Performing Citizenship and German Amateur Theatricals: Drama and Utopianism in the Nineteenth Century

This open access book proposes a revision of 19th-century theatre history and examines the contribution of amateur theatre practice to European theatre, by shifting the focus to theatre as a cultural, social and aesthetic practice.

Non-professional theatre practice has been largely neglected due to deeply rooted prejudice about its aesthetic standards: a prejudice whose origins can be traced back to influential thinkers in the 18th century. Although it was a massive phenomenon in Europe aro...