Dossier–Theatrical Vestiges: Material Remains and Theatre Historiography: Introduction

Abstract

This article introduces our dossier of writings, describing its origins and outlining key themes, concepts and debates. In the spring of , a group of twelve theatre historians with diverse cultural origins and interests gathered at the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlungone of the largest theatre archives in Europelocated in the pictorial mansion Schloss Wahn at the University of Cologne. The purpose was a three-day workshop focusing on alternative approaches and methodologies aimed at rethinking and engaging with props, objects and materials related to theatre and performance historiography. Each day, the workshop opened with a hands-on exploration of selected in-house archival records, such as costumes, theatre maquettes, or scenography. The materiality of these sources served as a starting point for our attempt to understand how objects and materials operate within theatre and performance. Discussions focused on the attempt to tease out the agency encapsulated in lifeless archival objects, and to bring forth their ability to animate the wide-ranging associative and imaginative network that shapes the audiences' theatrical experience. The sensuous probing into artistic vestiges, props and objects underscored the semiotic shifts and perceptual alterations undergone in their meaning and uses after the show is over. This dossier stems from conversations held during this workshop. The attempts to theorize the complex, sometimes conflictive, relationship of theatre and performance studies with staged 'things' often focuses on the ways the theatre industry has interacted with props and costumes, or has considered the status of objects remaining from theatrical events. 1 Our dossier sets out to shine a quizzical light upon the assumptions of current existing approaches to theatre and materiality. The articles collected here foreground the idea that materials remaining after a performance surpass their status of 'flesh and bones' 2-to borrow Rebecca Schneider's apt terminology-and, therefore, cannot be reduced to mere relics that trigger sensuous encounters. Objects and props, we submit, not only represent fictional depictions but also refer to the actual manual and conceptual creation of the theatrical realm. Behind the materiality of the performance and beyond its sensuous affectivity, there resides the untold processes of production and backstage operations that encompass both the labour and the logic of the spectacle which bring the performance into being. In his extensive study Reading the Material Theatre, Ric Knowles advocates for