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Description: | The term 'Library' is used here to include the Theatre Museum's collections of printed books, periodicals and manuscripts.
The printed book collection comprises over 120,000 published works, including histories, criticisms, yearbooks, directories, trade literature and playtexts. It focusses on the history and practice of the British stage, and is strongest in the areas of drama and dance (especially ballet) but includes some coverage of all the live performing arts, It incorporates several major independent libraries, such as those of the Society for Theatre Research, the London Archives of the Dance, and the Critics' Circle. A large collection of some 60,000 titles was added to the collection in 1990, when the library of the British Theatre Association (previously known as the British Drama League) was passed to the Theatre Museum. This collection was especially rich in playtexts, in both printed and typescript form.
The Museum was also very fortunate in being able to acquire the Robert Eddison collection in the 1990?s. Mr Eddison was a respected actor but also an eminent collector of books and memorabilia, and the Museum thereby acquired a large number of rare and early works on the British stage.
The Theatre Museum subscribes to a small number of current periodicals but also has important holdings of older material. These titles were not included in Carl Stratman's Britain's theatrical periodicals, 1720-1967; a bibliography (NY, 1972) and so the Museum?s holdings can often provide an additional location to those cited in this source.
Manuscripts in the core Library collection include authors' drafts (e.g.draft manuscripts of Sheridan?s School for Scandal), graingerised books (where the published content has been expanded with interleavings and other personal additions), diaries, annotated texts and single account books and cuttings albums (series of these are usually treated as discrete collections and will have their own CLDs).
The Theatre Museum also has an important collection of over 3000 promptbooks, relating to productions from the eighteenth century to the present day. A notable group is that which was given by the Royal Court Theatre which includes promptbooks for English Stage Company productions between 1956 and the 1980s . Other manuscripts include large numbers of typescripts for twentieth century plays, many donated by literary agents, which often do not exist in published form.
The bulk of the collection covers the 18th century to the present, although a few items date from the 16th and 17th centuries. | Format: | Legal documents Periodicals Playtexts (typescripts) Books Documents (business) Playtexts (printed) Playtexts (manuscripts) Playtexts (prompt books) Volumes | Subjects: | Drama - Great Britain; Drama - History and criticism; Drama - Periodicals; Dance - Great Britain; Theater - History; Theater - Great Britain | Temporal: | 16th century 17th century 19th century 20th century 18th century 21st century | Source: | Backstage | Address: | Blythe House, 23 Blythe Road, London,
W14 0QX | Identifier: | www.backstage.ac.uk/records/collection/c | Language: | en | Format: | Legal documents Periodicals Playtexts (typescripts) Books Documents (business) Playtexts (printed) Playtexts (manuscripts) Playtexts (prompt books) Volumes | Go to resource |
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