Scripts collection

The 1968 Theatres Act ended the Lord Chamberlain's power to pre-censor theatre. It also stipulated that a copy of every new play performed in a licensed venue in Great Britain should be deposited at the British Library. Unsurprisingly, this first change has tended to overshadow the latter, and as a result many new scripts were never deposited.

This strand of the Project aims to recover scripts performed after 1968 that were never deposited. Letters have been sent to all the theatres in Great Britain asking for a list of new plays performed since 1968. All agents and literary managers have been informed of the stipulation, and articles appealing for scripts and information have appeared everywhere from the Independent on Sunday to the Writers Guild of Great Britain to Sanderstead Drama Club, asking for information about new plays.

This information is then compared with the British Library holdings, and theatres and writers are notified of the missing plays and asked to send them to Theatre Archive Project at the University of Sheffield.

Between September 2004 and April 2005 over 1,000 missing scripts were identified from fewer than 100 theatres. To date, nearly 300 of these play scripts have been recovered, and they will be deposited in the Library in due course.

You can help by

• Sending in a list of all new plays performed by your company or
  in your theatre.
• Contacting us if you have any memos/letters/memories relating to the depositing of scripts with the British Library or to the letter in The Stage.