Permanent Theatre Research Articles

Das Unterhaltungsstück um 1800: Literaturhistorische Konfigurationen: Signaturen der Moderne by Johannes Birgfeld, Claude D. Conter

890 Reviews women writers in thisperiod. It is only when they are viewed in relation toGoethe, he argues, thatwriters such as Stein, Willemer, and Arnim can be taken seriously. The threeparts of the study deal with each of the threewomen in turn. Wallenborn provides detailed information about theirpersonal relations toGoethe and examines their letters, poems, plays, and novels against this backdrop. The situation of each woman isslightlydifferent.Stein isprompted to takeup her pen after meeting Goethe in Weimar in the 1770s; her early playlet Rino includes a spirited caricature of the celebrated author ofWerther. Over the years, as her friendship with Goethe turns sour, Stein gains more confidence and begins to address broader themes inher texts. Willemer looks continually toher beloved Goethe for inspiration and sees herwork as part of an ongoing dialogue with him: they read thePersian poet Hafiz together and shewrites 'oriental' love poems tohim (which he incorporates into theWest-ostlicher Divan). Later, when his initial interest in her cools, she seeks to recapture in her writing thehalcyon mood of their early acquaintance. Equally obsessed, Arnim uses her fictional letter-novel,Goethes Briefwechsel mit einemKinde, to stylize herself as his muse, rewriting letters to suggest that her influence on him was greater than it ever really was-and in theprocess promotes herself as awriter by stripping thegreat man of some of his poetic stature. Wallenborn's study offers a thorough account of an undoubtedly important as pect of thesewriters' works. He discusses both well-known and less familiar texts. However, his interpretations, based to a large extent on thewriters' biographies, are not unproblematic. He claims at times toknow exactly what experiences and feelings informed certain works, aswhen he sums up Stein's position: 'Dieser Anspruch auf Bekundung der eigenen Position istderMotor ihrergesamten Goethe-Rezeption. Sie will sich iul3ern.Sie will sich einbringen. Sie will ihre Meinung kundtun. [. . .]Die Gedichte aus dem Herbst 1786 verleihen ihrem Schmerz zwar Ausdruck, vermogen ihn aber nicht zu uiberwinden, wie dies etwa Goethe bei seiner Uberarbeitung des Mondliedes gelingt' (p. I70). Ultimately, he risksoverplaying thisone aspect of their work. He himself occasionally acknowledges that there is more to theirwriting than a fixationwith Goethe: he reads Stein's Dido (like some of the feminist critics he quotes at thispoint) as a tragedy dealing at heartwith contemporary ideas about gender. He mentions inpassing that Willemer was already writing poetry before shemet Goethe, and thatStein went on toproduce works which seemingly bear no relation tohim (to say nothing ofArnim's later oeuvre).Wallenborn concludes thatStein,Willemer, and Arnim deserve to be regarded not as 'Frauen um Goethe' but as 'Dichterinnen um Goethe'. Yet there is surelymuch more to theirwork than that. SWANSEAUNIVERSITY HILARY BROWN Das Unterhaltungsstiick um i8oo: Literaturhistorische Konfigurationen- Signaturen derModerne. Ed. by JOHANNESBIRGFELD and CLAUDE D. CONTER. (Forum fur deutschsprachiges Drama und Theater inGeschichte und Gegenwart, i) Hanover: Wehrhahn. 2007. xxiv+272pp. E34. ISBN 978-3-86525-005-6. The eleven essays in this volume provide insights intoGerman popular drama in the period from I770 to the firstdecade of the following century, a period that saw the establishment of permanent theatres throughout theGerman lands. The drama tists treated range fromwriters who are either well established, if in other styles or genres (Arnim), orwho merit at least a briefmention in studies of theperiod (Iffland, Klingemann, Kotzebue, Weissenthurn), to obscure figures such as JosephMarius Babo, Marianne Ehrmann, Karl von Reitzenstein, and August von Steigentesch. As traced by Stephan Kraft inone of themost accessible essays, theperiod saw a gradual MLR, I03.3, 2oo8 89I development away from theEnlightenment didacticism and sentimentality of Iffland and the reintroduction of traditional comic forms in thestyleof thecommedia dell'arte. Kotzebue's Die deutschenKleinstddter was crucial in thisprocess, as itestablished the ambivalence ofmood thatallowed both 'Verlachen' and 'Mitlachen' on thepart of the audience. The social satire inKotzebue's play, as examined more fully in the essay by Sandro Jung, isan important indication of the serious content of plays which, despite the termused in the titleof thevolume, are not to be seenmerely as 'entertainment' but as important reflectionsof social and political phenomena of the time, as detailed most extensively in the introductory chapter and in Johannes Birgfeld's essay on Friedrich Ludwig Schroder...

