Hamburg Dramaturgy

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The Hamburg Dramaturgy (German : Hamburgische Dramaturgie) is a highly influential work on drama by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, written between 1767 and 1769 when he worked as a dramaturg for Abel Seyler's Hamburg National Theatre. [1] It was not originally conceived as a unified and systematical book, but rather as series of essays on the theater, which Lessing wrote as commentary on the plays of the short-lived Hamburg National Theater. [2] This collection of 101 short essays represents one of the first sustained critical engagements with the potential of theater as a vehicle for the advancement of humanistic discourse. In many ways, the Hamburg Dramaturgy defined the new field of dramaturgy, and also introduced the term. [3]

Contents

During the time Lessing wrote the Hamburg Dramaturgy, there was a new movement of German theatre, based on self-reflection. [4] Actors were beginning to perform the inner and outer lives of their characters at the same time. One of Lessing's most famous and renowned quotes from the compilation considers the responsibilities of the actor and the playwright: “The great discernment of the drama critic lies in his ability to distinguish, whenever he feels pleasure or displeasure, to what extent that feeling should be credited to the writer or to the actor” [5]

The idea of a journal with Lessing as a dramatic critic to reflect on the Hamburg National Theater's efforts was conceived by the theatre's founder Johann Friedrich Löwen, and Abel Seyler, "the power behind the throne," who at first reluctantly agreed, but was eventually won over by the journal's success. [6] [7] Because the plays of the new German Bourgeoisie theatre became more detailed and complicated, the audience often felt confused or left out; Lessing’s development of the Hamburg Dramaturgy was in part a reaction to this. [8]

Topics covered by Lessing in the series of essays include Aristotle's theory of tragedy, acting theory, the role of theater in society, the means by which theater achieves its emotional effects, criticism of the actor and the play, issues of translation, and a nascent theory of the psychology of emotions. [9] Lessing's writings were influential for many German theater artists who came after, notably Bertolt Brecht.

Analysis of actors

The analysis of the actor, according to Lessing, is grey area for a dramaturge. [10] It is important to know that with an actor's performance, the circumstances are a large factor to the performance, whereas, for example, the text itself is easier to judge because it simply involves literary analysis. When analyzing an actor's performance, current events, environment, and mentality of the actor must all be taken into account. When Lessing published his essays, numerous actors from Hamburg plays were upset with Lessing's carelessness and disregard of their talents in his essay. [11] [12]

Translations

In 1890, Helen Zimmern published an English translation of the text, which was re-published by Dover in 1962. [13] Zimmern's translation omits nearly 30% of the original text. [14] Translators Wendy Arons and Sara Figal, with editor Natalya Baldyga, are producing a new, complete, and fully annotated translation of the text; the essays are being published online at MediaCommons Press and will be published in print form by Routledge. [15] [16]

Lessing's collection of essays are still being used as references today for the topic of dramaturgy, especially as a reference for art of theatre as an outlet for self-reflection, and how circumstances of the era during which a play was written affects how the audience perceives the work. [17]

Related Research Articles

A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes, consults authors, and does public relations work. Its modern-day function was originated by the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, an 18th-century German playwright, philosopher, and theatre theorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gotthold Ephraim Lessing</span> German Enlightenment writer (1729–1781)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seyler's Hamburg National Theatre.

Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Samuel Reimarus</span> German philosopher (1694-1768)

Hermann Samuel Reimarus, was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity, and was the first influential critic to investigate the historical Jesus. According to Reimarus, Jesus was a mortal Jewish prophet, and the apostles founded Christianity as a religion separate from Jesus’ own ministry.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1767.

Lessing is a German surname of Slavic origin, originally Lesnik meaning "woodman".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konrad Ekhof</span> German actor (1720–1778)

Konrad Ekhof was a German actor, widely regarded as one of the foremost actors of the German-speaking realm in the 18th century. He was noted for his collaboration with the theatre principal Abel Seyler in the 1760s and 1770s, first at the Hamburg National Theatre and then at the travelling Seyler Theatre Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanswurst</span> Fictional character

Hanswurst or Hans Wurst was a popular coarse-comic figure of German-speaking impromptu comedy. He is "a half doltish, half cunning, partly stupid, partly knowing, enterprising and cowardly, self indulgent and merry fellow, who, in accordance with circumstances, accentuated one or other of these characteristics."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalia Theater (Hamburg)</span> Theatre in Hamburg, Germany

