MAYA So, Finn, I’ve done as much as I can for our project on theatre programmes. How’s your research coming along?

FINN OK, Maya. I didn’t know theatre programmes are called playbills in the USA till I started looking into the topic. Even though I struggled to find many useful websites, I’m glad we picked this subject. No one else on the course is doing the same as us, although it is one of the research areas of the module convener.

MAYA That might actually put some people off.

FINN I suppose so. Anyway I hadn’t realised there are actually companies specialising in creating theatre programmes

MAYA Yes they are quite common nowadays. Contrary to what many people think, theatres don’t hire people to do the programmes. In fact, companies buy the rights to publish programmes on the theatre’s behalf and then make their money selling advertising space within the programme booklet.

FINN It must be easier for theatres to do it that way.

MAYA Yes.

FINN I remember reading something about programmes in early British theatre. It said that the cast was always very important.

MAYA Yeah, audiences were very familiar with leading actors and big names would draw huge crowds.

FINN But I hadn’t realised that if the programme named a famous actor, that’s who the public expected to perform. And if that didn’t happen, people accused the theatre of breaking their agreement with the audience. They would demand refunds and if they didn’t get them, there were riots.

MAYA Outrageous! That’d never happen now.

FINN No, people are too polite, even when they’re disappointed if the star of the show misses a performance.

MAYA We should definitely include that information about early audiences in our project. I also think it’s important to mention that lots of ordinary people at that time were illiterate, so theatre programmes were of limited value in advertising plays. When a company of actors arrived in a town, they’d parade around the streets in their costumes, beating drums and announcing their upcoming performances.

FINN Interesting. I couldn’t imagine that happening now either.

MAYA There’s also an interesting comparison to make between 18th and 19th century programmes.

FINN Wasn’t it in the 19th century that theatre programmes started to resemble programs today

MAYA Yes and unlike programs from the 18th century they always used colour

FINN And there was a greater variety of designs. But personally I think 18th century programmes were superior because they told the theatregoers so many things, including about the actors.

MAYA And about the writer, the plot and sometimes the history of the play.

FINN That’s right. What should we say about theatre programmes in the 20th century?

MAYA I reckon the most important thing is the dramatic change they underwent during World War II.

FINN When the government imposed restrictions on the use of paper.

MAYA Yeah, but that was only in the UK. In the USA, programmes, or rather playbills, continued to be published in the same format.

FINN While here in the UK, programmes became merely a single sheet of paper folded to create four pages for text.

MAYA What I don’t really get is that after the war they didn’t go back to being more than one sheet or change in any way for over 25 years. I know there were paper shortages after the war, but only for five or ten years.

FINN Strange.

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MAYA I got some pictures of programmes we could include on the slides for our presentation.

FINN I found a couple too Maya. Let go through and see what we think

MAYA Um oh this is an old one for a play called Ruey Blass

FINN Never heard of that. But the programme looks very decorative.

MAYA Good enough to put in a frame on the wall. The images are just beautiful. Finn, what did you find?

FINN I’ve got some pages from a programme for Man of La Mancha. I thought this was a good programme to show, not because of the pictures, but because it contains articles written by members of the theatre company, so we can learn how the production was created and the thoughts and feelings of the cast.

MAYA Good. I’ve got a copy of a programme that’s now in a museum. It’s for The Tragedy of Jane Shore and it’s said to be the earliest surviving document to have been printed on Australia’s first printing press

FINN Fantastic!

MAYA Another programme to talk about is for The Sailors Festival. It comes from the British Library’s digitised collection of programmes that was started a few years ago. It already comprises over 200,000 programmes which is amazing!

FINN Huh. Wish I’d known about it while I was doing my research.

Part 1