Collection: University of Bristol Theatre Collection

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The University of Bristol Theatre Collection (TC) was established in 1951 with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation as a theatre archive with a supporting library.

  It was founded by Professor Glynne Wickham who, in 1947, had also founded the University of Bristol Drama Department, which was the first to be established in the UK. At the outset the TC’s raison d’etre was to ‘serve students, scholars and practising theatre artists alike’. It has always retained the core remit of being a ‘working’ collection that informs and inspires academics and practitioners. Since the mid-1990s, this has expanded to include a more public facing role. The TC has always been supported and valued by the University. In 1966 the University established the first full-time Keeper post, and it is now staffed by a core team of 5.2 FTE posts.

  There have been a number of highly significant acquisitions since the TC was founded. The earliest was the Bristol Old Vic Archive, which was placed on loan in 1960, with several subsequent major deposits of material. The Richard Southern Collection was purchased for the TC by the University in 1966. It comprises models of theatres and a large visual collection which primarily concerns theatre architecture, scenery and costume. This was followed by the Beerbohm Tree Collection in 1972, comprising promptbooks, costume designs, scene designs and documentation connected with his company. This collection was purchased by the University with additional funds from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund. At this time an Assistant Keeper was appointed.

  In 1980 Eric Jones-Evans began depositing his collection, which consists of material connected with his own career as well as with Henry Irving, Martin Harvey and Bransby Williams. In 1982, the Beerbohm Tree Correspondence was bought for the TC with assistance from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and the Friends of the Theatre Collection. In the same year, the London Old Vic Archives were deposited by the Trustees of the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation (with another major deposit in 1987 and several smaller ones since). In 1983 the Alan Tagg Collection was donated by Alan Tagg, a leading theatre designer. In 1988 the Eric Jones-Evans bequest transferred the remainder of his collection to the TC along with a major financial endowment to ‘enable us to acquire items for the Collection, or material to house and care for those items’. In 1990 the Women’s Theatre Collection was founded (as a collection within the TC), with a focus on actively collecting archival material relating to women’s, particularly feminist, theatre. This collection continued to grow through the 1990s as there was a strong interest in the subject area within the Drama Department. Another collection with strong academic ties to the department was the Welfare State International Archive, which was placed on loan in 1999 and donated to the TC in 2006.

  In 2001 the TC gained registered museum status. In 2004, the donation of the Julia Trevelyan Oman Archive by Sir Roy Strong cemented our position as a collection with a national profile. The importance of documenting the process of creating theatre (i.e., the ‘how’ and the ‘why’, as well as the ‘what’) alongside the product itself (performance documentation) began to take a more prominent role in our collections during this decade and continues to date. The next major acquisition was the transfer of the ‘Live Art Archives’ from Nottingham Trent University in 2005 and, again, it supported evolving academic priorities within the UoB Drama Department.

  This major acquisition signalled new developments for the TC and enabled a physical expansion of premises and a new staff member (Keeper: Live Art Archives) and the direct involvement in a major research and audio-visual digital preservation project. The live art archives acquisition expanded, rather than refocused our remit and opened many new opportunities for academic research projects, funding and partnerships. This was followed by, amongst others, the donation of the Franko B Archive in 2008 and Hull Time Based Arts in 2012 strengthening our international position in relation to live art. By now the staff team comprised Director: Theatre Collection, Keeper: Theatre Archives and Keeper: Live Art Archives. We obtained Accredited museum status in 2009.

  The largest acquisition in the history of the TC took place in 2011, with the transfer of the Mander & Mitchenson Collection (M&M) by its Trustees. It currently represents about a quarter of our holdings and dovetails perfectly with our existing theatre collections. To facilitate this transfer, the University funded the refurbishment of a large, specialised off_site store at Langford to house the expanded collections. M&M was transformative in terms of the quality and richness of our holdings and also the quality of visitor experiences the TC could offer through improved exhibitions and indepth research and other learning experiences.

  As a result, the TC began to receive an increased number of offers of donations and an increased quality of the collections offered. To focus resources on the curatorial care of collections we began to implement a more rigorous assessment of potential accessions (for details see section 9) and a more rigorous approach to printed material including theatre programmes, books and journals. We stopped routinely taking in ad hoc theatre programmes (which accounted for a high proportion of accessions), whilst continuing to systematically collect for selected theatres.

