“Rehearsal Before the Director: Playwrights and Actors Taking Responsibility”

 

Ginters, Laura, and Tim Fitzpatrick. “Rehearsal before the Director: Playwrights and

Actors Taking Responsibility.” European Drama and Performance Studies, vol. 2, no. 13, 2019, p. 47. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=202019118954. Accessed 29 June 2021.

The authors use the texts of Macbeth and Othello, along with the diary of a nineteenth century German actress, to support their assertion that before directors, playwrights and actors shared responsibility for the successful production of multiple plays each season. To help actors prepare, and to help audiences to understand changes in space and time, playwrights embedded textual cues such as scene breaks, a split exits and entrances, dialogue, sound effects, and sometimes large props (Ginters 49-52). Nineteenth century European acting companies’ repertories were “prodigious” (59). At the Court Theater in Weimar, in 1816, rehearsals were limited, including reading, blocking, theater, and dress, for a total of four to six rehearsals for a new play (Ginters 60). To prepare for performances, actors worked for many hours outside the theater. They relied on one another for help “learning” their various parts, shared props and costumes, and even helped other actors dress for performances, spending “their days and evenings in one another’s company” (Ginters 64). For a nineteenth century actor, the close relationships with the other actors of their company made a large repertory of successful productions possible.

-- Jess Fraser