Alexandra Zimmermann

At the present moment I am preparing an article on the staging of the artist in university second-language drama productions for scenario. language. culture. literature, a journal for drama and theatre in foreign and second-language education. I am a peer reviewer for the same journal.

I have also embarked on a research project for scenario with the purpose of generating a report on the state of drama pedagogy in second language acquisition at institutions within the educational system in Canada.

In March 2016 I produced, coordinated and directed a multilingual and multicultural theatre night (Languages Attract) involving skits (authored by first-year students) and scenes presented in French, Spanish, Arabic and German.

I have staged a total of nine theatre productions in German, mostly connected to the course GM220: Performance in German: eight at Wilfrid Laurier University, one at the University of Waterloo.

My role was that of a producer, director and occasionally writer of the dramatic script (sometimes co-authored by students). With many music students participating, some were done in collaboration with the Faculty of Music.

• 1999: Rafik Schami: Die Befreiung der Träume (The Liberation of Dreams)
• 2002: Elias Canetti: Der Ohrenzeuge (The Ear-witness)
• 2003: Wer war Mozart?  (Who was Mozart?)
• 2005: E.T.A. Hoffmann Fest
• 2008: Faust (In Cooperation with the Puppet Shadow Theatre of Kitchener Waterloo)
• 2008: Die Macht der Nixen (Mermaid Power)
• 2012: Else und Franz (Scenes from the lives of Else Lasker-Schüler and Franz Marc)
• 2014: Kaffee, mein Geliebter! (Coffee, my Beloved!) (University of Waterloo)
• 2016: Languages Attract ... A Night of Language Theatre

For many years I have organized German Immersion Weekends in the countryside in collaboration with the University of Guelph. Students could participate in German drama workshops, experience the cuisines of the German-speaking world and relax during a German movie night.

For the last ten years I have been administering the Annual German Language and Video Contest for high school students in the Waterloo Region. Quite frequently former contest participants and winners return as Laurier students in the following year.

All students enrolled in GM220 have the opportunity to be part of a public theatre production in German.

Book:

• Von der Kunst des Lobens. Eine Analyse der Textsorte Laudatio (The Art of Praising. An Analysis of the Genre of the Academic Encomium), Munich 1993.

Chapter in a book:

• “Laudationes auf Wissenschaftler” (Encomia on Scholars), in: Harald Weinrich (ed.): Linguistik der Wissenschaftssprache (Linguistics of Scholarly Language), Berlin 1994, 217-281.

Articles:

• “Ei, wie schmeckt der Coffee süße … die Gestaltung des Themas Essen und Trinken im interkulturellen Deutschunterricht” (Oh, how sweet this coffee tastes … The Topic of Food and Drink in Intercultural Language Learning), ZIF (Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht) (Journal for Intercultural Foreign Language Teaching) [Online], 10 (1), 2005, 16 pp. (reviewed)
• “Des Klassenzimmers großes Welttheater” (All the Classroom's a Stage), Forum Deutsch (Publishing Organ of the Goethe-Institute Canada) 13 (Herbst 2004), 36-42. (reviewed journal now)
• "Nach einem Duett mit Julia höchste Exaltation. Zur Rolle von Literatur, Kultur und Musik im E.T.A. Hoffmann-Fest der Wilfrid Laurier Universität, Waterloo, Kanada" (After a duet with Julia highest exaltation. On the role of literature, culture and music in the E.T.A. Hoffmann-Fest of Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada), scenario 2 (2007), 18 pp. (reviewed)