  M&M transferred with a large library of its own, which has been amalgamated with the TC library. The TC library is maintained and developed as a key supporting resource for users of the Collection with all books listed on the University Library catalogue, but due to the increase in volumes from the M&M collection we stopped accepting unsolicited ad hoc donations to the TC library whilst continuing to acquire publications (books and journals) that are unique, rare or highly significant in terms of the collections we hold. In response to the increased use of the Collection, primarily due to M&M, the University established a new Archive Assistant post in 2012.

  In 2013 an Academic Review of the TC recognised its wider potential as a vital research and teaching facility across the Faculty of Arts. As a result, the TC organisationally moved from being a Departmental to Faculty responsibility. This tied in with a rebranding exercise, promoting the TC as ‘More than just theatre’ to encourage people to access and engage with the holdings from a wide variety of perspectives and broader cultural contexts.

  In 2015 the TC purchased the personal archive of Oliver Messel with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, other Trusts & Foundations and individual donors. This archive encapsulates the process of creativity and the influence of theatre on wider society, and epitomises the TC’s mission to develop holdings in ways that inform and inspire others. Recent years have also seen an increase in financial gifts that accompany the donation of collections to enable or expedite the cataloguing and conservation of the collections and/or encourage wider interaction with them. In 2013/14 Theatre Roundabout donated their archive along with funds to catalogue, conserve and exhibit it and in 2016, following the donation of Kevin Elyot’s Archive his family made a donation to cover cataloguing and conservation costs. They also gave an additional endowment to establish the Kevin Elyot Award, which funds an annual writer-in-residence to produce new scholarly or creative work inspired by his archive and wider collections. Other more recent philanthropic gifts have supported cataloguing and conservation work on the archives of Stephanie Cole, Irving Family, Julia Trevelyan Oman, John Vickers, lan Smith, DV8 and Forkbeard Fantasy. Alongside these, major awards from funding bodies enabled cataloguing, conservation and digitisation work on the Bristol Old Vic (National Lottery Heritage Funding), Franko B and Welfare State International archives (Wellcome). Funding from The National Archives also supported the ‘Records at Risk’ project, to help organisations and individuals care for their archives, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and a separate grant for the development of procedures for looking after complex digital files.

  In 2020 the TC was awarded Designated Status from Arts Council England, with the panel noting the strength of the collections in demonstrating the ‘societal and economic impact of theatre, and what the artform can tell us about wider society’, alongside the effectiveness of the research, innovation and partnership work undertaken by the TC.

  In 2022, as part of early preparations for a planned move to a future new University Library, the TC joined Library Services from the Faculty of Arts.The TC now forms part of Library Services’ ‘Collections and Culture’division, alongside the University of Bristol’s Special Collections, [Published/Printed Books & Serial] Collections and Metadata, and Public Art teams. The move followed the recommendations of the external consultant’s report, ‘Transition and Transformation’. Within the ‘Collections and Culture’division, the TC has begun working to align working procedures with Special Collections where appropriate. The posts of Digital Archivist and Digital Archives Assistant are shared with Special Collections, who support the care of TC digital archives aided by Preservica(the digital preservation system introduced in 2019), and the Collections and Metadata librarians, who have improved the management and discoverability of the TC’s library and rare book collections.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The current Collection falls into three main categories: Theatre, Live Art and Library. Together, the holdings cover approximately 3,700 linear meters of shelving and 94 terabytes of data, with material in a wide variety of formats. It is the second largest collection relating to the history of British theatre in the UK, containing over 500 individual collections and archives.

  Theatre Holdings

  Key collections include:

  Owned by the TC:

  Thomas Baptiste

  Thomas Baptiste was an actor and singer, born in British Guiana (now Guyana) who moved to Britain in the late 1940s. The archive includes, correspondence, scripts, posters, photograph albums, and scrapbooks relating to Baptiste’s career, life and political activities.

  Herbert Beerbohm Tree

  The Beerbohm Tree Collection held by the Theatre Collection comprises two archives, the Herbert Beerbohm Tree Archive and the Tree Family Archive. The former includes the business and production records for Tree’s productions at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Her Majesty’s theatres as well as tours within the UK and abroad. The Tree Family Archive comprises the personal records of Maud Tree, her husband, Herbert Beerbohm Tree and their children, Viola, Iris and Felicity Tree.

