Editing Rainer Werner Fassbinder (section)

==Theater career==
At age 22, Fassbinder joined the now defunct Munich Action-Theater in 1967; there, he was active as actor, director and scriptwriter. After two months he became the theatre's leader. In April 1968, now 23, he directed the production of his play ''Katzelmacher'', which tells the story of a foreign worker from [[Greece]] who becomes the object of intense [[Racism|racial]], [[Miscegenation|sexual]], and [[Far-right politics|political]] hatred among a group of Bavarian "slackers". A few weeks later, in May 1968, the Action-Theater was disbanded after its theater was wrecked by one of its founders.<ref name=" Elsaesser 301">{{harv|Elsaesser|1996|p=301}}</ref> It promptly reformed as the Anti-Theater under Fassbinder's direction.<ref name=" Elsaesser 301"/> The troupe lived and performed together. This close-knit group of young actors included among them Fassbinder, [[Peer Raben]], [[Harry Baer]] and [[Kurt Raab]], who along with Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann became the most important members of his cinematic stock company.<ref name=" Elsaesser 301"/> Working with the Anti-Theater, Fassbinder continued writing, directing and acting. In the space of 18 months he directed 12 plays. Of these 12 plays, four were written by Fassbinder; he rewrote five others.

The style of his stage directing closely resembled that of his early films, a mixture of choreographed movement and static poses, taking its cues from musicals, cabaret, films and the student protest movement.

After he made his earliest feature films at age 24 in 1969, Fassbinder centered the efforts of his career as film director, but maintained an intermittent foothold in the theater until his death. He worked in various productions throughout Germany and made a number of [[radio plays]] in the early 1970s. In 1974 at age 29, Fassbinder took directorial control over the Theater am Turm (TAT) of Frankfurt; when this project ended in failure and controversy, Fassbinder became less interested in theater.

In honor of [[Rosa von Praunheim]], Fassbinder staged the play ''Dedicated to Rosa von Praunheim''.