Descripción del proyecto
Aspectos económicos del teatro dieciochesco
Los estudios literarios apenas han hecho uso de los archivos financieros del teatro del siglo XVIII a causa de su complejidad y magnitud. Sin embargo, los libros y registros contables contienen valiosos datos sobre la venta de entradas, los miembros del público, los ingresos, los salarios de los actores, etc., que nos podrían proporcionar información sobre las limitaciones de la producción cultural. El equipo interdisciplinario de THEATRONOMICS, financiado con fondos europeos y compuesto por economistas e historiadores especializados en el teatro, estudiará estos datos mediante un análisis financiero que tendrá en cuenta los contextos específicos de la época. El proyecto analizará datos manuscritos de dos grandes teatros londinenses: Covent Garden y Drury Lane. Al emplear innovadores métodos econométricos y herramientas digitales del ámbito de las humanidades a estos ricos archivos transatlánticos, THEATRONOMICS desvelará una nueva perspectiva de la cultura dramática en el siglo XVIII.
Objetivo
Eighteenth-century literary studies has taken a ‘theatrical turn’ over the past twenty-five years and the century historically associated with the ‘rise of the novel’ now acknowledges the centrality of the theatre to Georgian cultural and political life. However, we have virtually ignored its remarkable financial archive. Account-books, ledgers, and ephemeral manuscript folios contain rich data on ticket sales, audience members, revenues, actor salaries, repayments to investors, costume, scenery and other costs: this is richly detailed source material that needs to be understood. THEATRONOMICS places money at the heart of eighteenth-century theatrical culture. This project will apply financial and econometric analysis to this data to write a new history of eighteenth-century theatrical culture (1732-1809). Manuscript data for Covent Garden and Drury Lane—the two major theatres of Europe’s biggest city—will be transcribed, digitized, and analysed using econometric methods in order to incorporate the theatres’ underlying commercial operations to our research. Our central goal is the application of economic methodologies so that new perspectives on the careers of managers, playwrights, actors, and plays emerge. When we look at the hard financial data underpinning the performance scheduling decisions; the productivity and profitability of actors; the amounts spent on scenery, costumes, scenery, and candles; and the socioeconomic profiles of the audience, we will have a transformative understanding of the ‘back end’ of the theatre business. By synthesizing this complex data, THEATRONOMICS will further enable us, by interacting with other datasets, to ask new interdisciplinary questions about the place of theatre within the ecology of London. THEATRONOMICS’s insistence on gazing through the financial lens of cultural production gives us an innovative and sustainable basis for the next generation of eighteenth-century theatre studies.
Ámbito científico
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicseconometrics
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- humanitieslanguages and literatureliterature studiesliterary theoryliterary criticism
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- humanitiesartsperforming artsdramaturgy
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
H91 Galway
Irlanda