Materials related to rehearsal and performance, including a published copy that has been annotated as a prompt-book; a handwritten scenario; and 9 handwritten role books, for the following parts (the complete list of characters): Commerzienrath Saldau; Arabella, Saldaus Gattin; Moritz, Saldaus Sohn; Gertrud, Saldaus Tochter; Runneck, Geschäftsreisender; Beate, Runnecks Tochter; Karl von Erlach; Nettchen, Kammermädchen; and Anton, Diener. The published copy, which has been rebound into a homemade cover (missing its front cover), gives no publishing information except for the note on the title page: "Den Bühnen gegenüber als Manuscript gedruckt"; possibly it comes from Rosen's Gesammelte Dramatische Werke, published in 14 volumes between 1870 and 1888. The scenario bears a note: "Benefiz für Gustav Hübsch 11.12.79," a reference to a performance at Germania Theater, Philadelphia, in Dec. 1879, designated as a benefit for the actor who was playing the role of Saldau; the playbill (see folder 678) advertises the play as "new," and being given in Philadelphia for the first time. Some of the names of actors and actresses noted on the covers of role books reflect that cast; other names reflect a later performance in Philadelphia sometime in the early to mid 1880s. The role books are labeled by hand as the property of Theodor Bloch, who was active in German-language theater in Philadelphia, first as an actor and later as a prompter, from 1873 until at least the mid 1890s, and who also ran a theater lending library. (The playbill of 1879 cited above is the only reference to this play in the collection's holdings of theater newspapers and playbills.)
