It was an institution in the district, popular with young and old.
The folding theater led by Martin Prochaska and Thomas Nied immersed two generations in other worlds.
The two artists toured from Fondi to Flensburg and from Saarbrücken to Dresden to tell their stories with their characters.
Now they said goodbye - at an exhibition.
Dachau -
Martin Prochaska was always the man behind the stories of the folding theater. He invented them, drew the characters, built the puppets and sets, and finally played the characters as well. He even designed the posters for the pieces himself. “Tom and Dudel”, “The Apple Man” and the adult play “Boulevard of broken Stars”, for example, were part of the repertoire. The two have already played the former 1,000 times. Nied was responsible for the music. He composed, played and was also seen on stage as an actor. It went like this from 1988 to 2020. The folding theater made for “enchanted” children and enthusiastic parents. But now it's over. Parkinson's disease forces Prochaska to quit.
The fans were allowed to differentiate themselves from the two artists and their beloved characters for two weeks in the small old town gallery. Tom, Dudel and the apple man hung there, ready to be inspected up close by the visitors. This shows the details and love with which Prochaska designed his figures. If you asked nicely, you got a small deposit, because the two were always there. The stick figures of the play "Bernd the Bear" were also exhibited in one room. “We played the piece about 300 times from 1993 to 2015,” recalls Nied. Martin Prochaska, who was actually more into puppet play, saw stick play as a challenge and invented the fable especially for it. So the bear Bernd stood on a boat with the evil animal tamer Krax.Mama goose and papa frog and the children stood by and the magic fish hung on the wall.
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The folding theater figure “The Drummer”, which was shown in the exhibition, can really hit the drums.
© mik
"It was also important for us to see them all hanging here again and to say goodbye," says Nied.
Of course they are a little sad that it is over, but above all the joy outweighs due to the numerous, great experiences and encounters.
The visitors also reminisced: “This drummer the way he played it! How time-consuming it was, that was quite an achievement, ”praised one visitor. In fact, what made the dolls so special was that they not only imitate, but actually play the drums and ride a unicycle, or juggle or tap. Another visitor revealed in front of the clown puppet Paul with the roller skates: “I have a postcard with Paul on the desk. And when I have a bad day, I look at it, remember its acrobatic ease, and I feel better. ”Sentences that prove that Prochaska and Nied were able to win hearts with their game.
