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Wednesday, January 18, 2023
How British theatre censorship laws have inadvertently created a rich archive of Black history
theconversation.com: Between 1737 and 1968 British theatre censorship laws required theatre managers to submit new plays intended for the professional stage to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office for examination and licensing. This was necessary under the Stage Licensing Act of 1737 and the Theatres Act of 1843.
3 comments:
CrimsonCreeks
said...
This article speaks on the archival of works that were in the process of being approved by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. The article states that many black plays and works were trapped here. The article then states that this process led to their clear conservation. A bitter sweet moment of history. I personally like the idea of archival. Archives are something that we should be grateful for and aim to strengthen. Thanks to archivals we are able to know more about our history and have more accurate information that can be passed on to the future generations. I think it is especially important to conserve plays and different forms of artistic expression such as paintings, photographs and music. It allows us to learn about expression in the past and apply it to what we do now. I like seeing how the past affects now like in the inspiration and references of artistic movements or concepts. For example the nods to Metropolis in Hadestown.
Reading this article made me incredibly happy despite how awful the context behind it is. Rediscovering these works of art is so monumental for the black community because it depicts how long they have been engaging in theater and in creating their own spaces due to discrimination. I love how this article list pieces of work that can be discovered within the archives as to give their readers more insight on what topics were discussed in times as early as the 17 and 1800s. As well as put a name to all of these lost theater pieces. Articles such as this one makes me ponder about all the lost Black theater works and other historical documents/ people that have been lost due to discrimination. It makes me bring up questions such as, what if no one discovered or cared about finding these archives of black culture? So, it is great to see that progress is being made to reveal culture that has once been lost.
I found this article really interesting, I was never aware of the censorship laws that Britain had for place Especially centered around what was performed on stage, and it makes sense that they would’ve had to use the vast archives of all of these plays in order to keep hold of the central ship laws. I’m really glad to see that many of these pieces are going to be performed and put out there so that the modern audience can get an understanding of how people were censored at the time. I’m also glad that they have released these archives to the public and I know this is something that I will take advantage of to consume past theater. I’m intrigued to see what theater makers will continue to do with these archives and I hope that a lot of credit to playwrights who never got the chance to perform the plays will come soon.
3 comments:
This article speaks on the archival of works that were in the process of being approved by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. The article states that many black plays and works were trapped here. The article then states that this process led to their clear conservation. A bitter sweet moment of history. I personally like the idea of archival. Archives are something that we should be grateful for and aim to strengthen. Thanks to archivals we are able to know more about our history and have more accurate information that can be passed on to the future generations. I think it is especially important to conserve plays and different forms of artistic expression such as paintings, photographs and music. It allows us to learn about expression in the past and apply it to what we do now. I like seeing how the past affects now like in the inspiration and references of artistic movements or concepts. For example the nods to Metropolis in Hadestown.
Reading this article made me incredibly happy despite how awful the context behind it is. Rediscovering these works of art is so monumental for the black community because it depicts how long they have been engaging in theater and in creating their own spaces due to discrimination. I love how this article list pieces of work that can be discovered within the archives as to give their readers more insight on what topics were discussed in times as early as the 17 and 1800s. As well as put a name to all of these lost theater pieces. Articles such as this one makes me ponder about all the lost Black theater works and other historical documents/ people that have been lost due to discrimination. It makes me bring up questions such as, what if no one discovered or cared about finding these archives of black culture? So, it is great to see that progress is being made to reveal culture that has once been lost.
I found this article really interesting, I was never aware of the censorship laws that Britain had for place Especially centered around what was performed on stage, and it makes sense that they would’ve had to use the vast archives of all of these plays in order to keep hold of the central ship laws. I’m really glad to see that many of these pieces are going to be performed and put out there so that the modern audience can get an understanding of how people were censored at the time. I’m also glad that they have released these archives to the public and I know this is something that I will take advantage of to consume past theater. I’m intrigued to see what theater makers will continue to do with these archives and I hope that a lot of credit to playwrights who never got the chance to perform the plays will come soon.
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