Archivists, librarians, and theatre research

Archivaria

Volumn 63, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 7-33

  Marini, Francesca ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 77951439258     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (153)

1. Francesca Marini, "Renato Simoni drammaturgo" ["Renato Simoni Playwright"] (undergraduate thesis, University of Bologna, Italy, 1997).
2. The five plays are: La vedova (1902) [The Widow]
3. Carlo Gozzi (1903)
4. Tramonto (1906) [Sunset]
5. Il matrimonio di Casanova, written in collaboration with Ugo Ojetti (1910) [Casanova's Wedding]
6. Congedo (1910) [Farewell].
7. Eugenia Baroncelli, telephone conversation with author, 23 June 2002.
8. See Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research in the View of Scholars and Information Professionals" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2005).
9. My heartfelt thanks to my dissertation committee at UCLA: my adviser Marcia Bates, Clara Chu, Carl Mueller, and Virginia Walter.
10. This article is the first that I have written based on the study, although I have spoken on the topic at several scholarly and professional theatre, archival, and library conferences, including the June 2006 Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Annual Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
11. I am not going into a deep analysis of the findings here, but in future writings I hope to cover more of the study's complex outcomes, further developing them and integrating them with my current research. My current research projects focus on The Performing Arts Artistic and Cultural Heritage: Issues of Arrangement and Description in Repositories (funded by SSHRC), and on Future Memory and the Performing Arts: Ethical and Artistic Considerations in Documenting and Preserving Performances. Funding has also been received from the University of British Columbia Hampton Research Fund for a project titled Present Memory: Knowledge Requirements for Archivists Preserving Live Theatre.
12. Because of space limitations, I cannot discuss here the vast amount of existing literature on the subject. I therefore refer the readers to the text of Marini, Sources and Methodology of Theater Research.
13. Two examples of research related to information seeking and use, and partially addressing theatre, although not theatre scholars, are: Laurel Littrell, "Artists: The Neglected Patrons?" paper presented at the Tenth Annual Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, Denver, Colorado, March 2001, http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlevents/littrell.pdf (accessed on 2 January 2007)
14. Elisabeth Davies and Pamela J. McKenzie, "Preparing for Opening Night: Temporal Boundary Objects in Textually-mediated Professional Practice," Information Research, vol. 10, no. 1 (October 2004), http://informationr.net/ir/101/paper211.html (accessed on 2 January 2007).
15. See, for example, Kenneth Schlesinger, Pamela Bloom, and Ann Ferguson, eds., Performance Documentation and Preservation in an Online Environment (New York, 2004)
16. Denise Varney and Rachel Fensham, "More-And-Less-Than: Liveness, Video Recording, and the Future of Performance," New Theatre Quarterly, vol. XVI, no. 1 (February 2000), pp. 88-96
17. Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London and New York, 1993)
18. Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham, NC, and London, 2005 [2003])
19. Matthew Reason, Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance (New York, 2006).
20. In the following discussion, I am withholding the names of the interviewees and of their institutions. This is an established practice in qualitative research, and is required by the regulations enforced by the Office for Protection of Research Subjects of the University of California, Los Angeles, with which I was affiliated at the time of the study.
21. Dramaturgy is here intended not as the writing of plays, but as the activity of analyzing and explaining a play in view of its staging. This implies interpreting a play in the context of its time and of its author's intentions. Dramaturgy was born in Germany and then spread, taking on slightly different connotations, to other countries, including the United States. On dramaturgy and the role of the dramaturg, see, for example
22. Susan Jonas, Geof Proehl, and Michael Lupu, eds., Dramaturgy in American Theater: A Source Book (Fort Worth, Texas, 1997).
23. See also David Kahn, "Performing by the Book: Library Resources for Theatre Artists," The Reference Librarian, vol. 22, no. 47 (1994), pp. 167-80.
24. On issues of arrangement and description, and cataloguing and classification of performing arts materials see, for example
25. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research"; Nena Couch and Nancy Allen, "Performing Arts," in The Humanities and the Library, ed. Nena Couch and Nancy Allen, 2nd ed. (Chicago and London, 1993), pp. 173-211
26. Simon Trussler, A Classification for the Performing Arts (London, 1974)
27. Richard Stone, "The Show Goes On! Preserving Performing Arts Ephemera, Or the Power of the Program," Arts Library Journal, vol. 25, no. 2 (2000), pp. 31-35
28. Lee R. Nemchek, "Problems of Cataloging and Classification in Theater Librarianship," Library Resources & Technical Services, vol. 25, no. 4 (October/December 1981), pp. 374-85
29. Vincent Radermecker, "En matière d'art du théâtre, quelles archives, pour quelle vie, au sein d'un organisme vivant ou d'un centre d'archivage?" presented at the 24th International SIBMAS Conference, Rome, Italy, September 2002
30. Kevin Winkler, ed., Their Championship Season: Acquiring, Processing and Using Performing Arts Archives (New York, 2001).
