International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts
Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle
Theatre documentation in 1786, 1886 and 1986 - possibilities and limitations
Comments by a theatre archivist
Bergljot Krohn Bucht
The Theatre and Theatre Collections / Le théâtre et les collections de documents
International
Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing
Arts
16th International Congress, London, 9-13 September 1985
Proceedings of the Congress
Société Internationale
des Bibliothèques et des Musées des arts du spectacle
16ème Congres Internationale, Londres, 9-13 september
1985
Procès-Verbal
London 1986, pp. 61-64, [French abstract], pp. 65
A theatre's duty is to perform theatre, but whether you want it or not, records and things over and above the product/performance are generated. Different types of organization/structures result in different types of records. Here, for once, as far as theatre is concerned, we shall put the artistic product aside and give priority to the documentation. The necessity of these will be discussed in this paper.
An archivist's duty is to analyze and index records/archives which are the result of the activities of concerned institutions in accordance with the so-called principle of provenance. As an archivist within a special area, where documents are preserved in close conjunction with a research institute, it is natural and even necessary that the work develops in the direction of the documentalists which means you must structure/work methodically to prepare the material for research. A dualism exists in this - the activist's strict objective approach to the records formal criterion and the documentalist's necessarily more qualitative approach.
To some extent, the tendency to place documentary perspectives on my work as a project-employed archivist at Sweden's oldest institutional theatre, the Royal Opera, is more natural, because for the past year I have also been working on a National Register of Theatre Research Material, a project initiated and administered by the Drottningholm Theatre Museum, where, by the sanction of the National Archives, the Royal Theatre has deposited its historical archives.
One determining factor in the documentation of Swedish theatre is the interplay between the theatre and its organizations on one side, researchers and the documentation institutions on the other. In 1969, the Swedish Theatre Union made a request for a government grant for the establishing of a central theatre archive, and initiated the National Archives investigation in 1972 of the question of theatre archives. For the first time, a collective move was made to unfathom the problems associated with theatre collections and archives. Among other things, the many types of information-bearing records which have been created in the theatre's activities were discussed, and in the report the significance of regarding this documentation as a unity was underlined.
One result of the report was the urgent request to the theatres to furnish the Drottningholm Theatre Museum with material related to their work. In addition, the Royal Opera, the Royal Dramatic Theatre and the National Touring Theatre were given the task of analyzing and indexing their archives in accordance with archival jurisdiction, that is, following the same principle applicable for similar government agencies. In a memorandum of 1979 , the National Archives suggested measures to make the Royal Theatre's historic archives and collections more safe, which has resulted in a modern archival inventory. It embraces the Royal Theatre's total corpus of preserved records from its foundation in 1773 to 1908 (in the case of the Royal Dramatic Theatre when this theatre became an independant institution) and up to 1975 for the Royal Opera when theatre's status was changed to a government-owned company. One must realize that archives of public institutions must satisfy many points of view: the institutions' own demands for a functional system for retrieval of information, the authorities' and public's demand for control of government-supported work, and as an extension to that, the researchers demands for research material.
The Royal Theatre's Archives contains approximately 300 shelf meters of records which deal with both the administrative and the artistic activity. Additionally, there is a drama text collection of approximately 2 600, further pictures and drawings. For this older collection, an archival inventory is now being prepared with supplementary registers/inventories concerning correspondence, play-based material, playtexts etc. The preparation of these supplementary registers is proving more and more necessary in order to avoid unnecessary wear and tear of already partly worn out material. In addition, one has begun microfilming the theatre's valuable musical collection from the 18th and 19th centuries (under the supervision of the music library) together with a playbill collection (complete from 1826), detailed cast lists etc.
To work as an archivist at the Royal Opera in Stockholm includes also to work within the theatre: contact with different departments collecting material which is no longer relevant in the current activities, setting up an archival classification system for the future inclusion of material from different employees to the final archives, giving advice on questions concerning physical storage, archival quality etc and also selection and preparation of material for microfilming, binding and preservation.
