seeing theatre in a new light
After a two-day delay from the planned opening night, Streatham Hill Theatre opened its doors on 20th November 1929 with the C B Cochran revue WAKE UP AND DREAM, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, arriving straight from the West End.
Now having been purchased by the Ruach Church this year, the Friends organisation will play a most important part in maintaining the theatre’s facilities and unique position as London’s largest surviving suburban theatre.
During Explore Your Archive Week, on Wednesday 24 November, you’re invited to join the ABTT and the University of Bristol Theatre Archive as they host a discussion about how to care for Theatre and Live Art records, which will be useful for anyone with archival, library or record-keeping duties of any kind.
Paul Roberts, member of the ABTT’s Historical Research Committee and members of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection will all speak about how to look after your records.
Starting at 2.30pm, the free online event will cover how to preserve paper-based & audiovisual documentation as well as conversing about the Records at Risk project.
The main session will be followed by time for a Q&A session, and is scheduled to finish by 4.00pm
You can book your free place here
Following on from the September publication of the report Why Do Historic Places Matter?, covered on this blog here, on Wednesday November 24th at 6.00pm UK time, SAVE Britain’s Heritage presents an online event exploring this report and its relevance to protecting heritage projects up and down the country.
The threats to so many historic buildings are intensifying in the rush to build new housing by soulless builders who are solely driven by money. Governed by unbridled greed that sees land irrespective of what stands upon it, encouraged by a government that sees the cost of everything and the value of nothing, their laser-vision is focused on knocking anything down, irrespective of the care, skill, craftsmanship, beauty or social relevance the building has, consuming all in its path and excreting bland, miserable Lego blocks in their wake.
They are focused purely on knocking things down and erecting impoverished replacements – in terms of design, space, planning, ambiance and social fabric. To make a musical analogy, its like slaughtering Luciano Pavarotti and replacing him with a Karaoke machine. These leeches do not only demolish buildings, they demolish something much more important – civic and community pride.
Historic urban places matter economically, environmentally and socially. But more than that, they matter emotionally. But why? Join SAVE Britain’s Heritage and Rebecca Madgin, Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow, to discuss her recently published report considering why people develop emotional attachments to the heritage of towns and cities, and why urban historic places matter.
Tickets are complimentary for SAVE’s Saviours / £3 for Friends / £5 for Members of the Public.
Book your tickets here
On October 7th, Manchester’s critically at-risk Hulme Hippodrome celebrated its 120th anniversary with images of its illustrious history are projected onto the building itself, shown to an invited audience of local people. It certainly looks like like everyone had a good time, as well as raising the profile of the beleaguered Hippodrome.
All this and cake too! Who could resist! Happy Birthday to the Hippo and best wishes to all those fighting to save it from greedy developers.
Here’s a couple of photos from the celebration, courtesy of the campaign organisers’ Twitter feed
UPDATE: on 12th October the Campaign Tweeted this – Save Hulme Hippodrome has received legal advice that building is owned by HHM20 Ltd. “We’ve reached out to the owner on numerous occasions & had no response, we’re sending call out to the owner to speak to us & work on a solution now that it can’t be sold for redevelopment.”
“We’re doubling our energy. We are even more determined to succeed. Our intention now is to put as much pressure as we can on the owner and the regulators to get the building back for Hulme and Manchester. It will not survive another winter.”
A note for your diary today! Here’s an interesting discussion with Dr Eric Colleary, Cline Curator of Theatre & Performing Arts titled Preserving Performance: Collecting at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. Texas. It’s another great free online event courtesy of the Friends University of Bristol Collection and runs today, 30 September, from 5.30pm to 6.45pm BST.
The Center holds one of the largest collections of American, British, and Irish playwright archives including the papers of David Hare, Lillian Hellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Terrence McNally, Arthur Miller, John Osborne, J. B. Priestley, Elmer Rice, Tom Stoppard, and Tennessee Williams, along with significant collections of writers like Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Shepard, and Oscar Wilde. Visitors to the Reading and Viewing Room can access over 1,100 audio and video recordings of Stella Adler’s master classes on acting and script interpretation, John Wilkes Booth’s promptbook for Richard III, Harry Houdini’s love letters to his wife Bess, and epic scene designs by artists like Boris Aronson, Norman Bel Geddes, Gordon Conway, and Eldon Elder.
There will be time for questions also.
You can register here