OPEN-AIR THEATRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 196, 19 August 1936, Page 16

OPEN-AIR THEATRE.

BGBLIN STADIUM FOR 20,000. BERLIN. Germany's new colossal open-air theatre —named the "Dietrich Eckart Buhne," after the Nazi poet and friend of Herr Hitler —which has been specially built in Berlin near to the gigantic Sports Stadium, will be opened to the general public during the Olympic Games in August.

Foreign visitors are to be given an idea of Nazi dramatic culture in this imposing theatre, which has a seating capacity of 20,000.

Eberhard Wolfgang Moeller, a young Nazi author, has written a special play, "The Frankenburger Dice Play," which will be .presented on August 2, 5, 6 and 14. Rehearsals for this piece have already begun. They are under the direction of Mathias Wiemann, an actor who once belonged to Max Reinhardt's ensemble. 011 August 15 there , will be a concert of musical'works entered for the Olympic Games prize.

The Handel work was given a full dress rehearsal, and Berlin critics are enthusiastic about the acoustics of the theatre. ,

, With its 85 rows of seats descending steeply into the earth before the classically 'fashioned stage, and with the dark trees of the Grunewald as background, the theatre is extremely imposing.