This manual has been created for the busy theatre worker who loves this ephemeral art but is concerned about its place in history. Establishing and maintaining a functional archival program at a theatre company requires time, money, and long-term commitment. However, archiving is also adaptable to company mission, scalable to available resources, emotionally rewarding, and a great deal of fun.

Through its publications and training programs, the American Theatre Archive Project (ATAP) aims to help theatre companies develop an archival sensibility that saves time and money while preserving and making accessible records of theatrical process and product. ATAP focuses on establishing theatre archives on company premises rather than preparing records for transfer to an official archival repository, such as a library with a theatre collection. Theatre companies that are part of a larger organization, such as a university, will want to contact their institution’s archivist and/or records manager to determine what archival and retention policies and procedures are already in place, and use this manual accordingly.

This manual provides basic information about establishing and maintaining your theatre’s archives. As your company works through the process of assessing, surveying, appraising, storing, preserving, arranging, describing, and making accessible its legacy documents, ATAP archivists and documentarians are available to answer questions and recommend solutions to issues as they arise.

Please visit our website regularly for the most current resources and don’t hesitate to share your feedback on this manual so we can continue to improve it. If you found this manual helpful, we’d love to hear from you too.

Download in English (PDF)
Download in Japanese (PDF)
日本語でダウンロード
Donate to ATAP

What’s Inside

  • PROLOGUE
  • 1. WHY ARCHIVE THEATRE?
  • 2. WHOM WILL THE ARCHIVES BENEFIT?
  • 3. WHAT DO WE HAVE?
  • 4. WHAT SHOULD WE KEEP?
  • 5. HOW DO WE PROTECT OUR RECORDS?
  • 6. HOW DO WE PROCESS FOR POSTERITY?
  • 7. HOW DO WE MAKE OUR ARCHIVES ACCESSIBLE?
  • 8. WILL WE KEEP OUR ARCHIVES FOREVER?
  • EPILOGUE
  • Appendix A — ATAP Initiation Program Application
  • Appendix B — Preliminary Assessment Guide
  • Appendix C — Sample Preliminary Assessment Report
  • Appendix D — Sample Retention Policy & Schedule
  • Appendix E — Sample Archival Inventories
  • Appendix F — Archival Resources
  • Appendix G — Glossary of ATAP Terms
  • Appendix H — ATAP Statement of Standards and Ethics

Preserving Theatrical Legacy: An Archiving Manual for Theatre Companies is written and edited by:

Susan Brady, Archivist, Beinecke Library, Yale University
Ken Cerniglia, Dramaturg & Literary Manager, Disney Theatrical Group
Maryann Chach, Archivist, The Shubert Archive
Brenna Edwards, Digital Archivist, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Jessica Green, Archivist, Simmons College graduate student
Helice Koffler, Archivist, University of Washington Libraries
Sharon Lehner, Archivist, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Tiffany Nixon, Archivist, Roundabout Theatre Company 

Our work is built on kindred efforts that have preceded ours, particularly by the Dance Heritage Coalition and the New Zealand Theatre Archive. This manual would not be possible without the continuous input of countless archivists, dramaturgs, literary managers, scholars, students, artists, administrators, and patrons who make use of what is in these pages and offer suggestions for improvement based on theoretical principles and practical experience. Many thanks to the Tsubouchi Theatre Museum in Tokyo for the Japanese translation of this manual.

© 2023 American Theatre Archive Project
ATAP work is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License