Playbill

Theater bill from the 19th century

A theater bill is a poster that is produced at very short notice and displayed on the day of a performance in and in front of the theater . Sometimes it is a handout that was distributed by a note bearer (as in Johann Nestroy's comedy Der Zettelträger Papp , 1827).

function

The name of the theater, the date of the performance, often also the beginning and end of the performance, the title or titles of the performance and the names of the performers and the authors of a theater evening are listed on the theater ticket. As a rule, the stage publishers and technical staff must also be mentioned today. In addition, there are often the admission prices and information as to whether it is a performance for subscribers .

The playbill has a middle position between information and advertising. It seldom contains pictorial representations. Special attractions are noted on historical theater slips, such as famous guests or particularly elaborate furnishings. Today, theater bills mainly provide information about cast changes and last-minute changes.

The cast slip inserted in the program has roughly the same content as the theater ticket .

history

The first handwritten announcement in German from 1466 announced a Passion Play in Hamburg . The oldest surviving printed German-language theater ticket is the "Rostocker Theatermarke" from 1520, an announcement for the festival in honor of the "Medelidinge Marie", which was always celebrated in Rostock on the Sunday after July 15th (in 1520 it was therefore the 22nd of July).

Theater bills are important historical sources for performance practice and the history of theaters and ensembles .

literature

Carl Hagemann: History of the theater ticket. A contribution to the technology of German drama. The medieval theater . Dissertation, University of Heidelberg 1901 ( digitized version )
Ruth Eder (Ed.): Theater Notes . (= The bibliophile paperbacks). Harenberg, Dortmund 1980, ISBN 3-88379-153-9
Ralf Eisinger (Ed.): Braunschweiger theater bill 1711 to 1911 . Eisinger, Braunschweig 1990
Johann-Richard Hänsel: The history of the theater bill and its effect in public . Dissertation, FU Berlin 1959
Klaus Schultz (Ed.): Munich Theater Bill 1807-1982. Old Residence Theater, National Theater, Prinzregenten Theater, Odeon . Saur, Munich et al. 1982, ISBN 3-598-10462-6
Ralf S. Schuster: Printed schedule lists of standing German theaters from the end of the 18th century to 1896. A critical bibliography . Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1985, ISBN 3-8204-8588-0
Cheerful episodes from the history of the playlist . According to older sources and own collections, communicated by Gotthilf Weisstein . Bargfeld: Luttertaler handshake 2007. ISBN 3-928779-23-0
Matthias J. Pernerstorfer (Ed.): Theater-slip collections. Development, digitization, research . (= Don Juan Archive Vienna: Bibliographica; 1). Hollitzer, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-99012-080-4
Matthias J. Pernerstorfer (ed.): Theater-Zettel-Collections 2. Holdings, indexing, research . (= Don Juan Archive Vienna: Bibliographica; 2). Hollitzer, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-99012-252-5
Hermann Korte: Theater Bill. A (hardly) rediscovered source of theater history . In: Hermann Korte et al. (Ed.): Media of theater history of the 18th and 19th centuries . Winter, Heidelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8253-6489-2 , pp. 93–126
Matthias J. Pernerstorfer: For the documentation, indexing and digitization of theater slips . In: Hermann Korte et al. (Ed.): Media of theater history of the 18th and 19th centuries . Winter, Heidelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8253-6489-2 , pp. 127-134