Core Collection

Title: Core Collection

Description: The Theatre Museum is the National Museum of the Performing Arts and is a branch of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). The founding collection was given to the V&A in 1924 by Gabrielle Enthoven, and since that date a large number of other major collections have been added. The Theatre Museum continuously acquires material through gift and purchase, and systematically collects theatre programmes from over 200 UK theatres. The Museum's collections are now the largest of their type in the world, and are made accessible not only through the Study Room but also via changing exhibitions, gallery displays, study days, workshops and other educational activities.

Strengths: The Museum is beginning to develop an oral history collection, and in 1997 created Blackgrounds - a series of video recorded interviews with older black theatre writers and artists. The Museum's Video Collection also contains recordings of and material on black theatre. Material on black theatre is represented throughout the Core Collection from playbills for nineteenth century black Shakespearean actor, Ira Aldridge's appearance at the Royal Coburg, Surrey and other theatres, to programmes and reviews for the 1980s Black Theatre Forum seasons at the Arts Theatre. Material is filed according to theatre and date and indexed by production title so researchers must know this information in order to find material on key productions by or featuring black writers or performers.

The Museum is in the process of creating a Readers Guide To Researching Black Theatre at the Theatre Museum which will include a list of key productions. There is also material on black theatre and dance companies in the Library and in Topics Files which cover Companies, Theatre Buildings, Biographical and Miscellaneous Subjects: from Companies Files on Ballets Negres, Tara Arts and many others, to Biographical Files containing articles, interviews etc. on a wide range of black performers and other individuals, from the nineteenth century to the present. The Museum's Photographic Collection contain photographs of black performers and relevant shows, past and contemporary.
There is a limited amount of relevant material in other Core Collections including a design by Loudon Sainthill for Barry Reckord's Flesh to a Tiger and by James Pryde for Othello with Paul Robeson (1930) in the Design Collection and portraits of Ira Aldridge in the Paintings Collection.
It is recommended that researchers consult the Collection Level Descriptions for the Core Collections before checking the Special Collections. Special Collections: these comprise around 300 collections of a more specialised nature, relating to a single topic, person or business. Examples relating to black performance include: the Temba Theatre Company and Black Theatre Collection, Alfred Fagon Archive, Black Mime Theatre Archive (no access at present), Akademi School of South Asian dance archive and the Roehampton South Asian Dance display collection. There is also material of relevance in other special collections including the archive of Unity: the Workers' Theatre, the archives of the English Stage Company / Royal Court Theatre (not yet available) and the archive of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Contemporary black performance and dance are represented in the Graham Brandon Photographic Collection.

Size:

Catalogue: In progress, also see entries on Blackgrounds and Theatre Museum in Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture ed. Alison Donnell, 2001.

Catalogue URL:

Main URL: http://theatremuseum.vam.ac.uk/

Access: Access to the Study Room is strictly by appointment only. It is advisable to telephone the Museum (during office hours) at least 3 weeks in advance of an intended visit. TMenquiries@vam.ac.uk Tel: 020 7943 4735.

Acquisition dates: 1924-

Note:

Interest: Black

Complete: Complete

Subjects

Performing arts

Theatre

Performers

Black peoples

Oral history

Photographs

Theatrical performances

Theatrical companies

Drama

Theatrical production

Playwrights

Arts

Actors

Artists

Personal/Corporate names

Akademy School of South Asian Dance

Ballet Negres

Black Theatre Forum

Black Mime Theatre

Roehampton South Asian Dance Display

Tara Arts

Temba Theatre Company

Arts Council of Great Britain

Unity, Workers Theatre

Ira Aldridge

Paul Robeson

Alfred Fagon

Places