!!!Stegreiftheater

Gag Shows, impromptu theatre (German: Stegreiftheater, from the Middle 
High German word for stirrup), improvised plays performed with little 
or no preparation on the part of the actors. The characters and 
sequence of scenes are determined beforehand, while the dialogue is 
left to the imagination of the actors (cf.  Commedia dell´arte). 
In Vienna, gag shows were performed in the 16th, 17th and 18th 
centuries, mostly on wooden stages erected on market squares, from 
1711 at the  Kaerntnertortheater. In the 18th century the popular 
plays centred on the character of  Hanswurst; gag shows reached their 
peak under J. A.  Stranitzky, G.  Prehauser and J. F.  Kurz. 
After the 1760s gag shows began to decline due to competition from the 
champions of regular theatre of literary and moral quality, which was 
especially promoted by J. v.  Sonnenfels. The psychologist 
J. L.  Moreno founded his own gag show theatre in Vienna in 1921, 
from which he gained important insights which led him to develop 
psychodrama as a form of therapy. Today, the only Viennese gag show 
theatre still in existence is the "Original Wiener 
Stegreifbuehne" (formerly Tschauner's theatre) in the district of 
Ottakring.

!Literature
R. Bauer and J. Wertheimer (eds.), Das Ende des 
Stegreifspiels - die Geburt des Nationaltheaters, 1983; B. Marschall, 
"Ich bin der Mythe". Von der Stegreifbuehne zum Psychodrama 
J. L. Morenos, 1988.


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