Adalékok a veszprémi színjátszás történetéhez (1723-1873) = Contributions to the history of Acting in Veszprém (1723-1873)

Researchers of the theatrical history of Veszprém, the country town of Veszprém County, have delt only with the period starting after the opening of the permanent theatre (1908). Focusing on pocket guides, reviews and playbills, the author of this essay is the first to explore the early years of acting in the town. Researchers have found 29 plays from the period of 1723-1776 that were presented to students and adults by the students of the Piarist Grammar School. Most of them were written in Latin to promote instruction and education. In the first half of the 19th Century the students of elementary and grammar schools donated the income of performances for charitable aims. Amateur acting of adults started in 1814. Professional Hungarian actors and actresses started visiting the town from 1820 and they played on stages that were temporarily formed in bigger restaurants. Both Hungarian and German theatrical companies showed up but from the 1840s German companies began to fall into the background and finally they avoided the town. The 10-15-member companies went by the taste of audience performing comedies, light comedies. While in the 1820s most plays were translated and adapted to the Hungarian circumstances, from the 1840s original Hungarian plays were provided. The theatrical fashion was dictated by theatres in Vienna and the National Theatre in the capital.

‘A Slice of Eastern Europe in Johannesburg’: Yiddish Theatre in Doornfontein, 1929–49

This article explores how location influenced attitudes to the preservation of Yiddish language and culture and hence the construction of historical memory. Between 1929 and 1949 the Johannesburg Jewish Workers' Club had a thriving Dramatic Section which produced Yiddish theatre with a leftist slant. It was situated in Doornfontein, the suburb east of Johannesburg, that from the early 1930s was the focus of the Eastern European immigration. Based on an examination of the Yiddish weekly newspaper, the Afrikaner Idishe Tsaytung [African Jewish Newspaper], this paper will examine why a permanent Yiddish theatre group never emerged, and why this rich and lively episode was ‘forgotten’ and erased from the collective memory of South African Jewry.

The Victorian marionette theatre

In this fascinating and colorful book, researcher and performer John McCormick focuses on the marionette world of Victorian Britain between its heyday after 1860 and its waning years from 1895 to 1914. Situating the rich and diverse pupper theatre in the context of entertainment culture, he explores both the aesthetics of these dancing dolls and their sociocultural significance in their life and time. The history of marionette performances is interwoven with live-actor performances and with the entire gamut of annual fairs, portable and permanent theatres, music halls, magic lantern shows, waxworks, panoramas, and sideshows. McCormick has drawn upon advertisements in the Era, an entertainment paper, between the 1860s and World War I, and articles in the World's Fair, a paper for showpeople, in the first fifty years of the twentieth century, as well as interviews with descendants of the marionette showpeople and close examinations of many of the surviving puppets. McCormick begins his study with an exploration of the Victorian marionette theatre in the context of other theatrical events of the day, with proprietors and puppeteers, and with the venues where they performed. He further examines the marionette's position as an actor not quite human but imitating humans closely enough to be considered empathetic; the ways that physical attributes were created with wood, paint, and cloth; and the dramas and melodramas that the dolls performed. A discussion of the trick figures and specialized acts that each company possessed, as well as an exploration of the theatre's staging, lighting, and costuming, follows in later chapters. McCormick concludes with a description of the last days of marionette theatre in the wake of changing audience expectations and the increasing popularity of moving pictures. This highly enjoyable and readable study, often illuminated by intriguing anecdotes such as that of the Armenian photographer who fell in love with and abducted the Holden company's Cinderella marionette in 1881, will appeal to everyone fascinated by the magic of nineteenth-century theatre, many of whom will discover how much the marionette could contribute to that magic.

