Sharon Marcus

Theatre Survey, May 2013

Abstract

This essay provides a road map for theatre historians, archivists, and librarians interested in understanding theatrical scrapbooks as a genre. It argues for the importance of the ordinary theatrical scrapbook as both archive and medium. As an archive, the theatrical scrapbook is a repository for performance ephemera. As a medium, scrapbooks record how past theatre aficionados merged the stage and the page, image and print, live performances and representations of them. Taking the scrapbook holdings of Ohio State’s Theatre Research Institute, the essay offers a brief history of theatrical scrapbooks; a taxonomy to help scholars navigate and interpret albums; and a sampling of the historical and theoretical questions that scrapbooks inspire and help answer.

View the paper here: The Theatrical Scrapbook