The relationship between art and work can be focused on through the discourse of theater rehearsals: in the sense of work in the theater. From the late 18th century to the present, Annemarie Matzke examines how rehearsal processes generate concepts of theater within their respective historical and cultural contexts, and how they relate to a historically defined concept of work. This fundamental work on the history and theory of theater rehearsals demonstrates how the discourse on rehearsals allows for the analysis of the methods and techniques of theatrical production—from Goethe to Stanislavski and Brecht, and up to Heiner Müller and René Pollesch.