Ulrich Maiwald. Actor, teacher and professor in the subjects of applied theatre, language training and improvisation theatre. I met him as teacher at a seminar on „organized chaos - improvisation and self-efficacy“, which was as funny as intense and instructive.
He made me treasure the interview with him even more as it took place on his birthday.
HAPPINESS
Encounters with people make me happy. During seminars, in school – felicitous moments filled with activity, mutual goodwill, sometimes resistance too. When change happens and you are creating something new together.
Great moments on stage are fulfilling me. When a spoken word moves something in my inside, no matter whether I am playing or sitting in the audience. Moments, when you are feelimg something opening up, initiated by a word, body language or an encounter.
One more thing is sitting in the garden, listening to the birds, watching the leaves and to think: How beautiful is this.
HOME
Home depends on the people who mean something to me. Home is, where I can be with people to whom I belong and I feel a connection with.
And finally, there is a place deep inside of me, where I am feeling at home. A non-physiological, but psychological, spiritual internal space. Sometimes, I lose it when I get stuck in outer troubles, but it is always there and it is nice to gain the focus to return.
LIFE
At fourteen years, I have been standing on a stage for the first time. All of a sudden, I realized: I can transform, I can change! I can make something visible that is inside of me and show it to others. At that moment, a door opened, that still exists: The insight about the moment of transformation.
The second incident happened, when I was part of a clique in the 11th class and realized: The individual has no importance, regarding the group's fun-factor. Later in my life, I broke it down to: If you truly want to be yourself, you have to step out of the group and follow your own path. You are carrying the responisbility for your personal development growth by yourself.
Thirdly, the encounter with my wife, because we really gain something of each other, in our artistic work as well as in our lifes.
Simon's question: Why don't you live your dreams?
I have the privilege to already live a great part of my dreams. What accompanies the other part is a strong feeling of responsibility, for my family – I have four sons – and the places I am working at. At the moment, I still like to bear this responsibility, but I think I would organize my time differently if I didn't feel it that strongly... I would like to have more time, for my artistic explorations and experiments, which are a very essential part of my work and life. It feels as if I would reflect in the evening that it has been a beautiful day, but it could have had a few more hours...
Ulrich's question to you: What do you do, what can you do to make the world more beautiful?