The Thalia Theater is one of the three state-owned theatres in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1843 by Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger and named after the muse Thalia. Today, it is home to one of Germany's most famous ensembles and stages around 9 new plays per season. Current theatre manager is Joachim Lux, who in 2009/10 succeeded Ulrich Khuon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Joachim Christoph Bode</span> German translator (1731–1793)

Johann Joachim Christoph Bode was a well-known German translator of literary works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Zimmern</span> Naturalised British writer and translator 1846–1934

Helen Zimmern was a naturalised British writer and translator born in Germany. She was instrumental in making European culture more accessible in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friederike Caroline Neuber</span> German playwright and writer (1697–1760)

Friederike Caroline Neuber, née Friederike Caroline Weissenborn, also known as Friedericke Karoline Neuber, Frederika Neuber, Karoline Neuber, Carolina Neuber, Frau Neuber, and Die Neuberin, was a German actress and theatre director. She is considered one of the most famous actresses and actor-managers in the history of the German theatre, "influential in the development of modern German theatre." Neuber also worked to improve the social and artistic status of German actors and actresses, emphasizing naturalistic technique. During a time when theatrical managers in Germany were predominantly men, Caroline Neuber stands out in history as a remarkably ambitious woman who, during her 25-year career, was able to alter theatrical history, elevating the status of German theatre alongside of Germany's most important male theatrical leaders at the time, such as "her actor-manager husband Johann, the popular stage fool Johann Müller, the major actor of the next generation Johann Schönemann, the multi-talented newcomer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and principally, their de facto Dramaturg, Johann Gottsched."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friederike Sophie Seyler</span>

Friederike Sophie Seyler was a German actress, playwright and librettist. Alongside Friederike Caroline Neuber, she was widely considered Germany's greatest actress of the 18th century; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing described her in his Hamburg Dramaturgy as "incontestably one of the best actresses that German theatre has ever seen."

Miss Sara Sampson is a play by the Enlightenment philosopher, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Written in 1755 while the author was living in Potsdam, it is seen by many scholars to be one of the first bourgeois tragedies. In the same year it was represented at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and was very well received. It was afterwards translated and acted in France, where it also met with success. The play was Lessing's first real success as a playwright and it was in part due to the success of this play that he was asked to be the dramaturg at the German National Theatre in Hamburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburg National Theatre</span>

The Hamburg Enterprise, commonly known as the Hamburg National Theatre, was a theatre company in Hamburg, that existed 1767–1769 at the Gänsemarkt square, and that was led by Abel Seyler. It was the first attempt to establish a national theatre in Germany. It was modelled after Det Kongelige Teater, founded by Ludvig Holberg in Denmark in 1748. Its leading actor was Konrad Ekhof and the theatre employed Gotthold Ephraim Lessing as the world's first dramaturg; Lessing's influential Hamburg Dramaturgy, based on his work at the Hamburg National Theatre, defined the new field of dramaturgy and also introduced the term. The theatre premiered Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm on 30 September 1767.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gänsemarkt</span>

Gänsemarkt is a public square in Hamburg, Germany, located in the Neustadt quarter. The triangular urban square is accessible by streets of Jungfernstieg from the east, Dammtorstraße and Valentinskamp in the north west and ABC-Straße in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abel Seyler</span> Swiss-born theatre director (1730–1800)

Abel Seyler was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe. He played a pivotal role in the development of German theatre and was considered "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime. He supported the development of new works and experimental productions, helping to establish Hamburg as a center of theatrical innovation and to establish a publicly-funded theater system in Germany. He is credited with introducing Shakespeare to a German language audience, and with promoting the concept of a national theatre in the tradition of Ludvig Holberg, the Sturm und Drang playwrights, and serious German opera. Already in his lifetime, he was described as "one of German art's most meritorious men."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seyler Theatre Company</span>

The Seyler Theatre Company, also known as the Seyler Company, was a theatrical company founded in 1769 by Abel Seyler, a Hamburg businessman originally from Switzerland who became "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime. It was largely a continuation of the Hamburgische Entreprise, whose dramaturge was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and whose main owner was Seyler. The Seyler theatrical company became one of the most famous theatrical companies of Europe in the 18th century, attracting some of Germany's leading actors, playwrights and composers. It originally comprised around 60 members, including an orchestra, a ballet, house dramatists and set designers. Between 1777 and 1778 Seyler employed some 230 actors, singers and musicians. The company was originally contracted by the Hanoverian court with performing at Hanover and other cities of the kingdom. The company would eventually perform all across Germany, and performed for three years at the Weimar Schlosstheater, invited by Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. When Anna Amalia succeeded in engaging the Seyler Company, this was "an extremely fortunate coup. The Seyler Company was the best theatre company in Germany at that time." The company had an important role in the development of German opera in the late 18th century.

