Lee, Erin (2025) Active archiving at The National Theatre : creating a collection from embedded and parallel practice with Till the Starts Come Down. Doctoral thesis, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.

Abstract

As an in-house theatre archivist for the National Theatre (NT) since 2012, I have discovered that there is a lack of tailored theory for archivist in performing arts institutions. This has resulted in archival science failing to consider the practicalities and nuances of being based in a live, working theatre. This tehsis explores how a model of active archiving can be adopted by an in-house theatre archive to create a more representative collection of theatre-making processes. Grounded in the fields of both archival science and theatre and performance studies, the research investigates alternative methods for capturing the process of creatting a production with specific focus on th e'development period.' I carried out an embedded and parallel archiving practice with Till The Starts Come Down (2024) written by Beth Steel and directed by Bijan Sheibani. I underpinned this by interviewing researchers from the NT Archive, gathered materials that were usually created by not transferred to the NT Archive, and finally, collected new materials sustainably, with an eye to what was being asked of practitioners. This produced a catalogue of over 1,500 items and revised retention schedules for NT departments and artistic teams. The findings suggest that a new method of archiving can make the NT Archive more representative of performance in terms of the periods of a production, people involved, types of materials created, and how materials are catalogued. By pushing the boundaries of in-house theatre archiving using practice I created a new and sustainable model of archiving. I make recommendations for the NT and wider performing arts archive sector, proposing opportunities for archives to become part of a cycle of creativity.