  Stephanie Cole

  Archive of the actor Stephanie Cole (1941 – ), who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. The archive charts her career from repertory theatre to television screen and radio, and back again. It contains scrapbooks, photographs, scripts and other material.

  Desperate Men

  Archive of the Bristol-based alternative street theatre company Desperate Men, founded in 1980. Contains a wide range of production, marketing and administrative materials.

  Drama Department (University of Bristol)

  Administrative papers of the department, the first of its kind in the UK, including records relating to accommodation, productions, conferences, lectures, visiting companies, fellowships, research and the papers of Heads of Department and Theatre Managers.

  Kevin Elyot

  The archive of the actor and playwright best known for his seminal work My Night with Reg. Includes manuscript drafts, final scripts, research, correspondence, printed material and audio-visual material.

  Farjeon Family

  Material related to three individuals from four generations of the Farjeon family, donated by the Farjeon estate: scenic artist Joan Jefferson Farjeon (1913–2006), actor Joseph Jefferson the Third(1829 -1905) and actor, journalist, dramatist, script writer & novelist Joseph Jefferson Farjeon (1883 – 1955).

  Irving Family

  Collection related to the activities of four members, from four generations of the Irving family to be involved with the Theatrical Arts. They are Sir Henry Irving(1838 – 1905), Harry Brodribb Irving (1870 -1919), Laurence Irving OBE (1897-1988), and John H.B.Irving(1924-2016).

  Eric Jones Evans

  The collection of Eric Jones-Evans, actor and playwright, including his archive relating to his theatrical work. It also contains collections compiled by Jones-Evans relating to Henry Irving, Bransby Williams and John Martin Harvey, including costumes and props as well as paper-based materials.

  Andrew Leigh

  The archive of Andrew Leigh and Prospect Theatre Company who produced plays at the Old Vic Theatre from 1977 after the departure of the National Theatre Company to the Southbank. It contains both production and business papers for the company.

  Mander & Mitchenson Collection

  The Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection (M&M) is the result of the lifetime’s work of Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, who collected archives and ephemera of Britain’s theatrical history. It contains archives, costumes, ceramics, art works, books, audio recordings and more.

  Oliver Messel

  Oliver Messel was one of the most celebrated British theatre designers. The archive provides rare insight into the theatricality inherent in Society life and, in addition to his stage and screen work, it evidences how Messel influenced art, architecture, decor and national celebrations. It contains artwork, correspondence, photographs, press cuttings, architectural drawings and more.

  Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory

  The archives of the theatre company based at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. The archive contains production records, information regarding educational work and a number of props.

  Richard Southern

  This collection is an important visual resource for the history of theatre. It is particularly strong in the areas of theatre architecture and backstage information, including plans, photographs, cuttings, as well as scenery and costume.

  Stagetext

  Stagetext is a registered charity which provides captioning and live subtitling services to theatres and other arts venues to make their activities accessible to people who are d/Deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing.

  Theatre Projects Ltd.

  Originally established by Richard Pilbrow as a lighting design company which became heavily involved in the design of the National Theatre building, the archive includes lighting files and plots, production papers, financial papers, correspondence, minutes of meetings.

  Theatre Roundabout

  The archive of the theatre company which toured two-person adaptations of major literary works around the country and abroad from 1961-2008. Includes production and business papers, costumes and props.

  Thelma Holt

  The collection includes both Thelma’s personal and theatre records, and the archive of Thelma Holt Ltd., the production company formed in 1990. Alongside personal and production correspondence are budgets, contracts and marketing records, generally arranged by production.

  Julia Trevelyan Oman Archive

  Her personal archive covers her entire career and includes her original designs with research files, technical drawings and plans, research photographs, production photographs, correspondence and fabric swatches.

  John Vickers (Photographer)

  This comprehensive archive documents Vickers’ career throughout the 1940s and 1950s and compliments the London Old Vic collection which is also held here. It includes glass plate negatives, prints, framed items, correspondence and ephemera.

  Welfare State International (for John Fox/Sue Gill Archive see below)

  The archive of the collective of radical artists and thinkers who explored ideas of celebratory art and spectacle between 1968 and 2006. Includes records of productions, education work, grant applications etc.

  Women’s Playhouse Trust

  The archive of the company founded in 1984 by Jules Wright and others to nurture female talent in theatre. Containing business papers, publications and production information.

