‘The Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website’
Pam Schweitzer
European Reminiscence Network
Abstract:
I have spent the last five years documenting, digitising and archiving 30 years of reminiscence theatre and creating an accompanying website. The archive includes audio recordings and transcriptions thereof from 1983 onwards, descriptions of the process of transition from interview to scene, the scripting process (usually verbatim plus documentary), video and photos of the resulting productions, the scripts, the press reviews, the tour schedules and PDFs of entire published books of edited/illustrated reminiscences collected as part of the play-making process.
In addition to these professional reminiscence theatre productions (about 30 of them over the years) I have also been archiving theatre work with older people who were beginning to perform their own lives, for the first time, and how this work grew into a field of performance all on its own. There is also all the documentation on inter-generational reminiscence projects and inter-cultural work, safely archived and absolutely available.
Working on the above archive, I have had support at the University of Greenwich (where it is based) and from EU-backed professional assistants, to create the website featuring all this work. The site: <a rel=”noreferrer noopener” href=”http://The title is ‘The Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website’ The abstract is as follows: (if too long, please let me know your required word length) ‘I have spent the last five years documenting, digitising and archiving 30 years of reminiscence theatre and creating an accompanying website. The archive includes audio recordings and transcriptions thereof from 1983 onwards, descriptions of the process of transition from interview to scene, the scripting process (usually verbatim plus documentary), video and photos of the resulting productions, the scripts, the press reviews, the tour schedules and PDFs of entire published books of edited/illustrated reminiscences collected as part of the play-making process. In addition to these professional reminiscence theatre productions (about 30 of them over the years) I have also been archiving theatre work with older people who were beginning to perform their own lives, for the first time, and how this work grew into a field of performance all on its own. There is also all the documentation on inter-generational reminiscence projects and inter-cultural work, safely archived and absolutely available. Working on the above archive, I have had support at the University of Greenwich (where it is based) and from EU-backed professional assistants, to create the website featuring all this work. The site: www.reminiscencetheatrearchive.org.uk is already up and running and very fully peopled. It is now being used by Greenwich (and other) students studying Reminiscence Theatre as a basis for newly devised pieces of Reminiscence Theatre and Theatre-in-Education.
I would like to use the website to illustrate a talk on documenting, archiving and placing online a kind of theatre which is now the subject of much student research and creative practice.’
Biography:
Pam Schweitzer has spent the last thirty years developing reminiscence arts work, especially original reminiscence theatre productions, both professional and amateur. She founded the Age Exchange Theatre Trust and the Reminiscence Centre and was its Artistic Director from 1983 to 2005. She directs the European Reminiscence Network (1993 to the present) specialising in international reminiscence festivals and conferences and co-ordinating Europe-wide projects on reminiscence in dementia care. Pam is now based at the University of Greenwich where she is developing the Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website as well as working with students on Reminiscence Theatre and Theatre-in-Education projects.
Email : pam@pamschweitzer.com
DocumentingPerformance 