South African drama and theatre heritage (part II): what does the future hold?

Abstract

In Part I, ‘A map of where we find ourselves’, the focus was firstly on providing a theoretical substantiation for the new technological approach towards cultural heritage (including the performance arts); secondly, to give a short historical overview of the South African drama and theatre heritage; and thirdly, to survey the current situation with regard to drama and theatre preservation in South Africa. In Part II the focus is on the future: how can the many issues and problems currently experienced in terms of the preservation of our drama and theatre heritage in South Africa be addressed? The answer lies in the technological advances made in the field of performance heritage over the past two decades. Although there are numerous excellent examples of theatre archives internationally (especially in the USA, UK and Europe), in this article we focus on three exceptional initiatives, namely: (1) ECLAP (e-library for performing arts); (2) National Theatre Live, London, UK; and (3) the Routledge Performance Archive (UK). We hope that foregrounding these initiatives will inspire our own South African theatre practitioners and researchers to see the value of these developments for our own drama and theatre heritage. The article concludes with an invitation to all interested parties to participate in a project entitled SA Drama and Theatre Heritage launched at Unisa in 2012 by the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature in collaboration with the Unisa Library (Archive).