When Ernest Martin finished his schooltime at the
Boys High School in
Brooklyn, he studied
psychology at the state university
City College of New York from 1950 to 1953. Then from 1954 to 1955 a study of
theatre studies at the drama school of the
University of Washington in
Seattle followed. After his study, Ernest Martin made a one-year apprenticeship at
Joseph Papp's
East 6th Street Theater. In this time he was inspired by the theatre group
The Living Theatre, whose „unconventional approach to the modern theatre provoked a strong resonance at that time in America.“ Already during his study, Ernest Martin gathered first experiences as director at the
Off-Broadway. In 1951 he produced the
one-act play Reunion, which was written by himself and performed at the
Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. Afterwards he directed several theatre plays such as
Six Characters in Search of an Author by
Luigi Pirandello or
The Skin of Our Teeth by
Thornton Wilder, which were also performed at the
City College Of New York. After a trip to
Europe in 1960, Ernest Martin decided to live in
Germany, where he wanted to use his longtime experiences with
improvisational theatre and creative theatre work with
amateurs. So, he moved to Germany in 1961 and found the Düsseldorf theatre group
Die Bühne in 1964, which was renamed in
Die Bühne – Experimentiertheater Düsseldorf in 1968. Ernest Martin directed a lot of theater plays and ran the group until 1987. Especially for their self-written plays, the group gained attention. The German news magazine
Der Spiegel compared their work with the Off-Off-Art of Joseph Papp's
Public Theater and
The Living Theatre. Ernest Martin co-founded in 1984 the theatre
Das junge Theater in der Altstadt in Düsseldorf, whose theatre manager he was until 1998, and which now belongs to the
Forum Freies Theater. Then in 1989, he co-founded the theatre
Das Seniorentheater in der Altstadt, also located in Düsseldorf.
Das Seniorentheater in der Altstadt is an amateur theatre, which in 2014 has 33 members, who are between 60 and 88 years old. Furthermore, Ernest Martin worked as actor and dancer. For example, in the eighties he appeared in the play
Harald und die Boys, which was performed at the
Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and the
Schauspiel Köln, or in
Mandela vor Gericht, which was performed at the
Theater Basel. He finished his over fifty-year-old theater-career as dancer in the
Pina Bausch - dance production
Kontakthof für Damen und Herren ab 65, which was performed from 2004 to 2009 in Germany and some European countries, like
Italy or
France. Ernest Martin lives in Düsseldorf for over 50 years. == Work (selection) ==