MEDIATHEK

The publication Beyond Everydayness – Theatre Architecture in Central Europe is a collective volume of more than 35 theatre historians, architects, curators and art theorists, who uncover historical, political and cultural relations in the development of theatre architecture of the Central European region from the XVI. century till present days. The book presents detailed information about the history of 73 of the most important theatre buildings in six countries of the Central Europe: Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Each text is accompanied by rich photographic documentation and building ground plans and sections having an unified pattern that facilitates their mutual comparison. Theatre architecture is recorded in the book as a characteristic component of human culture and as a specific building type which, apart from often being itself a unique and artistically valuable structure, also creates space for another kind of art – theatre art. The appearance of the theatres was shaped, apart from the aesthetic standards of the day, also by social, political, artistic and technical influences. Some of these were a manifestation of world-wide development; others represent a specific phenomena in the Central European region – in a specific country or town. The selection of buildings follows the features specific for diverse historical periods. These features are outlined in nine more closely or more freely defined themes, which are anchored in time and in a certain way characterize the given periods. The nine basic themes are supplemented by four extensive appendices focusing on phenomena that accompanied the theatre architecture or represent specific phenomena outside of the ‘main current’ of the development of official theatre buildings. The stories of the individual theatres are set into a broader context in six historical introductions. One expert architecture photographer (selected in a competition) to take contemporary pictures of all 73 theatres in the book. The aim was to present the contemporary state of each building on one hand and to give the publication unique and unified visual appearance. The whole book was written by more than 30 authors from all participating countries (plus Austria). dsl