Blog
‘Someone Inspirational’: Sam Wanamaker’s Centenary
Posted: Monday, September 30th, 2019
This month we hear from Victoria Lane, Library & Archive Manager at Shakespeare’s Globe about celebrating visionary actor & director Sam Wanamaker, in the year he would have turned 100. The reconstruction of the Globe Theatre is due to the determination and persistence of one man, Sam Wanamaker. This year sees his centenary and the […]
Albert Speaks! Capturing 150 Years of Performance
Posted: Tuesday, June 18th, 2019
Our June blog comes from Alex Duthie, Project Officer for the Albert Speaks! Oral History Project at the Royal Albert Hall Archive. Here Alex shares the aims of the project and some of the many memories of performance at the Hall he has captured. In 2017 the Royal Albert Hall Archive launched a unique oral […]
THEATRE TREASURES: NATIONAL THEATRE ARCHIVE UNBOXED
Posted: Tuesday, February 19th, 2019
In our February blog, Erin Lee, Head of Archive, National Theatre, explains how a new exhibition being staged at the London theatre, is celebrating the 25th birthday of its archive and responses to the treasures held within. In 2019, the National Theatre Archive turns 25. Established in 1994, the Archive aims to document, preserve and […]
The Contribution of the Popular Entertainment Sector to the First World War
Posted: Tuesday, November 20th, 2018
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the National Fairground and Circus Archive, at the University of Sheffield, have mounted an exhibition on the role of popular entertainment during the Great War. Arantza Barrutia, Collections Manager, tells us more in this month’s blog… In 1914 escalating political tensions and power […]
Shakespeare Uncut: Talking to Strangers
Posted: Monday, June 18th, 2018
This month we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Refugee Week with a blog from Rossella Black – Librarian at Shakespeare’s Globe – who explains how Shakespeare’s ‘Strangers’ Speech’, from The Book of Sir Thomas More, is as relevant today as it was in the Elizabethan era. ‘..the right to travel, is not a privilege […]
200 Years of The Old Vic in London
Posted: Monday, May 21st, 2018
May 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of The Old Vic in London. The National Theatre and University of Bristol Theatre Collection are both marking this anniversary with exhibitions. Erin Lee – Head of Archives at the National Theatre, and Jill Sullivan – Archives Assistant at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection tell us more. The […]
THE CINEMA YEARS – TYNE THEATRE AND OPERA HOUSE, NEWCASTLE
Posted: Monday, March 19th, 2018
Last December the APAC Newsletter included an article by Alan Butland, Trustee of the Tyne Theatre and Opera House Preservation Trust, about the three day film festival organised as part of the Theatre’s 150th anniversary celebrations. This month’s blog expands on that article and describes the challenge researchers’ face when archives become “distributed”. Clear-outs […]
250th Anniversary of the Birth of Circus
Posted: Tuesday, December 19th, 2017
For our final blog post of 2017 Arantza Barrutia-Wood, Collections Manager at the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA), looks forward to 2018 and marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of modern circus in England as developed by Philip Astley in 1768. Philip Astley, was a Sergeant Major of the 15th Light Dragoons, who […]
25 Objects for 25 Years at Kingston University Archives and Special Collections
Posted: Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017
This month archivist Katie Giles describes how user engagement inspired new ways of thinking about objects in Kingston University’s Archives and Special Collections, and how they contributed to the University’s anniversary celebrations. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Kingston University receiving university status, and in the Archives and Special Collections we wanted to celebrate […]
When is a “man playing a bugle” not a man playing a bugle?
Posted: Wednesday, July 19th, 2017
Philip Milnes-Smith is a trainee Archives Assistant at Shakespeare’s Globe and this month he shares with us his experience of problem-solving around the digitisation of illustrations documenting the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre – a project initiated by the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker. Although it is twenty years this year since the […]