German private, touring theatre. The Dorftheater Siemitz was founded in 1997 in the village of Siemitz (region of Mecklenburg) by puppeteers, filmmakers and musicians, Sabine Zinnecker and Dietmar Staskowiak (also a composer). Already since 1992 they had been developing, in cooperation with the painter, producer and theatre director Hans W. Scheibner, the beginnings of the expressive, border-defying aesthetics of their shadow and puppet theatre productions with live music, such as Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (The Bremen Town Musicians, 1992) at the Kammer- und Puppentheater Wismar (Wismar Chamber and Puppet Theatre). Often inspired by literary works, their shows for children and adults derive their vitality from the close links between music and stage design. Examples of their work include: Ganz weit woanders (Far Away Somewhere, 2003), based on the work The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder by Henry Miller; the shadow puppet show of Don Quijote (Don Quixote); and Der lebender Leichnam (The Living Corpse), based on a work by Leon Tolstoy.

(See also Germany, Shadow Theatre.)