31. Currently, to the best of my knowledge, there are no fully specialized educational programs for performing arts archivists and librarians, in contrast to what is available, for example, for film archivists.
32. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, rev. ed. (New York, 1990 [1959]).
33. Marvin Carlson, "Foreword," in Approaching Theatre, eds. André Helbo, J. Dines Johansen, Patrice Pavis, Anne Ubersfeld, Marvin Carlson, Marco De Marinis, Svend Erik Larsen, Ane Grethe Østergaard, Franco Ruffini, and Lars Seerberg, rev. trans. of Théâtre: Modes d'approche (1987; Bloomington, 1991), p. 7.
34. Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (1999; repr., London and New York, 1996), p. 1.
35. See Wisner P. Kinne, George Pierce Baker and the American Theatre (Cambridge, MA, 1954)
36. Erika Fischer-Lichte, "From Text to Performance: The Rise of Theatre Studies as an Academic Discipline in Germany," Theatre Research International, vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999), pp. 168-78.
37. Specific interests that later converged into theatre studies may be traced much farther back.
38. See R.W. Vince, "Theatre History as an Academic Discipline," in Interpreting the Theatrical Past: Essays in the Historiography of Performance, eds. Thomas Postelwait and Bruce A. McConachie (1989; repr., Iowa City, IA, 2000), pp. 1-18.
39. R.W. Vince, p. 1.
40. Ferdinando Taviani, Uomini di scena, uomini di libro: Introduzione alla letteratura teatrale italiana del Novecento [Stage Men, Literary Men: Introduction to Twentieth-Century Italian Dramatic Literature], rev. ed. (Bologna, Italy, 1997), p. 15.
41. Nena Couch and Nancy Allen, p. 174.
42. Marvin Carlson, p. 79.
43. See Marvin Carlson, Performance., Performance Theory, rev. ed. (1988; repr., New York and London, 1994).
44. For a discussion of the term "inherently interdisciplinary," see Julie Thompson Klein, Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities (Charlottesville, VA and London, 1996), p. 39.
45. On the interdisciplinarity of theatre and performance studies, see, for example, Marvin Carlson, "Theatre History: Methodology and Distinctive Features," Theatre Research International, vol. 20, no. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 90-96
46. Jill Dolan, "Producing Knowledges That Matter: Practicing Performance Studies Through Theatre Studies," The Drama Review, vol. 40, no. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 9-19.
47. I am here using "interdisciplinary" as an overarching term; for a discussion of specific definitions related to the many types and levels of interdisciplinary research and activities, see, for example
48. Julie Thompson Klein, Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Detroit, 1990)
49. Lynn Westbrook, Interdisciplinary Information Seeking in Women's Studies (Jefferson, NC and London, 1999).
50. See, for example, Baroncelli; R.H. O'Neill, The Director as Artist: Play Direction Today (New York, 1987)
51. David Kahn, "Performing by the Book."
52. "La documentazione dei fatti spettacolari è infinita, le culture dello spettacolo sono infinite. ... Tutto questo... fa sì che questo effimero sia necessario, perché se non ci fosse l'effimero non ci sarebbero tutti questi collegamenti possibili" (interview 11)
53. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 98-99.
54. The English translation of all quotes is mine. Since literal translation is not always possible, I am including the original quotes in the notes to allow for comparison.
55. Ibid., p. 99 (interview 31).
56. Ibid., p. 97 (interview 18).
57. Among others, see Jane Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire
58. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research."
59. See, for example, Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," in particular pages 73-74 (interviews 18 and 25).
60. Ibid., p. 73 (interview 25).
61. See, for example, Lino Marini, Stati, Culture. Due note sui domini sabaudi fra Cinque e Seicento [States, Cultures]. Estratto dagli Atti della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna, Classe di Scienze Morali, Anno 78, Rendiconti, Vol. LXXII, 1983-1984 (Bologna, Italy, 1984).
62. "Bisogna fare l'esperienza del teatro; non c'è libro che possa sostituitrsi al fuoco dell'esperienza" (interview 11)
63. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 89.
64. "Il nuovo storico non può non lavorare a stretto contatto con la pratica teatrale, con l'artista. Si nutre anche di questa prossimità" (interview 22)
65. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 89.
66. "[Lo spettacolo] non esiste senza la partecipazione dello spettatore" (interview 18)
67. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 92.
