Fraulein Schneider

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 11:39pm

Hey guys! I'm doing character research on Fraulein Schneider in my production of Cabaret. I made up a name for her but I was wondering if she was ever given a real first name. I was thinking maybe it was mentioned in the original play "I Am a Camera" or in any of the Goodbye to Berlin stories? If anyone has any of those or happens to know if Fraulein Schneider was given first name from those could you tell me. I'm going with the name Ruth as of now lol.

[tim10086]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 12:03am

Bwaybaby, in "I am a Camera", all references to this character name her as "Frauline Schneider". I've also read The Berlin Stories and I don't believe she's given a first name.

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 12:04am

really? man thats a big mystery then. thank you so much!

[QueenS]

Posted: 2/22/06 at 10:30am

In the Berlin Stories, she is actually Fraulein Schroeder.

I'm not sure whether I agree with your choice of giving her a traditionally Jewish first name. Though it does harken back to the plotline in "I Am A Camera" of the closeted Jewish man...

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/22/06 at 10:48am

Don't give her a first name. The playwrights obviously thought Frauline Schneider was enough. IMHO, that is what she prefers to be called. That's how people know her. In her head, that's the way it is. A question you should ask - two actually - is "Is it better this way - that people don't know my first name?" and "How does not having a first name affect who the character is?"

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 3/8/06 at 12:12am

i realize that you guys posted this a while ago and i apologize for now responding. i understand the playwright's choice on not giving her a first name and i totally agree that fraulein schneider would like to be formally addressed by her last name. however i am the kind of actor who likes to know everything about the character. it helps me to have a back story so i can know the character in depth. therefore, giving myself a first name is a good step...lol. thats just my opinion and how i work as an actor. and i just wanted to know if anybody knew any info on her character in the earlier works. but my production is already over so this can end. i just had to back up my reasoning. and the reason why i came down to ruth is because i found a picture of a woman actually called ruth schneider during the 1940's in Germany. She was the wife of a diplomat from some foreign country in Europe I forget. She wasn't Jewish from what I understand. Anyways, thats how i chose that name.