Theatre in Handwriting

1. Why did you choose this topic?

Prompt books from late 18th and early 19th centuries German theatre are fascinating artefacts that are mostly handwritten. A lot of them were used and constantly revised over several decades. While most prompt books we've come across work in a largely similar fashion on a macrolevel, their long period of use has made each of them a beast of its own. We wanted to explore how this particular manuscript culture of theatre relates to our common notions of theatre culture and literature at the time.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

Our book outlines a historiographical praxeology of prompting with a fresh perspective on the relationship between theatre, material culture and text. By combining and reshaping approaches from manuscript studies, theatre studies and literary studies, we demonstrate how each prompt book connects the multiple agents and technologies that make up the theatre as an overall set of cultural practices. In reverse, the material biography of each prompt book is shaped by the history of its use.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

The practices of creating, using, and archiving prompt books create the material ›infrastructure‹ necessary to stage texts of dramatic literature in theatre. Our book showcases the large number of agents participating in these practices, the complicated relationship between the handwritten prompt books and print, their responsiveness to the (real or perceived) demands being made by audiences and the authorities, and the complex processes involved in adapting a play to the stage.

4. Your book summary in one sentence:

Prompt books are multi-handed creations that connect literary texts with theatrical processes on a material level and in a performative fashion.