The Theatre Archive Project is an ongoing project to reinvestigate British theatre history from 1945 to 1968, from the perspectives of both the theatregoer and the practitioner. The project is a collaboration between the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

and the

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

,DMU appeals for theatre memories for national research project

press release and is funded by the

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts an ...

(AHRC). The project comprises a number of strands that support study of this period of British theatre history, as well as an opportunity to analyse and debate findings through a blog.

The Archives Strand

Th
Archives strand
has enabled listings to be compiled for four major theatre archives in the British Library Manuscripts Collections. Fully searchable listings are accessible for the archives of Sir John Gielgud,

Cedric Hardwicke Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and ...

, Sir Ralph Richardson and

Michel Saint-Denis Michel Jacques Saint-Denis (13 September 1897 – 31 July 1971), ''dit'' Jacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theatre director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European th ...

, and each description is preceded by a full biographical introduction prepared by an expert in the field. Manuscript material identified from the listings can be consulted in the Manuscripts Reading Room at the British Library.

The Scripts Strand

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Scripts strand
aims to recover play scripts performed in any licensed British venue after 1968 that were never deposited in the British Library, as stipulated by the Theatres Act 1968 that ended the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main c ...

's power to pre-censor theatre. Between September 2004 and April 2005 over 1,000 missing scripts were identified from fewer than 100 theatres. To date, nearly 300 of these play scripts have been recovered and deposited within the British Library Manuscripts Collections. Further information is available i
'Following the Script'
by Kate Dorney.

The Oral History Strand

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began in November 2003, and aims to interview as many people as possible who visited or worked in the theatre between 1945 and 1968. The original recordings may be consulted via th
British Library Archival Sound Recordings
where full, searchable transcripts are available. Over 250 interviews have been added to the site, and interviewees include Frith Banbury,

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas '' Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the M ...

Trevor Griffiths Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish lang ...

Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson (born 9 May 1936) is an English actress and former Member of Parliament (MP). She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice: for her role as Gudrun Brangwen in the romantic drama ''Women in Love'' (1970); and again for ...

Ann Jellicoe Patricia Ann Jellicoe (15 July 1927 – 31 August 2017) was an English playwright, theatre director and actress. Although her work covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devising ...

Ian McDiarmid Ian McDiarmid (; born 11 August 1944) is a Scottish actor and director of stage and screen, best known for portraying the Sith Lord Emperor Sheev Palpatine / Darth Sidious in the ''Star Wars'' multimedia franchise. Making his stage debut in ' ...

, Peter Nichols,

Corin Redgrave Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor and left-wing socialist activist. Early life Redgrave was born on 16 July 1939 in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Ke ...

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...

Timothy West Timothy Lancaster West, CBE (born 20 October 1934) is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both ''Coronation Street'' (as Eric Babbage) and ''EastEnders'' (as Stan Carter) ...

The Blog

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Blog
was launched at the 'More than just Osborne?' conference, held at the British Library in September 2006. It allows students, researchers, and theatre lovers to address and debate some of the findings of the Theatre Archive Project, and to share views and opinions of the post-War British theatre scene. Recent posts include discussion of

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spann ...

, and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

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References

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