The demand for service from researchers is increasing, as well as for introductory seminars for students in theatre, musicology and the arts history. In the preparation of the guiding principles for the Royal Theatre's historic archives, it was decided not to destroy, not to damage any kind of records, however much they were a matter of routine - fires, damp, use and abuse had already done their work to eliminate many documents. It is the analysis of this historic material which forms the basis for some reflections around the theatre's archival documents for the years 1786 and 1886. Let us test the collected material from three variables:
- Information density
- Process as opposed to product/performance
- Information accessability
From 1986 and on people will discuss the possibilities and limitations which theatre's present structure and technical development can yield. As mentioned earlier, there are many reasons for omissions in archives from days gone by. The theatre's liaison with the Court and later the State nevertheless resulted in the demand for accounting being widespread. The 1780s was the Gustavian theatre's highpoint. Gustav III "the theatre king", took an active part in the theatre's work and contributed himself with new ideas and plays. The contacts between him and the theatre often took place by correspondence, when his Majesty was away, abroad on war or gathering new ideas, it fell on the director who was a court functunary to send the King a more or less daily report, so called "Nouvelles de Theatre" which were often written in French. These give a delightful mixture of accounts and gossip. In addition, permission would be sought or expenses accounted for, and this produced records which are kept either in the theatre's archives or in public archives.
In spite of the enormous interest of researchers in this epoch, complete repertoire lists both for the Royal Court theatres and the Royal Dramatic Theatre are missing. The latter is celebrating its jubilee in 1988 - it is then two hundred years since the first instructions were given, and a comprehensive research project is estimated to give, apart from reperoire lists, also an analysis of the Royal Dramatic Theatre as a style - and standard - creating institution of culture for 200 years.
In the Royal Theatre's archives, there is among the rather limited material from this time, an important document which substantiates the theatre's work: it is an accessory journal from 1786 including the French troupes' activities at Drottningholm in the summer and in the playhouse in the city during the winter. Along with the Swedish-speaking actors, a French troupe had been sununoned, under the leadership of Monvel to act as a creator of style and to raise the standard, but mainly their task was to entertain the court. In this accessory journal was daily recorded which performances were given, participants, costumes, accessories, suggested decor, new purchases, transport expenses when performances took place at Drottningholm... Consequently, it gives a very dense information, describing the performance in process. For the final result we have to go to other sources.
The century which follows shows the Royal Theatre's development from a court theatre to a government-supported theatre for the growing middle class. After the fall of the old regime in 1809, the State gave subsidies to a national theatre, first to the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) and later also to the Royal Opera (Operan). The King's or the Court's wish to influence the theatre remained, however. The King personally made a contribution to the purchase of a competitive private theatre which earlier had broken the Royal Theatre's privilege to play in the capital.
In 1854 gas lighting was introduced and in 1886 the question of a new theatre building was raised (it became a reality in 1898 after the Gustavian theatre from 1782 had been demolished nine years earlier). Economic controversies resulted 1888 in the Dramatic Theatre's partly separation from the Opera Theatre. New routines and changed social conditions resulted in a profusion of journals which were entered up extremely meticulously. The number of employees has increased from 280 one hundred years earlier to approximately 350. A total of 30 parallel journals show the activities in workshops, administration and planning, plan-drawings, machinery, lighting, attributes, statements of income and expenditure etc. To this can be added a broad play-based documentation, fully detailed cast lists, decor and costume lists, as well as daily, monthly and annual economic statement of affairs and also correspondence, contracts, pension records ... In order to completely be able to elucidate a production or sector of activity, one must go back and forth between more than one hundred different types of records. One by one these give limited information, together, however, a dense process documentation, where documents mainly have developed out of the need for control and not from historic aspects. Even the most everyday statement of expenditure, if interpreted correctly, can give important artistic information. A statement of expenditure for gas can be considered to be periferal, but the use of twice as much gas indicates either the use of limelight, which in its days had a very strong scenic effect or perhaps a festive illumination for a court or a benefit performance or such like. Collectively speaking, the documentation from 1886, when seen against the background of the above mentioned variables, must be considered to be sparse or diffuse with a considerable process differentiation and complex accessability.
