National Theatre Archives visit

Inspiring visit to the National Theatre Archive arranged by the Association of Pall Mall Libraries.

I am such a fan of the National Theatre so found it magical to get a chance to visit their archive. The archivist, Erin Lee, was very welcoming and talked with such enthusiasm about the archive and her role there. She talked us through the various collections and how they promote and use them. From the amount of projects she mentioned I assumed she had a large staff but it turned out to be her and a couple of trainees and project related people. I was so impressed by her energy.

We had a look in the basement at how the archive was organised and she opened a few of the production boxes to show us programmes, notes and sketches. She had open a prompt book and there was a set model on show. She then took us over to the theatre itself to show us her current exhibition (which I’ll review next) and talked about how she calls on other departments at the theatre to help her put these together. The set designers help her with design and the graphics department help her with the text and illustrations.

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