The items are handwritten role books (actors' scripts) for the play, which are marked by hand as the property of Theodor Bloch, who was active in German-language theater in Philadelphia from 1873 until at least the mid 1890s, first as an actor and later as a prompter, and who also ran a theater lending library. The role books are for the following parts: Gustel, Kellnerin; Peter, ein Dragoner; ein Gast; and ein Bursche; The title appears in Bloch's catalog for his library, dated 1886 (see box 34), where it is listed as a Lustspiel (comedy) in one act, with 5 roles--4 male and 1 female. That description correlates with the evidence from the role books; the fourth male character is Schiller. Names of the actors and actress written on the covers of the role books correlate to the cast of the performance of the play given at Germania Theater, Philadelphia, in Nov. 1894, as documented in a theater newspaper (see folder 710).