  Women’s Theatre Collection

  This was established in 1990 to provide a centre for playscripts by women of performed but not necessarily published plays. There are additionally a number of small archives which offer an insight into the involvement of individuals and small companies including: Margaret Macnamara (playwright); Marie Scharning (actress); Ella Burra (playwright); Sylvia Rayman (playwright); The Conference of Women Theatre Directors and Administrators; Moving Target Theatre Company.

  Other named collections (over 100 smaller archival collections) from theatre professionals, historians and collectors, companies and organisations, including:

  Kathleen Barker (theatre historian), Shirley Brown (theatre historian); Bourke sisters (correspondence of actor sisters 1860s/70s); Patience Collier (actor); Richard Digby Day (director and educator); Berta Friestadt (writer/director); Chris Harris (actor); Medieval Players (company); Miriam Karlin (actor and political activist); John Moody (artistic director), National Student Drama Festival (organisation); Arnold Ridley (actor and playwright), George Rowell (academic and playwright), Theatre Bristol (support & advocacy company), Ernest Thesiger (actor), and Glynne Wickham (academic and historian; founded the University of Bristol Drama Department).

  Designers’ archives

  Including Ralph Adron, Graham Barlow, Frederick Crooke, John Elvery, Herbert Norris, Yolanda Sonnabend, Alan Tagg and David Walker include sketches, finished designs, research and notes.

  Smaller collections and individual items

  These include many individual objects and small groups of collections. The objects are wide ranging and varied and include costumes, textiles, puppets, props, set models, personal memorabilia and ephemera etc. We also hold art works including paintings, sketches, designs, prints, photography, sculpture and ceramics. TC Collections of audio-visual material (sound recording and film of performances) and digitised content are also substantive These objects often provide the most significant or immediate point of contact for interpretation or other form of engagement with our users. Some of these are combined into the TC artificial collections.

  On long-term renewable loan

  Bristol Old Vic Archive

  The Bristol Old Vic Archive includes the administrative and production records of the theatre company from its inception in 1946, and for the Little Theatre between 1963-1980.

  John Fox/Sue Gill Archive

  Founder members of Welfare State International (see above) and now creators of Dead Good Guides. The archive contains records of performances, publications, correspondence etc.

  Joyce GrenfelI Archive

  The Joyce Grenfell Archive is a personal collection which contains correspondence, drawings, monologues, scripts for radio and television, as well as books and photographs that reflect her talents, interests and contacts in the entertainment industry.

  Old Vic (London) Archive (and Royal Victoria Hall Foundation)

  The Old Vic archive is a unique historical record of a London theatre and company, from its foundation in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, until the end of the Mirvish years in 1997. The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation archive contains the papers of the charity following its administrative disassociation from the Old Vic theatre in 1982.

  Royal Theatrical Fund Archive

  The archive of the charity established in 1839 and still going today to provide financial assistance to theatre professionals. The archive contains the business records, correspondence, and records of dinners and other events.

  The Live Art Archives

  The live art archives were first established at Nottingham Trent University in 1994, transferring to the Theatre Collection in 2005 where they continue to grow. The archives contain a range of material in a variety of formats, particularly audio-visual and digital, and relate to individual artists, companies, festivals and other organisations,

  The live art holdings include:

  Alastair Snow

  Archive of the artist and photographer, which contains a wealth of material from his performances, including many photographs and props such as The Guerilla Squad masks and pieces of ‘edible art’ from the Edible Art Association event in 1981.

  Arts Council England Live Art and Performance Archive (ACELAP Archive)

  Videos and documentation which represent the development of innovative contemporary arts practice during the 1980s and 1990s in the UK.

  Barry Edwards Archive

  Edwards is founder and artistic director of Optik, a company that has performed nationally and internationally since 1981. The archive covers Edwards’ career as Optik director and other theatre companies including Apple Theatre (1968 -1969) and Ritual Theatre (1971–1975).

  Bodies in Flight

  Archive to date of the contemporary performance company formed in 1990 and closely related to the Bristol Drama Department.

  Clare Thornton

  Archive of interdisciplinary artist, collaborator, educator and member of Performance Re-enactment Society, whose practice drew on her training in dance, performance, scenography and literature.

  Crystal Theatre of the Saint

  Archive of the 1970s alternative theatre company, based in Bristol and Rotterdam.