Masculinity and Legitimacy on the English Musical Stage: The Mature Male, 1800-1845

That music holds an uncertain place in Anglo-American culture is clear to many musicians sensitive to issues of respect. Although widely enjoyed, from Elizabethan times it has sometimes failed to receive a degree of esteem consistent with its extensive pursuit. Denigrated as ephemeral or suited only to women, foreigners, lower classes, and those of limited aptitude, music—often singing or playing the piano—has been seen as inconsistent with an idea of meaning based on verbal expression. Eighteenth-century British intellectuals such as Lord Chesterfield and John Locke most famously argued the point, Chesterfield in letters to his son ("I would rather be reckoned the best barber than the best fiddler in England"), Locke in his writing on education ("Amongst all those things, that ever came into the List of Accomplishment, I think I may give it [music] the last place").1 In the nineteenth century, similar attitudes were played out in ideologies of music as a feminine accomplishment to be pursued at length but without serious attention or ambition.2 [End Page 1] The disjunction between belief and practice has long characterized the English-language musical theater. English-speaking audiences have been less enthusiastic about all-sung opera than their counterparts on the European continent, and instead have favored a tradition of dialogue opera, musical comedy, and a host of other theatrical genres with music.3 The use of speech creates options that can exaggerate the differences between music and words by allowing for characters who do not sing. In this way, musical theater can define the limits of musical expression, circumvent important questions of musical style and representation, and draw a line between mu-sic's sphere and the world beyond. These tensions are especially noticeable in the musical theater of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a hugely popular institution and repertoire based in London and scattered throughout Britain and North America.4 In London the amount of music in a theatrical production was even regulated by law. The patents granted in 1662 by Charles II still gave permission to perform staged entertainment in London and to build two permanent theaters for it. Under the Theatre Licensing Act of 1737, the two theaters, by that time Drury Lane and Covent Garden,5 were authorized to offer word-based comedy and tragedy with no music at all. By the 1790s, they had been dubbed the "legitimate" stage.6 The many others, known as "minor" theaters to mark their lower status, were to produce "entertainments"—not "plays" —required to include music of some kind.7 Along with substantial amounts of music in genres such as melodrama, pantomime, burletta, and pastiche, they incorporated stage machinery, elaborate lighting, occasionally animals, and other spectacular effects. They were usually also replete with topical content; themes such as the French Revolution and its aftermath, slavery and the slave trade, industrialization, and social dislocation showed their ability to respond to the upheavals of the era.8 And finally (and hardly surprising), they were consistently condemned in the press for these characteristics, along with impropriety and disregard for intellectual property.9 Thanks to the licensing system, the differences between the patent and minor theaters and between the legitimate and illegitimate stage were clear in word and spirit. But in practice, the laws were, as Frank Rahill has put it, "legally dubious, frequently violated, always unpopular and [End Page 2] capriciously enforced."10 Indeed, the interpenetration of theatrical vehicles and personnel between the patents and the minors, along with the latter's subterfuges (Jane Moody's term) used to meet the legal requirements, is a key characteristic of the theater of the time and a main source of its extreme generic fluidity.11 The exchange of musical repertoire and techniques (such as melodrama and pantomime) between the patent and minor theaters speaks to an underlying acknowledgment of...

The Uncompleted Theatres of Rome

As many as three permanent theatres were commissioned in the city of Rome in the second century BCE and never completed. Although many have cited ancient writers on the moral and political opposition to permanent theatres at this and later times, the fact that permanent theatres could be officially approved but not completed has never been satisfactorily explained. The evidence we have concerning the uncompleted theatres indicates that at least two of them were meant to be free-standing. The only feasible way to build a Roman-style free-standing theatre is by using concrete vaulting to support the seating area. An analysis of the remains of surviving concrete structures from the second century BCE indicates that the concrete would not have been strong enough to support the necessary seating. Therefore, it is likely that the faction who would have opposed the construction of permanent theatres in Rome seized on the impracticality of the structures for an excuse to ban them.

