| So, Finn, I've done as much as I can for our project on theatre programmes. |
| How's your research coming along? |
| Okay, 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. |
| That might actually put some people off. |
| I suppose so. |
| Anyway I hadn't realised there are actually companies specialising in creating theatre programmes. |
| 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. |
| It must be easier for theatres to do it that way. |
| Yes. |
| I remember reading something about programmes in early British theatre. |
| It said that the cast was always very important. |
| Yeah, audiences were very familiar with leading actors and big names would draw huge crowds. |
| 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. |
| Outrageous! |
| That'd never happen now. |
| No, people are too polite, |
| even when they're disappointed if the star of the show misses a performance. |
| 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. |
| Interesting. |
| I couldn't imagine that happening now either. |
| There's also an interesting comparison to make between 18th and 19th century programmes. |
| Wasn't it in the 19th century that theatre programmes started to resemble programs today. |
| Yes and unlike programs from the 18th century they always used colour. |
| 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. |
| And about the writer, the plot and sometimes the history of the play. |
| That's right. |
| What should we say about theatre programmes in the 20th century? |
| I reckon the most important thing is the dramatic change they underwent during World War II. |
| When the government imposed restrictions on the use of paper. |
| Yeah, but that was only in the UK. |
| In the USA, programmes, or rather playbills, continued to be published in the same format. |
| While here in the UK, programmes became merely a single sheet of paper folded to create four pages for text. |
| 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. |
| Hmm... strange. |
| I've got some pictures of programmes we could include on the slides for our presentation. |
| I found a couple too, Maya. |
| Let's go through and see what we think. |
| Um... oh, this is an old one for a play called Ruey Blass. |
| Hmm... never heard of that. |
| But the programme looks very decorative. |
| Good enough to put in a frame on the wall. |
| The images are just beautiful. |
| Finn, what did you find? |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Fantastic! |
| 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! |
| Wish I'd known about it while I was doing my research... |