- Helene Weigel
Helene Weigel (
12 May 1900 inVienna –6 May 1971 inBerlin ) was one of the outstandingactors of her generation. She was the second wife ofBertolt Brecht .The daughter of a
Jewish lawyer, she became aCommunist Party member from 1930 and Artistic Director of theBerliner Ensemble after her husband Brecht's death in 1956. Among the Brecht roles she is most noted for creating are: Pelagea Vlassova, "The Mother" of 1932, "Antigone" in Brecht's version of the Greek tragedy, the title role in his civil war play "Seňora Carrar's Rifles " and, most famously, the iconic Mother Courage.Between 1933 and 1947, as a refugee from
Hitler 's Germany, she was seldom able to pursue her acting craft - even during the family's six-year stint inLos Angeles . It was only with the foundation of the Berliner Ensemble in theGerman Democratic Republic in 1949 that the brilliance of Brecht's theatre began to be recognised worldwide. She died in 1971, still at the helm of the company, and many of the roles that she created with Brecht are still in the theatre's repertoire today.External links
* [http://www.berliner-ensemble.de/ Berliner Ensemble]
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