  David Hughes Live Art Archive (incorporating Hybrid, LiveArt magazine and Live Art Listings)

  The archive includes printed material, press releases, photographs, correspondence, annotated design proofs, publicity and marketing ephemera, essays, lecture notes and proposals relating to David’s career as publishing editor, lecturer and writer.

  Digital Performance Archive

  A video and CD-ROM archive, which also contains some printed material such as press cuttings and supporting information.

  DV8

  The archive of the highly acclaimed performance company led by Lloyd Newson, covering 30 years of touring productions which straddled dance, text, theatre and film.

  Forkbeard Fantasy

  Extensive archives and objects from the anarchic performance company founded in the early 1970s by brothers Tim and Chris Britton. Documentation covers multi-media performances, live theatre shows, films, animations, puppetry, poetry, mechanical sculptures, and exhibitions.

  Franko B

  Archive of the internationally renowned performance artist, which includes material in a wide variety of formats related to his performances, screenings, exhibitions, collaborations, mentoring, books and visual art.

  greenroom

  Archive of the prestigious Manchester organisation which developed and presented local, national and international performance and closed in 2011.

  Hull Time Based Arts

  Archive of Northern England’s combined arts development agency and one of Europe’s leading commissioners of performance and new technology art which closed in the mid-2000s.

  National Review of Live Art Archive

  Primarily a video archive that holds footage of performances from the prestigious NRLA festival. The footage covers the period from 1986 to when the festival finished in 2010.

  Phil Smith

  The archive of Dr Phil Smith, performance-maker, writer, academic researcher and teacher, member of arts collective Wrights & Sites and one half of Crab & Bee, specialising in work around ‘walking, site-specificity, mythogeographies, web-walking, somatics and counter-tourism’.

  queerupnorth Video Archive

  The video archive consists of videos submitted by artists, along with other materials promoting their work, videos recorded by, or on behalf of, queerupnorth, mostly within venues in Manchester during the festival. The rest of the archive is held in Manchester.

  Record of Live Art Practice (RLAP)

  An artifical collection of material relating to over 200,000 records of Live Art/Performance Art primarily in England and the UK, from 1994 to the present. Mostly paper-based, although it does contain some videos and DVDs, audiotapes and slides.

  Third Angel

  Archive of Sheffield based company led by Rachael Walton and Alexander Kelly (1995-2023) of devised theatre and participation projects which toured throughout the UK and internationally.

  In addition to the collections listed above, the live art archives also contain a number of smaller collections of live-art-related material including Performance Magazine, P-Form magazine and the Administrative Records of Nottingham Trent University’s Performing Arts Digital Research Unit and Live Art Archives. The live art collections are supported by a wide range of audio-visual and other resources in the TC Library collections.

  Library Collections

  The TC library collections, which are reference only, are an integral part of the TC, helping users place the collections within their wider context. The library collections comprise over 30,000 volumes, including almost 300 series of journals, the majority of which are on open shelves, and a Rare Book Collection of approximately 2,250 books and pamphlets (over 50 linear metres – see below) which are all early, rare, unique and/or heavily annotated. The TC library holdings on open shelves are predominately twentieth and twenty-first century books, while many of the books within the Rare Book Collection date between 1750 and 1860, with the earliest examples going back to the late 1600s. Many of the books on open shelves in the TC library, particularly those that were transferred as part of the Mander & Mitchenson (M&M) Collection, are also heavily annotated and therefore irreplaceable.

  Rare Book Collection

  Almost 2,25O unique, rare, early, fragile or heavily annotated items including the Howard Staunton Facsimile of the Complete Works of Shakespeare (1886) and Monumenta Scenica. There is a large collection of plays, mainly nineteenth and twentieth century, including Lacv’s Actina Plays and Dicks’ Standard Plays, plus some 17th and 18th century editions and the standard 18th and 19th century sets and series such as Bell’s, Cumberland’s, Jones’ and Dolby’s British Theatre. There are also several volume sets of the works of Shakespeare, many illustrated. The Collection also includes a small number of 19th century theatrical journals, mostly single issues or small runs, including Grumbler 1839, The Town 1838, Oxberry’s Weekly Budget 1843-44, The Dramatic Censor 1800, Tallis’s Dramatic Magazine and General Theatrical and Musical Review 1850-51 and The Era 1850-1919, alongside a number of more contemporary artist bookworks.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC