Fans in the Theatre? About Unbeloved Fannish Spectators and Theatre’s Self-Image 1860-1920

The conference “Fans in the Theatre? About Unbeloved Fannish Spectators and Theatre’s Self-Image 1860-1920,” organized in the context of the DFG (German Research Foundation) research project “Fan Mail to Danish Film Stars in the 1910s: Exploring the Agency and Practices of Early Film Fans,” took place from October 23-25, 2024 in the premises of the Theatre Collection at Schloss Wahn, Cologne (Germany). Although fannish behavior and fannish practices in theatre were ubiquitous and much discussed during the heyday of theatre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fan studies and theatre studies have rarely been brought together. Thus, the conference aimed to create a space for encounter and exchange between the two disciplines in order to gain a better understanding of both fandom and theatre history