Literary administration and the (actor-) manager 1800–1900

If German entrepreneurs were exploring and developing the function and purpose of dramaturgs, English managers were not. Lessing enjoyed popularity as a playwright, but the Hamburgische Dramaturgie remained untranslated in Britain (and America) for much of the century. Without exception a nation's first official dramaturg or literary manager appears in its state-subsidised national theatre, and England not only had none to offer, but lacked the political momentum to acquire one. Commerical success had to be guaranteed for a theatre to stay afloat, so emphasis remained firmly on box-office returns and low-risk strategies. Product, not process, dominated actor-managers' waking thoughts. Dramaturgical functions had nevertheless to be undertaken, and though, as in the eighteenth century, much can be put down to organised chaos, it is clear that unofficial, ‘hidden’ play readers, advisers, researchers and literary administrators played an important and intriguing rôle at certain theatres.

Theatre historians agree that a major feature of the nineteenth century was the irresistible rise of the manager, and that managers at the main London and regional theatres had normally made names as actors. Another feature of the age was an extraordinary growth in theatre-building: Nicoll lists nine London theatres in regular use in 1800, 89 by 1850 and 144 by 1900; in the English regions, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, he calculates that there were around 58 theatres in 1850 and 351 by 1900.