Wendy Arons is an American dramaturg, drama professor, and critic who specializes in ecodrama and German translation. She is currently a Professor of Dramatic Literature in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. She has written and edited many pieces for journals and is the author of the book "Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women's Writing: The Impossible Act" (2006).

Mark Bly is an American dramaturge, educator, and author. After graduating from Yale's Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program in 1980, Bly worked as a resident dramaturge – then a relatively new position in the United States. He held this position for several of the country's major regional theaters: the Guthrie, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, and the Alley. He was the first dramaturge to receive a Broadway dramaturgy credit for his collaboration with director Emily Mann on her play Execution of Justice (1986), During his career, Bly worked as a production dramaturge with a series of major theater artists including Doug Hughes, Garland Wright, Emily Mann and Moisés Kaufman, as well as on the world premieres of works by playwrights Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl and Rajiv Joseph.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Arons, Wendy; Baldyga, Natalya; Chemers, Michael M.; Figal, Sara (2014-06-30). "The "Open-Sourced" Hamburg Dramaturgy: A Twenty-first-Century Invitation to Interact with an Eighteenth-Century Work in Progress". Theatre Topics. 24 (2): 145–148. doi:10.1353/tt.2014.0026. ISSN   1086-3346. S2CID   191520596.
  2. ↑ Barr), Nisbet, H. B. (Hugh (2013). Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : his life, works, and thought (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199679478. OCLC   833404656.
  3. ↑ "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Hamburgische Dramaturgie (1767)" (in German). University of Duisburg . Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Luckhurst, Mary (2006). Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ↑ "Lessing's Preface to the "Hamburg Dramaturgy" | Hamburg Dramaturgy | MediaCommons Press". mcpress.media-commons.org. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  6. ↑ George Freedley, John A. Reeves, A history of the theatre, Crown Publishers, 1968, p. 243
  7. ↑ Nisbet, H. B. (Hugh Barr) (2013). Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : his life, works, and thought (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199679478. OCLC   833404656.
  8. ↑ Stegemann, Bernd. On German dramaturgy. Routledge. p. 45.
  9. ↑ Baldyga, Natalya (May 2017). "Corporeal Eloquence and Sensate Cognition: G. E. Lessing, Acting Theory, and Properly Feeling Bodies in Eighteenth-Century Germany". Theatre Survey. 58 (2): 162–185. doi:10.1017/s0040557417000059. ISSN   0040-5574. S2CID   164810742.
  10. ↑ "Essay 101, 102, 103, & 104 | Hamburg Dramaturgy | MediaCommons Press". mcpress.media-commons.org. §17. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  11. ↑ Bernd Stegemann, “On German dramaturgy.” In The Routledge Companion to Dramturgy, ed. Magda Romanska (New York: Routledge, 2015), 45.
  12. ↑ "Essay 25 | Hamburg Dramaturgy | MediaCommons Press". mcpress.media-commons.org. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  13. ↑ Lessing, G. E. (1962). Hamburg Dramaturgy. Translated by Zimmern, Helen. London: Dover.
  14. ↑ Arons, Wendy; Baldyga, Natalya; Chemers, Michael M.; Figal, Sara (2014-06-30). "The "Open-Sourced" Hamburg Dramaturgy: A Twenty-first-Century Invitation to Interact with an Eighteenth-Century Work in Progress". Theatre Topics. 24 (2): 145–148. doi:10.1353/tt.2014.0026. ISSN   1086-3346. S2CID   191520596.
  15. ↑ Arons, Wendy; Baldyga, Natalya; Chemers, Michael M.; Figal, Sara (2014-06-30). "The "Open-Sourced" Hamburg Dramaturgy: A Twenty-first-Century Invitation to Interact with an Eighteenth-Century Work in Progress". Theatre Topics. 24 (2): 145–148. doi:10.1353/tt.2014.0026. ISSN   1086-3346. S2CID   191520596.
  16. ↑ "Hamburg Dramaturgy | MediaCommons Press". mcpress.media-commons.org. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  17. ↑ Luckhurst, Mary (2006). Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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