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A PROTOTYPE FOR THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE ARCHIVE
The purpose of this archive is to provide materials related to the process of theatrical production, from its inception to its development and its reception. The transient nature of a stage production results problematic in performance studies—once it ends its run, it can only be reconstructed through peritexts, such as recordings of the performance, publicity, or reviews. An archive of this kind aims at overcoming this problem, as well as expanding theatre studies, by highlighting the idea of a staging as a process of creation.
HamletS has been the
first production to be documented, providing the prototype for a digital
documentary of theatrical production. Thanks to the collaboration of Janet
Sonenberg and the rest those involved in HamletS, we have been
able to compile a set of materials as listed on the screen. These include
different versions of the script, recordings of rehearsals and performance,
and interviews with actors, technicians, designers and the director. These
constitute a substantial expansion in the peritexts usually available,
as they are records during the development of the piece. Moreover, HamletS
results a particularly interesting case for this type of in-process documentary,
as the final production vitally depended on the organic development of
the creative process.
The developer of this archive would like to thank everyone involved in the production for their contribution, patience and good work. The help, guidance and support of the Metamedia team must also be acknowledged and thanked in earnest. Last but not least, special thanks must go to Pete Donaldson, Kurt Fendt, Alex Chisholm and Janet Sonenberg for making this project possible.
Clara Fernández