The Visual Life of Romantic Theater examines the dynamism and vibrancy of stage spectacle and its impact in an era of momentous social upheaval and aesthetic change. Situating theatrical production as key to understanding visuality ca. 1780-1830, this book places the stage front and center in Romantic scholarship by re-envisioning traditional approaches to artistic and social creation in the period. How, it asks, did dramaturgy and stagecraft influence aesthetic and sociopolitical concerns? How does a focus on visuality expand our understanding of the historical experience of theatergoing? In what ways did stage performance converge with visual culture beyond the theater? How did extratheatrical genres engage with theatrical sight and spectacle? Finally, how does a focus on dramatic vision change the way we conceive of Romanticism itself? The volume’s essays by emerging and established scholars provide exciting and suggestive answers to these questions, along with a more capacious conception of Romantic theater as a locus of visual culture that reached well beyond playhouse walls.

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.