Ekkehard Schall, born in 1930, has been a member of the Berliner Ensemble since 1952, and is now among its leading players. He has also directed for the company, having first undertaken the production of Brecht's version of Edward II in 1974. During a visit to London in 1981. when he gave a one-man performance at Riverside Studios, he also visited Rose Bruford College, where, with his wife and fellow-player Barbara Brecht-Schall, he talked with staff and students of the school. During the discussion, chaired by Beth Chatten, he explained the practical application of concepts relating to Brechtian acting, and also described his own approach to such major roles as the Brecht-Shakespeare Coriolanus, which he first created for the Ensemble in 1964.

On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic came into being, and on the same day the Berliner Ensemble was founded. The fortieth anniversary celebrations, held in October 1984, thus coincided with the anniversary celebrations of the world-famous theatre company, the jewel in the crown of the new state. To commemorate that anniversary. NTQ has assembled a panoramic montage that traces the development of the Berliner Ensemble from its beginnings to the present day.

The public nature of their work should seemingly have ensured that children employed in the Victorian theatre enjoyed better conditions than their brothers and sisters, so often suffering on one of those treadmills at which the virtuous Victorians set their offspring to work. Yet little is known of the actuality of their experiences, and the present article represents a pioneering investigation into the area. Drawing on the researches of contemporary social reformers as well as on the reminiscences of the children themselves and of their employers and colleagues, Tracy C. Davis, who teaches in the Department of Drama at Queen's University, Kingston, Canad, presents an intriguing picture of exploitation mixed with adulation, and a pervasive muddle of defensive indifference, gradually brought within the bounds of well-intentioned legislation.

The early issues of the original Theatre Quarterly carried extensive coverage of the work of Edward Bond – a conscious editorial emphasis, which it became less important to maintain as Bond's work acquired its present international recognition and a corresponding share of critical attention. Yet the very distinctiveness of Bond's dramaturgy demands a no less distinctive approach from its critics – notably, a recognition and evaluation of the many non-literary strands of the ‘text’ as performed, especially when under the author's own direction. Pete Mathers, who teaches in the Film and Drama Division of Bulmershe College, here attempts to assess one of Bond's most recent plays, Summer, in close relationship to its original production by Bond himself, at the National's Cottesloe Theatre in 1982, examining every element through which its audiences experienced that production – including the poster and programme, as well as the more clearly crucial ingredients of design, performance, and the ‘gests’ through which they interconnect.

In 1980 Wilfred Harrison was invited to Poland to direct Shakespeare's Othello, of which the Polish playwright Bohdan Drozdowski had prepared a translation. The following account. taken from the diary Harrison kept of rehearsals at the Wilama Horzycy Theatre in Tourn, decribes the encounter between an experienced British director and his Polish company from the first reading on 29 January to the opening night on 2 March, reveating some intriguing differences between two cultures andtwo conceptions of theatrical converntion. Wilfred Harrison was director for thirteen years of the Octagon Theatre, Botton, having earlier been founding-director of the moblie Century Theatre. Now a freeiance, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1974, and has continued to travel Widely: his Othello earned him the Amicus Poloniae award in 1981, and also an invitation to direct in Bulgaria, where the production tourned.

Slowly the theatre is coming to terms with the computer – not only in practical matters ranging from lighting control to ticket sales, but also in the collection and collation of the material which is the concern of the theatre student and scholar. Ian Herbert, whose own editorial work on Who's Who in the Theatre was largely assisted by lots of box-files and strong coffee, has converted the production of his invaluable London Theatre Record, now into its fifth year, to a computer-based system, and has recently been appointed to a fellowship at the City University to investigate the use of computerized databases for the theatre. In this capacity he helped to organize a conference held at the University in the summer of 1985, which brought together many theatre people with experience of using computers: in the following article he summarizes some of their contributions, and the conclusions of the conference.