Digital Theatre & Routledge partner to launch online performance archive

Digital Theatre and publishing company Routledge have partnered to launch an “unparalleled archive” of online performing arts material, aimed at universities and colleges.

According to press, the Routledge Performance Archive provides access to “a world-class archive of primary audio-visual materials by some of the world’s greatest practitioners.”

Highlights include interviews with Stanislavski’s translator, the late Jean Benedetti, and a 1993 workshop by Mike Pearson, co-director of the recent Royal Shakespeare Company/National Theatre Wales production of Coriolanus for the World Shakespeare Festival.

It also features a fully translated Russian documentary on the work of Michael Chekhov, never before seen in the West, a full-length Kathakali production from Kerala, a workshop on Amerta Movement from Java, and a collection of material from renowned intercultural theatre ensemble Odin Teatret.

The video material spans more than 50 years of documented work from practitioners including Ecole Lecoq teacher Jos Houben, Commedia dell’Arte specialist Antonio Fava and Jerzy Grotowski’s collaborator Rena Mirecka.

The archive requires a subscription to access, though a free trial is offered.

Digital Theatre’s co-founder and CEO Robert Delamere said: “In our work alongside Routledge we are able to harness the expertise we have developed, distributing high quality theatre online for almost three years. Just as Digital Theatre brings the best of British theatre to the world, the Routledge Performance Archive is a world-class digital education tool that is available to a global audience.”

Routledge’s Talia Rodgers added: “The Routledge Performance Archive gathers audio-visual documentation directly from practitioners and contextualises and supplies it for the teachers and students who most need it. This will help bridge the theory-practice divide, which so haunts the discipline. We are thrilled to be collaborating with Digital Theatre on such a vital resource.”

The archive can be accessed on their website.