Performance Archive

UPDATE - JANUARY 2011

Last fall, the Association posted the report below which invited institutions to submit pre-proposals for the creation of an archive of performances of classical works. As of the time of the Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the task force in charge of this project had received one good pre-preposal and some additional preliminary inquiries. At its meeting on January 9, 2011, the Board of Directors set March 31, 2011 as the deadline for full proposals to be submitted to Professor C. W. Marshall, the chair of the task force (toph@interchange.ubc.edu). Institutions that did not respond to the earlier call for pre-proposals are still welcome to submit a proposal by this date.

OCTOBER 2010

The following report was submitted by the Task Force on Performance Archives appointed last winter at the recommendation of the Committee on Research. At their meeting on October 2, 2010, the APA Board of Directors approved this report and embraced its principal recommendation, that the Association solicit proposals from institutions interested in becoming the home of an archive as described in the report. The members of the Task Force have agreed to serve as a committee to evaluate such proposals and make recommendations to the Committee on Research.

Proposals should be as responsive as possible to the mission and guidelines laid out in this report, indicating what schools, departments, institutes, and centers in a university would be involved in the creation and maintenance of an archive, where it would be housed, which individuals would provide leadership and oversight, and what sources might provide funding. It is not expected that universities making proposals will provide all or even most of the initial funding themselves; fundraising will undoubtedly be needed. At the same time, some initial commitment of university funds to get the project launched would be helpful.

The Task Force would welcome preliminary proposals by the time of the annual meeting, but the Directors have not set a deadline for its work in finding a suitable institutional base for the archive. Send proposals to the Task Force Chair, Prof. C. W. Marshall, at toph@interchange.ubc.ca

Roger S. Bagnall
Vice President for Research

Report of the Task Force on Performance Archives

Committee on Research, 2010

  • K. Bosher, Northwestern University
  • M.-K. Gamel, University of California (Santa Cruz)
  • C. W. Marshall (chair), University of British Columbia

CASE FOR AN ARCHIVE

In the past the APA through its Committee on Research has supported many worthwhile large projects, but none that clearly represent Reception Studies. Reception (the study of how the ancient world has been understood and disseminated within and since antiquity) has grown, especially since 1995, as a sub-discipline of the field, and offers great opportunities for interdisciplinary contact with other academic fields. Indeed, Reception provides a rubric within which many of the traditional fields of Classics can profitably be examined.

A particular focus of Reception has been in performance studies, particularly in theatre. Since theatre is by definition ephemeral, any opportunity to document or preserve information about such performances should be pursued, in order to preserve transient information for future generations of scholars and theatre practitioners.

The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD, ) in Oxford has compiled a useful, international, online computer database of performances and preserves some material on site, but it does focus on the U.K. and has not aggressively pursued detailed coverage in North America. The European Network of Research and Documentation of Performances of Ancient Greek Drama (Arc-Net, ) is engaged in a related project, using a multinational team to document European performances.

An Archive of Classical Performance for North America would be able to complement the UK and European initiatives, while providing a platform from which other reception projects could be launched.

Given limited resources, choices must always be made for coverage, and these choices shape the discussion. These choices may fall along three axes: time, geography, and medium. (Other axes could be devised, but these convey the point.) Is the time period to be constrained (e.g. “since 1950”)? What geographical limitations will be placed (all of North America? global? the state of Delaware)? Theatre only, or also cinema, comics, sculpture, architecture…?

The specific parameters of what the archive would cover will depend on the interests of the director. We suggest that in order best to complement parallel efforts, a performance archive might focus on theatre and cinema performances in North America – performances both of ancient texts and (more generally) that represent the ancient world. Conceivably, direct adaptations in other media of ancient performance texts could also be included.

LOCATION AND RESOURCES

While any location could serve as an archive, for long-term viability and ease of consultation, an archive site would need

  • infrastructure to be provided by a research university
  • some staff (possibly students) to maintain the archive
  • clear leadership from a team or individual working on reception
  • A large, urban center would be ideal: within the US, New York, Chicago, Boston, or Los Angeles would be the obvious candidates if a suitable host institution could be identified.
  • Staff, space, bandwidth. The greatest financial cost is likely to be staff, for maintaining archives and digital archives and for research. One model that would be worth pursuing would be doctoral fellowships and postdoctoral fellowships, a model that has proved successful for reception and database projects at Oxford, Northwestern, and Hamilton College, among others.

OPPORTUNITIES

It must be asked what a North American Archive can accomplish that the APGRD cannot. Five things seem immediately relevant:

  1. A fuller archive and database of North American performances, both professional and amateur (with a better search interface).
  2. Digital encoding of posters, programs, production material, reviews, photos, notes, essays, and other archive works and contextual information, to increase accessibility for researchers. This could duplicate materials stored offsite.
  3. A digitized library of video performances (or excerpts).
  4. A location to house physical objects when a local one does not exist.
  5. Researchers. Rather than waiting for information to come to the archive, researchers could be trained and employed to gather archive materials, and preserve them in a digital format.

An archive would not only look to the past. Given the rapidly growing number of productions of ancient drama on both amateur and professional stages in North America, one major function of the archive would be to preserve records of new productions. This might in itself encourage collaboration between directors, actors, and producers, and also serve to inspire directors/producers to look to antiquity for new productions.

There are also opportunities to build links with (and support) other projects. These might be based in Reception (such as Classicizing Chicago, based at Northwestern), or in Performance (such as the work of Aquila Theatre Company, based in New York).

The APGRD has undertaken a successful programme of publications on reception that also should be emulated.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  • An Archive of Performances in North America is a viable, valuable Reception project that deserves support.
  • Further study is needed, and the APA should support an ongoing ad hoc committee to investigate how much interest there is among the membership, what interested parties think about the parameters, etc. This could be done through the Committee on Research or through the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance (CAMP).
  • Of chief importance in the first instance is the identification of a host institution. At present there is no single, obvious individual around whom an Archive could be established.
  • The APA should not try to replicate the accomplishments of the APGRD, yet it should surely work to do more than fill the gaps it has left. One possibility is to develop more local archives, employing a centralized administration and online presence. Another option is to focus on research, and recruit individuals to gather materials actively. An online periodical might provide an appropriate venue for such materials.
  • An accessible video archive and online journal are crucial needs. As long as performance studies as a field is seen as descriptive rather than analytical (and with print as the dominant medium that will likely remain the case) there is a black mark against the field. An archive could make significant, meaningful steps towards the maintenance of rigorous, analytical standards in Reception.
  • Specific funding opportunities should also be pursued. The availability of the NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant () seems an ideal initial goal, though there is likely insufficient time to make this year’s deadline (5 Oct 2010). Other possibilities include the Partnership Development Grant from Canada’s SSHRC (, next deadline 25 Nov 2010), which would allow an initial small-scale pilot project to gauge interest and response if Canadians are somehow involved.