Preserving Performance: Archiving to Curate, Promote and Honor Your Work & Legacy. Presentation at NYC DH Week, February 7, 2018

1. Preserving Performance
Archiving to Curate, Promote,
and Honor Your Work & Legacy
DH Week | February 7, 2018
Tanya Elder and Noreen Whysel
American Theatre Archive Project

2. THE “PROBLEM”
Artists and theatre companies are skilled at producing and
promoting their shows and seasons, but need knowledgeable support to
save and curate the records of their work.

4. WHY ARCHIVE?
The American Theatre Archive Project (ATAP)
seeks to help artists and theatre companies:
• Curate their stories
• Honor their legacies
• Establish protocols to capture and safeguard their
work for posterity
• Increase their visibility and attractiveness to patrons
and grant funders

5. WHO ARE WE?
ATAP is a collaboration of archivists,
dramaturgs, and academics who
support theatre makers in saving their
work as they make it for the benefit of
staff, associated artists, scholars,
patrons, and the public.

6. ARCHIVISTS THINK ABOUT:
• Archival evidence and principles
• Appraisal and analysis of records
• Retention schedules and collection policies
• Arrangement and description of materials
• Long-term preservation issues
• Public access
• Staffing and training
(So you don’t have to)

7. ATAP HELPS YOU THINK ABOUT:
• How to begin or continue archiving your work
• Separating the wheat from the chaff -- what should
be saved and what can be discarded?
• How production-related materials contribute to
legacy
• Considering long-term preservation strategies (e.g.
keep or donate to a repository?)
• Whether and how to make history available to the
public

8. HOW TO BEGIN?

9. ISN’T THAT BETTER?

10. PRODUCTION RECORDS
• Production history: Are projects and seasons
documented? How? Where?
• Scripts and dramaturgy: Where are the script
versions, dramaturgical materials, and programs?
• Designs: Where are set models, costumes, props?
• Photos: Who has production or event images? Who has
the rights? How are they maintained?
• Electronic files: What file formats are used and where
are they stored?
• How do all of the above support your mission
and goals as artists?

11. ARCHIVES VS. RECORDS MANAGEMENT
ATAP examines:
• protocol(s) around
retention
• Policies and practices
that ensure items are
kept
• Establishing standards
for materials to be
retained
BOTTOM LINE: A clear retention schedule allows artists
and theatres to be unafraid to throw things away and to
focus on records worth preserving.

12. ARCHIVE PRODUCTION TEMPLATE

13. ARCHIVE PRODUCTION TEMPLATE

14. SHARING
Are there elements of the collection that you
would like to make available to the public?
• To your audience?
• To the community?
• To theatre historians/scholars?
Would you like to create an online presence
with your materials?

15. SOME BENEFITS OF PUBLIC ACCESS
• Enables permanent or pop-up displays of holdings
for public enjoyment.
• Allows practitioners and researchers to generate new
art and scholarship.

16. Promote your history:

17. Highlight images from the archives:

18. List your holdings:

19. Display your production catalog:

20. Promote content for sale:

21. Highlight other featured content:

22. WHAT ATAP PROVIDES
• Introduction to archiving
• Survey of records and interviews with artistic
collaborators
• Assessment of records and recommendations for
establishing an archive
• Workshop on archival practices
• Suggested resources (e.g. grant opportunities, supply
sources, consultants, cloud services)
BOTTOM LINE: Together, we develop concrete
steps to organize your artifacts and records for
posterity.

23. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET STARTED:
Physical materials:
• Archival boxes (banker’s or manuscript size)
• Acid-free folders
• Mylar or polypropylene sleeves
• Pencils
Digital storage:
• Computer drive
• External hard drive
• Cloud-based repositories
• Photo, sound and video websites
• Github for computer code

24. THE BIG PICTURE – ATAP’S GOALS
• To preserve records of current theatrical process and
product for future generations.
• To leverage your legacy to maintain and promote current
and future work.
• To promote a better understanding of theatre as a vital
element of cultural history.
• To encourage scholarly research in contemporary
American theatre.
• To increase funding for establishing and maintaining
theatre archives.
• To support collaborations among practitioners,
archivists, and scholars.

25. SELECTED PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
Theatre Library Association (TLA)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
(LMDA)
Performing Arts Roundtable of the Society of American
Archivists (SAA)
Theatre Communications Group (TCG)
The Lucille Lortel Foundation
Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York

26. Time for a conversation.