The Pompey Project: Digital Research and Virtual Reconstruction of Rome's First Theatre

In 55 B.C. the triumphal general Pompey the Great dedicated Rome's first permanent theatre and named it after himself. This was no ordinary theatre. Pompey's sumptuous and grandiose edifice probably the largest theatre ever built comprised, in addition to the Theatre itself (the stage of which was 300 feet wide), an extensive "leisure-complex" of gardens enclosed within a colonnade, and galleries displaying rare works of art. It also included a curia (a meeting house for the Senate), and it was in this building that Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. A grand temple above the uppermost tiers of the auditorium, dedicated to Pompey's patron divinity, Venus Victrix, crowned the entire architecturally unified monument. Although the theatre was built upon the flats of the Campus Martius, this, its highest point, was second in height only to the temple of Jupiter on the capitol. According to our research, the auditorium or cavea beneath it may have accommodated some 25,000 spectators.1 Pompey's gift to the Roman people was for centuries the site of many of the most important events in the cultural and political life of the city.2 Nero himself performed upon its stage,3 much to the disgust of the senatorial class and the delight of the masses. As late as the 6th century A.D., when it was restored for the last time the theatre was still sufficiently imposing for Cassiodorus to exclaim, "one would have thought it more likely for mountains to subside, than this strong building be shaken".4 Over five centuries earlier, when Vitruvius wrote his influential treatise, De Architectura, his detailed account of how a "typical" Roman theatre should be built was based upon Pompey's recently-completed edifice; indeed, at the time he wrote, it was probably still the only stone theatre in the city of Rome.5 Thus, through Vitruvius, the Theatre of Pompey became the architectural Ur-text for many of the numerous theatres built throughout the Roman Empire. Subsequently, in the Renaissance, through the influence of Vitruvius, the Theatre of Pompey left its imprint upon such seminal theatres as the Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza and the Teatro Farnese at Parma. This single theatre, therefore, had a unique

Ravishing Strides: Signs of the Peripatetic in Early Modern Performance

Actors' feet are accepted as part of their expressive equipment – but doubts are often expressed that this has always been so. The evidence of early English theatre history is adduced to suggest otherwise, while recent treatments of the peripatetic in literary studies argue that the ‘visible walk’ attains prominence only in the Romantic period. But David Roberts argues that, from the emergence of permanent theatres, walking offered a metonymy for performance which persisted throughout the seventeenth century. Cross-dressing highlighted the expressive potential of the feet, while close examination of play-texts implies evolving styles of the peripatetic in performance, and the scenic theatres of the Restoration frequently portrayed walking as a cultural activity bound up with the status of both actors and scenery in post-revolutionary London. David Roberts teaches English and Drama at University College Worcester, and has published widely on theatre and literature from 1550 to 1789. He leads an AHRB-funded project on theatre criticism.

Tertullian on the Opening of Pompey’s Theater in Rome

Tertullian on the Opening of Pompey’s Theater in Rome Darryl A. Phillips College of Charleston During his second consulship in 55 B.C. Pompeius Magnus opened Rome’s first permanent theater. According to the early Christian writer Tertullian (De Spect. 10.5) Pompey overcame a ban against such theaters by erecting a shrine to Venus above the cavea and calling his theater the steps of the temple: Itaque Pompeius magnus, solo theatro suo minor, cum illam arcem omnium turpitudinum extruxisset, veritus quandoque memoriae suae censoriam animadversionem, Veneris aedem superposuit et, ad dedicationem edicto populum vocans, non theatrum, sed Veneris templum nuncupavit, cui subiecimus, inquit, gradus spectaculorum. Ita damnatum et damnandum opus templi titulo praetexuit et disciplinam superstitione delusit. So when Pompey the Great (outdone only by his theater) had built that bastion of every turpitude, fearing future denigration of his memory, he set above it a shrine to Venus. Summoning the people by decree to its dedication, he called it not a theater, but a Temple of Venus, under which, he said, we have set steps for watching shows. In this way he disguised with PHILLIPS: TERTULLIAN ON THE OPENING … 209 the title of temple a banned structure (which deserved its banning ), and mocked morality with superstition.1 Tertullian’s tale is unique among accounts of this theater’s history, which should perhaps arouse our suspicions. His aim is to highlight the corrupt religious practices and moral character of the Romans. Modern readers, less alert to his religious agenda, delight in the guile that supposedly enabled Pompey to honor the letter of the law while violating the spirit of the prohibition. As a result, this appealing account has long been cited as an important literary source for Pompey’s complex. Many of the details, however, do not stand up to examination, and should be rejected in the face of other evidence. Nor has enough weight been given to Tertullian’s skewing of fact to make anti-pagan propaganda— his prime motive in writing the De Spectaculis. To begin with, Tertullian asserts that Pompey included a shrine in his complex to overcome a ban against permanent theaters in Rome. In fact, the prohibition may have had considerably less influence on the plan for the theater than Tertullian suggests. More than half a century ago, D. K. Hill noted that, whether or not there was opposition, Pompey had good reason for building a temple above his theater. Theaters, Hill argued, regularly included shrines above the cavea. J. A. Hanson expanded Hill’s thesis in his monograph on the Roman theater-temple architectural form. Hanson demonstrated that religion and theater had long been linked in the Roman world and that Pompey had a number of recent architectural models for his building. For example, the sanctuaries at Gabii and Palestrina, both located close to Rome and pre-dating Pompey’s complex, included both theatrical spaces and shrines. Pompey’s theater ultimately included at least four other shrines above the seats in addition to the shrine to Venus discussed by Tertullian.2 Theaters with such shrines were an established Roman tradition. The enforcement and terms of the ban against permanent theaters pose another problem. This prohibition dates back to 155 B.C., when 1 The text of Tertullian is that of Castorina. All translations are by the author. 2 Suetonius (Claud. 21.1) refers to a plural number of shrines (superiores aedes). They were dedicated to Venus Victrix as well as to Honos, Virtus, Felicitas, and another divinity whose name begins with a V (Degrassi, II 13.2.493–494). 210 SYLLECTA CLASSICA 12 (2001) the censors had begun to build a stone theater near the Palatine. The consul P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica moved the Senate to order its destruction (Liv. Per. 48; Oros. 4.21.4; Val. Max. 2.4.2; Vell. 1.15.3).3 By the time of Pompey’s project, however, enforcement of the century-old ban had very probably lapsed. The splendid wood and marble theater that had been erected by M. Aemilius Scaurus in 58 B.C., shortly before the completion of Pompey’s structure, seems to have remained standing long after its initial employment was over.4...