68. David Mayer, electronic mail message to author, 26 January 2002.
69. See Richard Schechner, Performance Theory.
70. Marcia Bates, electronic mail message to author, 27 July 2002.
71. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 99 (interview 29).
72. Ibid., p. 100 (interview 31).
73. Jim Shaw, "The Evolution of a Stage Production: Evidence From the Archives," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, Victoria BC, April 2003.
74. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 96 (interviews 4, 5, and 16).
75. For this observation, I am indebted to an anonymous peer reviewer, whom I thank for their insightful comments and suggestions.
76. "Il teatro lo fa anche chi lo pensa" (interview 21)
77. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 105.
78. This concept has also been stated by Taviani in Uomini di scena, uomini di libro.
79. "L'intellettuale può stare al fianco dell'artista" (interview 11)
80. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 105-107.
81. Director Eugenio Barba is a theatre innovator and probably the best known student of Polish artist Jerzy Grotowski's.
82. On Barba see, for example, Daniel Meyer-Dingräfe, ed., Who's Who in Contemporary World Theater (London and New York, 2000)
83. "Barba, Eugenio." 47 "Barba dice [che il teatro è un mondo] parallelo a quello reale... in cui bisogna ricomporre le cose della vita in un nuovo ordine, ordine diverso, essendo però infiniti gli ordini possibili. E quindi in questo senso l'intellettuale può stare al fianco dell'artista" (interview 11)
84. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 106-107.
85. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 107 (interview 28).
86. Ibid., p. 94 (interview 28).
87. Ibid., pp. 110-111 (interview 16).
88. "È come un cacciatore: le tracce sono come perse... però improvvisamente rispuntano da un'altra parte. Naturalmente è come se un pezzo della tua testa fosse rimasto agganciato da quell'altra parte e come che tu costantemente ti aspetti che venga fuori" (interview 16)
89. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 111.
90. Ibid., p. 5.
91. About browsing, see Marcia Bates, "The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface," Online Review, vol. 13, no. 5 (October 1989), pp. 407-24.
92. "I casi di serendipity si verificano quando hai degli scienziati con la mente preparata" (interview 25)
93. Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 112.
94. Ibid., pp. 111-13.
95. About serendipity, see Theodore G. Remer, ed., Serendipity and the Three Princes: From the "Peregrinaggio" of 1557 (Norman, OK, 1965).
96. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 118-19 (interviews 4, 16, 22, and 25).
97. Ibid., pp. 114-18 (in particular, interview 25).
98. "Ho sempre fatto il confronto con... la letteratura poliziesca... vai in un archivio: devi fare un'indagine poliziesca, parti da un dato minimo È tutto il metodo induttivo di Sherlock Holmes" (interview 25)
99. Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 116-17.
100. "In questo siamo figli, veramente, di un modello di storia materiale; lavorare sugli oggett... la storia materiale al di fuori degli idealismi" (interview 25)
101. Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 117.
102. Ibid., pp. 119-27.
103. "Io ho cercato di stabilire dei ponti... perché non mi piace l'isolamento... mi piace il collegamento" (interview 11)
104. Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 120.
105. For a detailed discussion and comparison with other groups, see Chapter VII in Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 184-95.
106. Marcia Bates, electronic mail message to author, 23 November 2001.
107. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," pp. 114-18.
108. Ibid., p. 115 (interview 11).
109. "L'ovvio non si dice... con tutti i grossi problemi che ne conseguono" (interview 25)
110. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 114.
111. Performing arts materials present, at times, issues that have also been recognized in other contexts. For example, see
112. Catherine Hobbs, "The Character of Personal Archives: Reflections on the Value of Records of Individuals," Archivaria 52 (Fall 2001), pp. 126-35
113. Jim Burant, "Ephemera, Archives, and Another View of History," Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995), pp. 189-98.
114. The view of archivists as researchers is addressed in archival literature, for example in Elizabeth Yakel, "Thinking Inside and Outside the Boxes: Archival Reference Services at the Turn of the Century," Archivaria 49 (Spring 2000), pp. 140-60.
115. David Mayer, electronic mail message to author, 26 January 2002.
116. "Certe volte non riesco a cavarmela su certi problemi... mentre invece conosco degli archivisti che mi tirano fuori d'impiccio e mi dicono dov'è [quello che cerco]. È un po' come un detective che ha qualche amico informatore in un angolo" (interview 16)
117. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 164.
118. Stone R., "The Show Goes On!," p. 31.
119. This issue is also addressed in museum archives; see, for example, Deborah Wythe, ed., Museum Archives: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 2004).
