Meininger Company

Meininger Company, troupe of actors resident at the Court of George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, led by his morganatic wife the actress Ellen Franz (1839–1923). The Duke, who directed the plays himself and also designed the costumes and scenery, was ably assisted by the actor Ludwig Chronegk (1837–91), who joined him in 1866 and became responsible for the general direction and discipline of the company. The innovations for which the Meininger company later became famous had a great influence throughout Europe, firmly establishing the creative and interpretive role of the director and pioneering ensemble acting. Historically accurate scenery and costumes were used, and the setting of the chief actors within the scene took the place of formal groupings, while the handling of crowd scenes was revitalized by making the crowd a personage of the drama—every member an actor in his own right, yet the whole responding to the needs of the moment in a unified way. By the use of steps and rostrums the action was kept moving on different levels, and the inadequacy of the conventional painted set was overcome by moving from two-dimensional to three-dimensional scenery, making use of the box-set. Though the Duke never sought to abolish stage waits and so give Shakespeare's plays in one continuous, rapid flow, his other reforms were exemplary, and even included the requirement that star actors should from time to time play minor roles. In 1874 the Meininger company appeared for the first time outside its own town when it visited Berlin and in 1881 it was seen in London, appearing at Drury Lane in Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and The Winter's Tale, all in German, as well as in a number of German and other classics. In the following years up to 1890, when Chronegk's health broke down and the tours were discontinued, the company visited 38 cities in Europe; Stanislavsky saw the Meiningers in Moscow on their second visit there in 1890, and Antoine saw them in Brussels; thus the two men who were to become the greatest exponents of stage realism both came under the Meininger influence, which through them spread far into the 20th century.