT) provide entertainment with their performances in the German-speaking cultural area. In a new database on AMT, interested parties can now find all the information they need at a glance. It was published in June by the Department of MusicDidactics.MusicalTheater_Praxis.Research at Paderborn University. The aim of the database is to record and describe the recent development of AMT in a differentiated and regionally focused way. The AMT database also enables the ensembles to gain more and better knowledge of each other, to get in touch with each other on a supra-regional level and to network in their practical music theatre work.
The AMT database lists non-professional amateur ensembles in Germany and border regions of the neighbouring countries Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Krettenauer, the team of academics, music and theatre educators and students collected the data between 2019 and 2023 by means of research in playbills, trade journals, internet magazines, portals, forums and archives. The ensembles are systematically recorded in the database according to various criteria, including sponsorship, location, web presence, music theatre genres and the repertoire of the plays performed.
"With the database, we want to point out an amateur culture that has become more and more established and considerably expanded in recent years. Anyone who wants to get an idea of amateur music theatre in their region, find performances or perhaps even join in themselves will find what they are looking for in the database," says Krettenauer. The entries also serve the researchers as a basis for further research on amateur cultural activities in the field of music and musical theatre.
Further information and access can be found on the AMT database website.
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