Yiddish Proletarian Theatre: The Art and Politics of the Artef, 1925-1940

Foreword by Jules Dassin Preface From Socialism to Communism Toward a Jewish Workers' Theatre The Studio Early Productions The Rise and Fall of the Permanent Theatre Facing America Russian Imports From American Documentary to Socialist Realism Victory on Broadway Toward a Professional Theatre The Days of the Popular Front At the Daly Theatre, 1937-38 Resurrection and Demise Appendix Bibliography Index

Shakespeare and the Birth of Polish Romanticism: Vilna 1786–1846

The first phase of a long and complex process of the Polish reception of William Shakespeare's oeuvre ended in the middle of the nineteenth century with the popularization of new translations and the gradual elimination of French and German classicist adaptations. Vilna, vital centre of Polish culture, science and art, was the birthplace of Polish Romanticism and a hotbed of theatrical innovation. Vilna was also, at the turn of the eighteenth century, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and one of the major cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The school stage of Vilna Academy, established by Stefan Batory in 1578, had been active since 1582. In 1639, English actors belonging to Robert Archer's company may have visited the town; though the performances planned by King Wladyslaw IV did not take place. A permanent professional theatre was opened in 1785, when Wojciech Boguslawski, the greatest personality of the theatre of the Polish Enlightenment, came up from Warsaw with his troupe.

Chekhov, Shakespeare, the Ensemble and the Company

The visit to Britain in the spring of 1994 by the St Petersburg Maly Drama Theatre – described by Peter Brook as ‘the finest theatre ensemble in Europe’ – was warmly received by audiences and critics alike. Yet in Britain the idea of this kind of ‘permanent’ theatre company, so dear to earlier generations of actors and directors, seems not to have survived the climate of the 'eighties, and there is a sense that such remaining permanent companies as the Moscow Art Theatre and the Berliner Ensemble are dinosaurs from a more collectivist past. In an interview with Izvestiya, however, the Maly company's director, Lev Dodin, castigated western theatre for being ‘just a branch of the economy’ and having no permanent companies on what he called ‘the Russian model’. What is the truth about ensembles and permanent companies? In 1991, as part of research for an essay on Chekhov and the ‘company problem’ in British theatre, Patrick Miles interviewed Peter Hall on the subject of ensembles and companies. Peter Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company as a permanent ensemble in 1960, directed the National Theatre for fifteen years – but not as a permanent theatre company – and since 1988 has been running his own, impermanent company in the theatrical market-place. At the time of the interview, here edited for publication, Peter Hall was rehearsing Twelfth Night at the Playhouse Theatre, London. Patrick Miles's essay ‘Chekhov and the Company Problem in the British Theatre’ was included in Chekhov on the British Stage (Cambridge, 1993).

