The Didascalic Imagination: Contemporary theatrical notebooks as genetic documents of the artistic process

The hypothesis of this project is that the narrative structure, or rather the visual narrative on stage, is co-directed and determined by the visual composition techniques used by theatre makers during the rehearsal process. In order to elaborate and test this theory, notebooks from a selection of contemporary directors will be examined in order to establish a typology of the contemporary "Regiebuch". The analysis of the notebooks will be supplemented by interviews with the directors to bring to light the complex relations between this heterogeneous form of artist documentation and the resulting artistic product.