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. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

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 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

,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 a ...

(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

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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 over 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and hi ...

, 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 The Theatres Act 1968 (c. 54) abolished stage censorship in the United Kingdom, receiving royal assent on 26 July 1968, after passing both Houses of Parliament.Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Monarchy of the United Ki ...

'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 (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novel ...

, Trevor Griffiths,

Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) was an English actress and politician. Over the course of her distinguished career she received List of awards and nominations received by Glenda Jackson, numerous accolades including two Academy ...

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, devisin ...

, Ian McDiarmid, Peter Nichols,

Corin Redgrave Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor. Early life Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. He was educated at Westminster School and ...

, Arnold Wesker,

Timothy West Timothy Lancaster West (20 October 1934 – 12 November 2024) was an English actor with a long and varied career across theatre, film, and television. He began acting in repertory theatres in the 1950s before making his London stage debut in 19 ...

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 murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

, and

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

Similar projects

* Unlocking Our Sound Heritage – UK project for digitising project for audio archival material *

Unlocking Film Heritage ''Unlocking Film Heritage'' (UFH) was one of the biggest film digitisation projects ever undertaken and it encompassed the BFI National Archive together with national and regional audiovisual archival institutions in United Kingdom. Between 2013� ...

– UK project for digitising audiovisual archival material * Endangered Archives Programme - British Library programme for preserving cultural heritage * Qatar Digital Library

References

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