Multilayered Writing in Hamburg Prompt Books and Playbooks since the 18th Century
2019–2025
RFD08
Part 1 (2019–2022)
The first part of the project examined a selection of multilayered prompt books archived in the ‘Theatre-Library’ collection, which includes around 3,050 spoken theatre books for 2,100 plays, at the Hamburg State and University Library from the late 18th to and early 19th century. These prompt books were created by multiple participants engaging in diverse manuscript practices which continually revised the unfixed literary text within its theatrical context. Based on the results, the project has come up with a transdisciplinary approach towards handwritten artefacts in modern European theatre by exploring the many-handed creation, handwritten transformation and often decades of use of prompt books in a time increasingly dominated by print. A respective monograph can be accessed here (open access).
Part 2 (2023–2025)
Building on the methodological approach developed in its first three years, the continuation of the project includes additional types of written artefacts from spoken theatre while branching out historically and further refining its framework: the project focuss on multilayered written artefacts from the 'Theatersammlung' (theatre collection) at Staatsbibliothek Hamburg. The 'Theatersammlung' contains more than 10,000 mid-1870s to mid-1980s prompt books and playbooks, mostly from the still renowned 'great' Hamburg theatre houses (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Thalia Theater). The breadth of the collection puts on display the historic development of written artefacts in European spoken theatre over a century: a large number integrates drawings; handwriting persists and often dominates in the interaction with print, early typewriting and the history of photocopying. Above all, the early 20th-century rise of the artistic director ('Regisseur') gives way to a prominent new type of multilayered and multigraphic written artefact in the performing arts: the 'Regiebuch' (director’s prompt book or, for better differentiation, 'director’s log') which, in sharp contrast with common academic approaches, the project squarely situates within the performing arts manuscript culture as a whole. This holds especially true for the most spectacular items of the 'Theatersammlung': director’s logs by one of the originators of European 20th-century directors’ theatre ('Regietheater'), Leopold Jessner (at Thalia Theater from 1904 to 1915), whose main estate was lost during his exile.
People
Project lead: Martin Jörg Schäfer
Research Associates: Alexander Weinstock (2019-2022); Anna Sophie Felser (2023-2025)