CSMC
CSMCCentre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures
“Die Temperamente des Theaters”: A Digital Tour of the Exhibition
25 November 2024
Photo: SUB Hamburg
In October, UWA presented an exhibition at SUB Hamburg highlighting a little-known piece of German theatre history: the staging books of Leopold Jessner, one of the most important directors of the Weimar Republic, from his time at the Thalia Theatre. The exhibition can now be experienced digitally.
With his abstract design of the stage space and his interventions in the literary texts, Jessner (1878–1945) was a pioneer of today’s ‘Regietheater’. Forced to emigrate in 1933, most of the material he produced as director of the Prussian State Theatre was lost in exile, making the written artefacts from his time as a young director and stage manager at the Thalia Theater, where he worked from 1904 to 1915, all the more valuable. In an exhibition at the Hamburg State and University Library from 25 September to 27 October, we showed these written artefacts to the public for the first time, including the director’s, stage manager’s, prompt and role books from Jessner’s productions in the context of contemporary working life at the theatre.
For those who missed the exhibition or would like to see it again in detail, a digital tour of the exhibition room at the SUB is now available. The 360-degree reconstruction not only offers views of all the objects on display – in addition to the staging books, for example, postcards and newspapers from the time as well as Jessner’s bust, which was moved from the foyer of the Thalia Theatre to the SUB for the duration of the exhibition – but also provides access to all the posters and the bilingual exhibition catalogue.
‘Die Temperamente des Theaters: Leopold Jessner’s Staging Books at the Thalia Theatre’ was a collaboration between the Cluster of Excellence UWA, the SUB and the Thalia Theatre. The exhibition was conceived as part of the research project on ‘Multilayered Writing in Hamburg Prompt Books and Playbooks since the 18th Century’, which is being conducted by Martin Jörg Schäfer and Anna Sophie Felser.