Where do we stand today or tomorrow? What possibilities have a theatre archivist, a theatre documentalist to influence the administrative routines of the institutions? To come dragging the current culture-political "preservation aspect" in our rational time, where every working moment is measured in terms of money, is meaningless. In times of cutbacks, a theatre must always give priority to the performance. The government has, however, as previously stated, given some theatre the task of organizing their archives and the principle of public access demands public control. Furthermore, a theatre's need for retrieving information enforces changed routines. We have a good example of that at the end of the previous season with the revival of 26 years old production which had last been included in the 1971 repertoire. When it was originally staged, the opera Aniara was its generation's great masterpiece and demonstration of resources. Now the majority of those involved are gone: librettist, composer, scenographer, director. Remaining are the decor and costumes, the musical performance material, and older lighting plan, some technically unsatisfactory sound and video recordings, still pictures, and recollections of how it was. There is a new generation of singers, new choreographic ideals, perhaps also a new style of interpretation. Here is not the place to discuss the result of this revival, but we ought to be aware of the obvious cutbacks in the information-carrying material. How did this happen, and what can be done to save today's performance not only for theatre research but also for the theatre's own continuity and working activities? Artistic manifestations have always developed on the base of already-existing work in opposition to or carrying on the tradition. Are we on the way of losing this perspective? Practical theatre work is today characterized by both old craftsmanship (decor, costumes, wigs etc) and advanced technical know-how and progress (lighting and hydraulics). If lucky, one can still get hold of working materials from the workshops. Where the technical side is concerned, the control mechanism becomes very complicated. Interpreting computerized technical lighting schemes and plans demands advanced knowledge. Will the theatre researchers of the next generation have this knowledge? The same thing can apply to the retrieval of information within the fiscal sphere of the work which today to large parts are computerized. Here also the archivist needs advanced knowledge in order to correctly appraise the records' function beyond the demands which the law places on preservation e.g. at least 10 years for verifications. Tradition will nevertheless possibly win in this area - we have complete bound series of vouchers from 1800 (then 2 to 3 volumes each year, now 12 volumes) - even microfilming of this sort of material is very common. An account of a carried through production and performance has nevertheless become more difficult to do.
Another obstacle for a differentiated performance documentation is the copyright legislation, which says that the production text, sketches and production material remain the property of the author. To redeem the material is costly and many of the artists involved will not relinquish to it. A certain number of working scores are now being kept and the introduction of photographing sketch material has been discussed. If this can be made, it will most likely be carried out with limited accessability. This is already the case with the theatre's videofilms which in principle may only be shown for the employees of the theatre. Today, dress rehearsals and/or premieres as well as new-cast performances are videofilmed. These films are mainly used for learning and save rehearsal time e.g. when soloists or conductors make guest performances.
The value of video recordings as documentation is under discussion and the Nordic Center within SIBMAS has taken an initiative which more than likely will lead to common registering of all recordings of the theatres.
Documentation de théâtre
1786, 1886, 1986 - possibilités et limitations
Commentaires d'une
archiviste de théâtre. (Résumé).
pp. 65
Le point de départ de cette étude se trouve dans le travail avec les archives de Théâtres Royaux fondés en 1773. Elles comprennent environ 300 mètres d'archives de matériaux documentant aussi bien l'activité administrative qu'artistique des plus anciens théâtres institutionnels se Suède, soit lyriques, soit dramatiques. Partant des trois optiques
- densité d'information
- compte rendu du processus contre celui du produit
- accès a l'information
On examine les collections des deux années: 1786 avec la source principale en forme d'un journal d'accessoire donnant une information très dense (distribution des rôles, décors, costumes, acquisitions) décrivant le processus avec un vaste accès à l'information - le tout en un seul volume. Par contre l'année 1886 offre des matériaux très différenciés: une trentaine de journaux décrivant l'activité, l'administration et la formation des plans; en outre des documents basés sur les pièces et des comptes rendus économiques. Pour une illustration complète de l'activité il faut louvoyer entre 130-140 catégories de documents. Cela signifie aussi une documentation du processus mais avec une information peu fournie et une annotation d'information complexe.
Si l'on examine la documentation du Théâtre Royal (l'Opéra) d'aujourd'hui en partant de la mise en scène d'Aniara 26 ans après sa création et 14 ans après sa représentation la plus récente, on trouvera une documentation notablement réduite qui, de plus, donnera un compte rendu presque limité au produit. L'emploi d'une technique avancée dans l'éclairage et l'hydraulique ainsi que l'effet des ordinateurs sur le compte rendu financier exigeront beaucoup de l'archiviste et du chercheur du théâtre. En Suède la documentation du théâtre est motivée par le besoin de l'état d'un compte rendu, en premier des théâtres subventionnés par le gouvernement. Aussi le principe du droit d'accès est important quoique limité par le droit d'auteur.
Malgré l'enregistrement son et vidéo, la réalisation en microfilm, la conservation et les amples registres, une attitude consciente de la part du théâtre concerné ainsi que de la recherche théâtrale doit régner pour maintenir le caractère naturellement transitoire de phénomène théâtral.
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Last updated: 27.11.2002
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