‘Nice Girls’: the Vic Gives a Voice to Women of the Working Class

Since its opening in 1961, the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent has arguably been England's most adventurous and inventive repertory theatre, distinguished by the number and range of new plays it has produced – and particularly by the series of local documentaries which has set out to explore and reflect the life of the local community. The first issue ofTheatre Quarterly(1971) covered the early years of the old Victoria Theatre, and included an article by the director, Peter Cheeseman, on the company policy and production style of what was then Britain's only permanent theatre in the round. In addition, a ‘Production Casebook’ followed the creative processes and the techniques involved in rehearsals of one of the early Vic documentaries, TheStaffordshire Rebels. Here, Graham Woodruff looks at developments in the later Vic documentaries and, in the light of current discourses on popular theatre, history, and class politics, examines the implications of a regional theatre giving voice to ‘women of the working class’ in the latest Vic documentary,Nice Girls. Graham Woodruff, who has been Head of Drama at the University of Birmingham and for sixteen years worked for Telford Community Arts, wrote in NTQ28 (1989) on the politics of community plays, and is currently undertaking research on the ways in which the contemporary theatre gives expression to workingclass voices and interests.

Songs at the Well: Double Edge Theatre

Artists and cultures: How do they connect? What does it mean, in an era that has seen both the deconstruction of cultural heritage and its resurgence, to work with one's with a particular heritage? What strategies are most useful: preservation, confrontation, or transformation? Double Edge Theatre of Boston has been involved with these questions for over a decade. Their example contributes to the ongoing debate about the artist's relationship with culture and community, in its aesthetic, political, and economic aspects. Double Edge Theatre was founded in 1982 by its artistic director, Stacy Klein. The company describes itself as a center for the development of living culture, and its work can be regarded as a rare manifestation of third in the United States. The company's early productions were regarded as by the press and public, and ranged from Wendy Kesselman's My Sister in This House (1983) and Had She Spoken by Daina Robins, adapted from Christine Brueckner's If You Had Spoken Desdemona (1984/85), to Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1985). The feminist label was soon to be confounded, however. A move from conventional rehearsal and production patterns to full-time study and training, and the acquisition of a permanent theatre space, accompanied what appeared to be a major transformation. Double Edge became an ensemble creating original works marked by striking physicality and investment in traditional, frequently Jewish, cultural material. Although Double Edge's long-time performance space is at the Church of St. Luke and St. Margaret in Boston and the company has established many connections with other Boston theatres, it does not depend on the Boston small-theatre market for its audiences and support. In the mid1980s, Double Edge undertook a series of collaborations and training experiences with a number of international artists. These included, among others, Rena Mirecka and Zygmunt Molik of the Teatr Laboratorium,

Theatre nursing in Uganda.

My experience of nursing in Uganda was gained in Kisiizi Mission Hospital where I worked short term as acting theatre sister, in the absence of the permanent theatre nurse who was on long overdue leave. That I had had no theatre experience did not seem to bother the warm-hearted senior sister. And so it was that this remote little hospital became my home for 3 months.

El Coliseo de la Cruz: Illustrations from the Archivo Municipal de Madrid

Forty-four weeks of work beginning on Sunday 8 July 1736, and culminating on 11 May 1737, produced the first modern public theatre in the city of Madrid. Constructed on the site of the first permanent theatre at a total cost of some 515,809 reales, it was undoubtedly a spectacle to behold for the Madrid citizenry of that time, so accustomed to the starkness and modesty of the corrales. The building served the public as a theatre for over 120 years. On 3 July 1859, the demolition project for the theatre was advertised for bids in both the Gaceta de Madrid and the Diario Oficial de Avisos de Madrid, and by 15 October the city architect, Don Juan Jose Sanchez Pescador, had inspected the site and declared the project complete. La Esperanza of 15 November 1859 reported: ‘Ya esta empedrado en forma de calle y pronto se abrira al transito publico el solar del teatro’.

