Once each year or so Astrid directs a German play at the Donauschwabens' German American Cultural Center. After ten years, she's ready for a break, so if you live in Cleveland, are fairly fluent in German and like people and laughing a lot . . . We try to do a fairy tale every other year. Our biggest problem is clearing the commercial interpretations of fairy tales out of people's minds and getting them to believe that their own re-creation of a character is just as valid and a whole lot more fun.
Fairy tales belong to the people .
Here some surviving witches share shop-talk with Gretel. Astrid's right-hand woman is Margot. Whether on-stage acting or behind the stage creating special effects, things just wouldn't get done as creatively or as efficiently without Margot, who is now the president of the Donauschwaben Kulturgruppe. We tried one 18th century production . . . Most of our actors are born in the US, speak dialect at home and learned German in school.