Synopsis:
This book makes available for the first time an overview of a significant segment of European theater history and, with few exceptions, none of the documents presented have been published in English before. Gathered from a rich variety of sources, including imperial and municipal edicts, contracts, architectural descriptions, playbills, stage directions, and actors' memoirs among others, the book sheds light on one of the most fascinating areas of cultural life in the German and Dutch speaking countries.
Review:
"...a thorough, interesting, and useful 'collection of primary source materials for teachers and students' covering two and a half centuries of the German and Dutch theater." Choice
"It is impossible in a review of this length to consider the many details of theater ideology, production, craftsmanship, artistry and assessments of appeal which are represented by the documents in this volume. One can, however, applaud the highly successful efforts of the compilers, marvel at the diversity of the materials, and look forward with great interest to subsequent volumes." Sixteenth Century Journal
"[F]or English-speaking/reading historians of the theatre and drama, this anthology will become indispensable....The repertoire of touring companies, the kinds of regulations to which they were subject, the changes over the years in the composition, stability, professionalism, and artistic attention of theatre companies, in architecture and staging, in audiences and relation to their urban contexts, the growing sophistication of theory and criticism--all these things are traced out here in a quite remarkable diversity of unfamiliar documents. This is an essential collection." Timothy J. Reiss, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature
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