120. On the documentation strategy process see, for example: Helen W. Samuels, "Who Controls the Past?" American Archivist, vol. 49, no. 2 (Spring 1986), pp. 109-124
121. Varsity Letters (Lanham, MD and London, 1998).
122. See also Richard J. Cox, "The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective," Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994), pp. 11-36
123. American Archival Analysis (Metuchen, NJ and London, 1990), especially Chapter Thirteen (pp. 291-303).
124. See also Richard Pearce-Moses, A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (Chicago, 2005)
125. see "Documentation Strategy."
126. "Préférent ne pas garder" (interview 6)
127. Marini F., "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 171.
128. The documentary Absolute Wilson, directed by Katharina Otto-Bernstein (USA/Germany, 2006), provides useful examples of Wilson's interest in documentation. Wilson maintains his own archive; he has also donated videos of his performances to the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and part of his papers to the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscripts Library.
129. See "The Robert Wilson Archive," http://www.robertwilson.com/archive/overview.php (accessed 1 March 2007).
130. "L'archivio deve vivere, deve essere un nucleo attivo con tutti quanti... Se non è conosciuto, se non convive con la città, con le persone, con gli studiosi... è un archivio morto. E il teatro non deve assolutamente essere un discorso morto, anzi deve far capire agli altri tutto quello che c'è, la possibilità proprio di fare, di scoprire" (interview 3)
131. Francesca Marini, "Sources and Methodology of Theater Research," p. 174.
132. See Francesca Marini, "The Identity of the Profession: Representing Ourselves to Funding Agencies and the Public," paper presented at the 26th International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts (SIBMAS) Congress, Vienna, Austria, August 2006.
133. InterPARES2 (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems 2); http://www.interpares.org (accessed 1 March 2007).
134. See also Luciana Duranti and Kenneth Thibodeau, "The Concept of Record in Interactive, Experiential and Dynamic Environments: The View of InterPARES," Archival Science, vol. 6, no. 1 (March 2006), pp. 13-38.
135. See, for example, Terry Cook and Joan M. Schwartz, "Archives, Records, and Power: From (Postmodern) Theory to (Archival) Performance," Archival Science, vol. 2, nos. 3-4 (September 2002), pp. 171-85
136. Tom Nesmith, "Seeing Archives: Postmodernism and the Changing Intellectual Place of Archives," The American Archivist, vol. 65, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2002), pp. 24-41.
137. See, for example, Luciana Duranti, "La questione fondamentale: in quali entità digitali si traduce la memoria del futuro?" Archivi e Computer, vol. XVI, no. 1 (2006), pp. 24-31.
138. Joan Baillie, "Some Performance!," Archivaria 9 (Winter 1979-80), pp. 229-32.
139. Société internationale des bibliothèques et des musées des arts du spectacle/International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts (SIBMAS), http://www.sibmas.org/ (accessed 1 March 2007).
140. SIBMAS was established in 1954 in France, and operates mostly at the European and North American level.
141. The Theatre Library Association (TLA) was established in 1937 and operates mostly at the North American level, http://tla.library.unt.edu/ (accessed 1 March 2007).
142. The Society of American Archivists' Performing Arts Roundtable (PAR) was established in 1986, http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/performart/index.html (accessed 1 March 2007).
143. The Performing Arts Special Interest Group of Museums Australia (PASIG) was established in the early 1990s; http://amol.org.au/pasig/ (accessed 1 March 2007).
144. The above-mentioned associations also work with scholarly theatre associations such as the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), http://www.astr.org/
145. The Society for Theatre Research (STR), http://www.str.org.uk
146. And the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR)/ Fédération internationale pour la recherche théâtrale (FIRT), http://www.firtiftr.org/firt/home.jsp (all accessed 1 March 2007).
147. Emmanuel Wallon, Sources et ressources pour le spectacle vivant-Rapport au ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, 2 vols. and appendixes (Paris, February 2006), http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/index-rapports.htm (accessed 1 March 2007).
148. Daisy Abbott and Emma Beer, Getting to Know Our Audience: AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study (Glasgow, July 2006), http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/pubs/scoping-study-2006.pdf (accessed 1 March 2007).
149. See, for example, Luciana Duranti and Kenneth Thibodeau, "The Concept of Record."
150. Among the many existing works on the subject, see, for example, Karen M. Benedict, Ethics and the Archival Profession: Introduction and Case Studies (Chicago, 2003)
151. Richard J. Cox, Ethics, Accountability, and Recordkeeping in a Dangerous World (London, 2006).
152. See, for example, Verne Harris, "A Shaft of Darkness: Derrida in the Archives," in Refiguring the Archive, ed. Carolyn Hamilton, Verne Harris, Jane Taylor, Michele Pickover, Graeme Reid, and Razia Saleh (Cape Town, 2002), pp. 61-81.
153. See Marini F., "The Identity of the Profession."