East London launches theatre archive

Published Tuesday 8 May 2007 at 15:05 by Emma Barnett

Hackney Empire, Theatre Royal Stratford East and Wilton’s Music Hall are teaming up with the University of East London to create a digital archive.

The East London Theatre Archive, which will give access to 15,000 playbills and a variety of theatrical memorabilia online, will be available online from early 2009.

It has been funded by a £500,000 grant from the Joint Information Systems Committee.

Andrew McDonald, director of library and learning services at UEL, said: “East London theatre has a tremendous history and before now it was all spread around in various people’s archives.

“Theatre studies as a subject has hardly any resources so that’s why we wanted to digitise all the material we have managed to collate, so the global academic community could benefit.”

Other venues and organisations contributing to the archive are: Half Moon Young People’s Theatre, Hoxton Hall, the London International Festival of Theatre, The Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre Collections and the Arts and Humanities Data Service.

Lord Rix, chancellor of the UEL, added, “There will be 15,000 playbills, programmes, press cuttings, photographs and audio visual materials encompassing much of our rich theatrical heritage.

“This archive will be of national and international significance.”

UEL has also launched the Hackney Empire Archive, marking 25 years of New Variety and CAST, the theatre group created by Roland and Claire Muldoon. This tangible collection of posters, programmes and videos will be held at the university’s library and is available for general public viewing by arrangement.