Research Catalog

Title

Max Reinhardt / J. L. Styan, Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English Literature, Northwestern University.

Author

Styan, J. L.

Publication

• Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1982.
• ©1982

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 171 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

Max Reinhardt (1873-1943), one of the major theatre figures of the twentieth century, was among the first to establish the importance of the director in modern theatre. His fame outside Germany rests somewhat unfairly on his distorted image as producer of giant, Gothic spectacles staged in vast auditoria or cathedral squares. In this book Professor Styan is concerned to illustrate Reinhardt's astonishing versatility as director of more than six hundred productions, which together cover almost all the dramatic genres and all the major theatrical movements of the time. Professor Styan explains Reinhardt's place in the history of Austrian and German culture and world theatrical movements. Using contemporary reviews and the Regiebuch, or director's promptbook, he describes in detail the organization, performance and impact of some of the director's major productions: his symbolist interpretation of Ghosts and Salome; the expressionist experiment with plays by Wedekind, Strindberg, Sorge and Buchner; the Shakespeare sequence, including the classic A Midsummer Night's Dream; productions of Greek tragedy, Goethe, and the baroque spectacles such as Everyman, which together cover almost all the dramatic genres and all the major theatrical movements of the time. Professor Styan explains Reinhardt's place in the history of Austrian and German culture and world theatrical movements. Using contemporary reviews and the Regiebuch, or director's promptbook, he describes in detail the organization, performance and impact of some of the director's major productions: his symbolist interpretation of Ghosts and Salome; the expressionist experiment with plays by Wedekind, Strindberg, Sorge and Buchner; the Shakespeare sequence, including the classic A Midsummer Night's Dream; productions of Greek tragedy, Goethe, and the baroque spectacles such as Everyman.

Series Statement

Directors in perspective

Uniform Title

Directors in perspective.

Subjects

• Theater
• Reinhardt, Max (Regisseur)
• Reinhardt, Max, 1873-1943
• Reinhardt, Max 1873-1943
• Fürstliches Schauspielhaus Bad Pyrmont
• Theater > Production and direction > Austria > 20th century
• Theatrical producers and directors > Austria > 20th century
• Toneelregie

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. 164-165.

Performer (note)

• Cast: Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Peter Finch.

Contents

An explosion of ideas in the theatre -- Beginnings in impressionistic realism: Ghosts (1906) -- Into symbolist drama: Sumurun (1910), Venetian night (1912) -- Expressionist experiment: The ghost sonata (1916), The beggar (1917), Danton's death (1916) -- Reinhardt's Shakespeare: A midsummer's night's dream (1905), The merchant of Venice (1905), Macbeth (1916) -- a style for every play: Faust (1909), The miser (1917), Oedipus Rex (1910) -- The baroque spectacles: Everyman (1911), The miracle (1911), The Salzburg great theatre of the world (1922) -- Reinhardt man of the theatre: playhouses, technical advances, repertory, rehearsal -- Theatre productions of Max Reinhardt.

ISBN

• 0521224446
• 9780521224444
• 0521295041
• 9780521295048

LCCN

81018172

OCLC

• ocm07948067
• 7948067
• SCSB-36366

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library