Elizabethan Theatre
Precedence for confusion with prompt-books & prologues
"Jacke Drum's Entertainment" - 1600
--> boy actors who were known for publicly showing "rehearsal" - "tryall"
Constant record of characters clarifying the roles of other actors on stage - actors got their sides & no cast list!
Prompt books contained little direction - no need for it, without a director
Assigned roles - made minor adjustments to the text & edits
-->Minor roles - hired the visiting actors
Fired actors as needed
Learned parts, not necessarily familiar with whole production
*Revisions have now taken a place of authority in acting text, either to actors/performance and/or in publication
Guided actors with conductor's baton - like today's orchestra conductors
--> actors = unified group of people who rehearsed seperately
-prompters stood in middle of the stage during medieval theatre
Considered a low, unskilled profession - a kind of servant
-yet we do know the names of bookholders, so they were considered important!
Participated "between" the play and the real world
-called cues/scene changes with whistles
-referenced by actors within a scene
Prompter & bookholder may have been different tasks and had different cue books
Plots backstage may have not been for the actors-- but the prompters and stagehands!
-prompter would give blocking
Struggle to keep actors "line perfect" stems from actors physically/vocally modifying their roles as a way to personalize an otherwise "parrot" performance
Restoration Theatre
Betterton Age - actors changed their lines/direction blithely
-published scripts do not reflect altered prompt-books, which accounts for many "first draft" plays
published proudly by playwrights
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