26. Trouble: A 'Star Collective' or a Collective of 'Stars'?
Lessons of the 'Troupe 1931' Theater Ensemble
The original author of these essays was Ingeborg Franke von Wangenheim.
One of the ways that set Troupe31 apart from other theater groups was how we credited our plays’ authorship. For us, the issue arose as part of the preparation of press notices and program announcements for “The Mousetrap.”
Up until then, credit “automatically” was given to the play’s “principal writer” — in our case, Gustav Wangenheim — who commonly received full credit. However common it was, many members or our troupe were unhappy with this practice of crediting one single prominent person (or “promi”). One fellow told us that it left “an unpleasant after-taste in the mouth.”
Few of us, in fact, were very receptive to the idea that one “leader,” Wangenheim, should receive all the credit for composing the play, in what was actually a collective effort. (Remember: we’d all been encouraged to help define and create our own characters.) Public recognition of Wangenheim as sole author of the play seemed to raise his public profile, while our own equally-deserving creative work was being “swept under the rug.”
We discussed the matter in a meeting. In the end, we came up with a “radical” solution that, quite happily, also proved to be the easiest and cheapest one….