Eighteenth Century British And Irish Promptbooks

This comprehensive volume lists and describes all known eighteen century British and Irish promptbooks. Each entry includes the location of the copy, shelf mark, production for which the prompt-book was prepared (theatre, date, prompter's name, if known), the types of notes the copy contains (description of setting, entrance notes, costume notes, ground plans, warnings, cues, stage movement, line interpretation), and citations of any books or articles that have dealt with the copy.

The illustrations of sample pages from some of the promptbooks listed will provide the reader with a fuller and more accurate understanding of eighteenth century theatre architecture and staging practices. Review: ?. . . This volume comprehensively describes nearly four hundred plays in some type of marked copy which have a variet of textual indications.

Langhans clearly articlates in his introductory chapter the differences and distinctions between promptbooks, preparation copies, rehearsal copies and partbooks. . . The value of this book lies in its ability to communicate research potential and in helping the scholar differentiate between the nominally marked and richly annotated copies. . .

The text is highly accurate in its descriptions. A comparison between a dozen of the actual promptbooks listed in Langhans and his descriptions has illustrated to this reviewer that the author has identified the most significant markings and rightly assessed each book's status as prompt, marked or preparation copy. . .

Overall, the book is a great contribution to eighteenth century research. . . It makes the eighteenth century promptbook far less elusive, and enables the scholar to better pinpoint and utilize their usefulness.?-Theatre Studies