Digitizing performance history: where do we go from here?

Christie Carson

(2005)

Christie Carson (2005) Digitizing performance history: where do we go from here?. Performance Research, 10 (3). pp. 4-17. ISSN 1469-9990

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Abstract

This essay will look at the issues at stake in the digital world of archiving performance. The case of Shakespeare presents a particularly extreme example of the power dynamics of this world but as a special case can serve to articulate, in no uncertain terms, what is at stake. The position of Shakespeare within education in the United Kingdom in particular, while a long and well-fought battle, has taken on new dimensions and new champions in the digital world. At one end of the spectrum the current government has seen the history of Shakespeare in performance as a means of fulfilling its mandate to bring history and culture into every classroom in the land. At the other end of the spectrum increasingly large commercial publishers are creating increasingly large and monolithic subscriptions services that are trying to provide a new kind of intellectual authority. Between these two extremes there exists a complex range of individual producers of online materials with a wide range of motivational and methodological positions. The underlying cultural assumptions of the positions I describe are glaring yet few have drawn attention to these aspects of digital archiving. By taking a closer look at who is currently involved in the digital performance archiving world I hope to draw some light towards the issues of power and authority. Performance scholars, I suggest, must become aware of how their work can and will influence the future through providing structured access to the past.

Information about this Version

This is a Published version
This version's date is: 2005
This item is peer reviewed

Link to this Version

https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/23a16cbf-74e9-0ad1-fb18-0675fff26fa9/1/

Item TypeJournal Article
TitleDigitizing performance history: where do we go from here?
AuthorsCarson, Christie
Uncontrolled Keywordsdigital archiving performance Shakespeare
DepartmentsFaculty of Arts\English
Faculty of Arts\Drama and Theatre

Deposited by () on 15-Jul-2010 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 11-Nov-2010

Notes

References

Scholarly research projects:

Designing Shakespeare <http://ahds.ac.uk/
performingarts/designing-shakespeare>

Biographical Index to the Elizabethan Theater <http:
//shakespeareauthorship.com/bd/>

Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare <www.
canadianshakespeares.ca>

Internet Shakespeare Editions <http://ise.uvic.ca/>

Library projects:

RSC Archive – Pictures and Exhibitions <http://www.
rsc.org.uk/picturesandexhibitions/jsp/index.jsp>

The Library of Congress Federal Theatre Project
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fedtp/fthome.html>

Cleveland Press Shakespeare Photos, 1870–1982 from
the Cleveland State University Library <http://www.
ulib.csuohio.edu/shakespeare/>

Collaborative research services:

Touchestone’s Traffic of the Stage and Database <http:
//www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/performance.html>
<http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/database.html>
Backstage <http://www.backstage.ac.uk/>

Compiled lists of theatre
company websites:

Theatre companies worldwide on the Virtual Library
site: <http://vl-theatre.com/>

Theatre Companies performing Shakespeare
worldwide <http://dmoz.org/Arts/Performing_Arts/
Theatre/Shakespeare/Theatre_Companies/>

Touchstone list of theatre
companies performing
shakespeare in the uk
<http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/links/theatre.html>

Shakespeare festivals list from
the mr william shakespeare and
the internet site
<http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/festivals.htm>

Individual theatre company
websites:

Royal Shakespeare Company <http://www.rsc.org.uk/
home/index.asp>

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre <http://www.
shakespeares-globe.org/>

The National Theatre <http://www.nt-online.org/
home.html>

Stratford Festival, Ontario, Canada <http://www.
stratford-festival.on.ca/>

Bremer Shakespeare Company, Germany <http://www.
shakespeare-company.com/>

Higher education resources:
Hamlet on the Ramparts, MIT Shakespeare Project in
collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library
<http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts>

The Higher Education Academy English Subject
Centre Shakespeare Resources <http://www.english.
ltsn.ac.uk/designshake/completed/index.htm>

Textual resources:
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, MIT
<http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/>

Open Source Shakespeare <http://www.
opensourceshakespeare.com/>

British Library, Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in
Quarto <http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/
homepage.html>

University of Pennsylvania Library, Folio of 1623 <http:
//dewey.library.upenn.edu/SCETI/PrintedBooksNew/
index.cfm?TextID=firstfolio&PagePosition=3>

Thomson, The Shakespeare Collection <http://www.
galeuk.com/shakespeare/>

Media education resources:

BBC Resources: King Lear website <http://www.bbc.
co.uk/education/bookcase/lear/>

Channel 4 Learning Resources Twelfth Night website
<http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/T/
twelfth_night/index.html>

Broadband projects:
Stagework <http://www.stagework.org.uk/>

Details