Our Process

 

The Living Archive has been shaped by a commitment to making the Royal Court’s rich theatrical heritage accessible to all. 

We acknowledge our duty to serve the many who have contributed to this collection. 

An Archive for active theatre can never be finished. 

It will always be a work in progress. 

Its progression will be shaped by its users and contributors -the writers of the future. 

This archive will honestly present the past work. It will naturally expose a change in perspective and thinking. The content is very much a product of its time and our approach has been to frame it, rather than hide it from our history. 

 

LIVING ARCHIVE IS FOR THE WRITERS OF THE FUTURE 

One of the thrills of theatre is to be right there in that room with people who happen to be your fellow audience members on that night and share an experience. That doesn’t  mean the ideas and the art need to stay in that room. 

Our Dream 

An archive that presents all work equitably.  

An archive that challenges the narrative of success. 

An Archive that opens out the way we collectively remember by acknowledging the influence of traditional perspectives.  

An archive that allows the user freedom to view and interpret the Royal Court’s history. 

An archive that honours every role involved in the theatre-making process making theatre. 

An archive that honours the work of the past so the future can be itself. 

An archive as a tool for the new writer. 

Our ambitions will take time and resources. We aspire to enable a balanced user journey that brings plays overlooked by the traditional theatre narrative to the fore as they sit alongside work already lodged in the public consciousness.  

2020 was a year filled with upheaval and a platform for conversations. Those conversations lead to questions about who has had control of the narrative of theatres past and what an archive should be. Who has been celebrated and why? Who has been forgotten and why? At the same time, writers were asking for information about our past work, questions we couldn’t answer. What plays have been written about a certain topic?

How many writers has the theatre produced who identify in a certain way? The Royal Court rightly has to focus on the plays it is making right now. We didn’t have a copy of every play we’ve produced. While there There have been several books about our history, but the organization didn’t have quick access to answer these writers’ questions. 

At first, we thought the answer theatre, was a residency of work in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, but this process felt too big to know how to start.  

When the opportunity to apply for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Grant arose, it gave us a chance to consolidate our ideas and open out what a theatre archive can be. Something anyone anywhere can access without coming to Sloane Square. 

In the Summer of 2022, we programmed two weeks of work inspired by the idea of an Archive from Verbatim play by Stage Managers, an unproduced Commission, and four new commissions investigating the construct of an Archive. This work has greatly informed our approach to putting the website LIVING ARCHIVE together.   

How we directed our resources so far: 

We aim to undermine the Archive’s role as the faceless institutional gatekeeper. 

Nearly two thousand plays have been presented on our two stages by over one thousand writers.  

STARTING POINT CONTENT 

Every play on the Living Archive is listed with production information, and this makes up the majority of the Archive. These plays are linked to other works by the writer or work that crosses over in some other way. 

ENHANCED CONTENT 

We wanted to develop a dynamic way of archiving this work for the future. So, we had to make choices on which plays we directed our resources towards. Algorithms and Ddice throwing were options, but we chose writers.  

We engaged a team of 24 writers, asking them to select a decade and then choose 10 plays from that decade. Their choices were informed by their interests, plays they were eager to learn more about, or the results of a Google search about the writer as our team didn’t always have time to read the plays at this stage of the process

Their chosen plays were handed to our team of readers. Their insights have informed the searchability and allocation of filters. Highlighting each play’s themes, stylistic nuances, and cultural significance. They have written objective synopses and connected them to the present day and other plays, films, TV, and music references.  

Whenever feasible, we’ve enriched these pages further with audio clips, images, and videos.  

DEEP DIVE 

The play from each decade with the most votes from our team of writers has been spotlighted for an in-depth examination. Each page for these plays offers not just multimedia elements but also interviews, creative reactions, and in-depth articles 

Our aspiration is to extend the depth of coverage found in these highlighted plays across the entire archive. We appreciate your patience; building a truly comprehensive archive is a journey. If you have suggestions for features, creative pieces, or any archival contributions, we welcome your input. Our vision is for this archive to be a vibrant, ever-evolving space.