Formation of Theater Districts in Precincts of Temples and Shrines in Kyoto during the Late Edo Period

During the Edo period, city dwellers used precincts of temples and shrines in cities for various purposes. However, such places have not been studied sufficiently in geographical studies on cities of the Edo period. Therefore, it is important to consider the role which they played in cities during the Edo period. In this paper, I try to investigate what kinds of performances were put on in such places in Kyoto during the late Edo period. Because a place where various performances were put on was one of the typical functions they had.In Kyoto, various performances were put on not only at Shijo-Kawara but also in other places such as precincts of temples and shrines during the Edo period. Most of performances in such places were put on at temporary theaters when a certain festival was held there. And after performances ended, theaters and other buildings were removed.But in the nineteenth century, performances of kabuki, ningyo-joruri and so on were put on regularly at“Teramachi”(a part of the district of temples and shrines in Kyoto: Teramachi-Sanjo∼Teramachi-Shijo) and Inaba-Yakushi. In these two precincts, there were permanent theaters and the same showman put on performances for a long time and young actors trained themselves. Furthermore, there were also vaudeville theaters, recreation facilities, restaurants, notions stores and so on at“Teramachi”. In the middle of the nineteenth century, performances in these two precincts were forbidden and the theaters were moved to other places by the Tokugawa Shogunate (Tenpo-kaikaku). But at“Teramachi”, a theater district was rebuilt several years later.By the way, if we pay attention to the states of the temples and shrines in Kyoto during the late Edo period, we can become aware that the formation of theater districts in these two precincts was one of the phenomena which often arose in Kyoto after the big fire in the end of eighteenth century (Tenmei no taika). Part of precincts of some temples and shrines changed into leased land or rented houses. In case of leased land, the tenants built some buildings, and most of them or rented houses were not used for religious purposes. The main reason for such changes was financial one, especially raising funds for reconstruction or restoration of temples and shrines themselves.These leased land and rented houses brought about formation of a small town. At “Teramachi”and Inaba-Yakashi, it took the form of a theater district Especially at “Teramachi”, the formation of a theater district is a significant phenomenon in relation to the urban structure of Kyoto during the Edo period. First, by this phenomenon, “Teramachi”was clearly included in the big amusement quarter that had been expanding in the east part of Kyoto since the late seventeenth century. Besides it brought about the change of Teramachi which was one of the symbols of the change of Kyoto into a city of the Edo period. Moreover, this change of Teramachi was brought about not by the Tokugawa Shogunate but by the lower classes. Such state continued fundamentally in the Meiji era and the change of Teramachi was more promoted.

Vitruvius and Roman Theater Design

Vitruvius and Roman Theater Design

The Stage-Struck Wilhelm Meister and 18th-Century Psychiatric Medicine

Theater became one of the most important cultural forces in 18thcentury German life. At the beginning of the century, there were ever-changing, disorganized conglomerations of wandering players who performed various kinds of amusing, folksy, and risque pieces. They roamed the countryside in their costumes, making funny faces, dancing jigs, extemporizing, and doing whatever pleased them, in order to eke out a living, which, more often than not, meant prostituting themselves, stealing, or fast-talking their way into shelters that would provide warmth, food, and drink. Their behavior was such that solid bourgeois Christians not only eschewed social contact with them while they were alive, but also applauded the fact that they would be treated differently after death. Until the end of the century, such performers were simply denied legal burial in consecrated ground. As religious views, social mores, political affiliations, and artistic tastes changed during the course of the 18th century, so too did the status of the performing artist, whether master of ceremonies, musician, juggler, actor, dancer, or opera singer. Permanent theaters were founded, and increasing concern was given to mounting dramas of some artistic quality. Little by little, those who had been certified as social abominations developed, strangely enough, into role models of exemplary human behavior.' Poets

Fredericton Janet Amos

Work has never been lacking for women : domestic chores have been relegated to their attentions since time immemorial. It is only recently in terms of our history, that women have been admitted into the professional, man’s world of work , to exercise their talents and skills and vie for a place of their own. In light of this it is necessary that we give a shout of joy and congratulation when one of “ us” achieves a height hitherto unknown to womankind . One such instance is that of Janet Amos who early in 1984 was named the successor to Malcolm Black as artistic director of Theatre New Brunswick in Fredericton. Amos’s new post has been described as “ arguably the most important permanent theatre post now held by a woman .’”1“ Indeed, she is the first woman ” to be entrusted with the artistic leadership of a major regional Canad ian theatre.“2