The Guardians of the Theatre Museum need your help . . .

[Denis Salter]

Our website is now up and running at www.theatremuseumguardians.org.uk - please visit. Then tell your students, your friends, your relatives, your flower arranging group - anybody - to visit too. See below for details, but there's even more on the site. 

Thanks

Ian Herbert

Society for Theatre Research

 

 The Guardians of the Theatre Museum need your help.

 Who are they?

 

Well, this is what we said in today's Press Release:

 

Leading lights of the theatre world have sent an uncompromising message to Government and museum authorities: The Theatre Museum must not be destroyed. Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Simon Callow, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Peter Hall, Sir David Hare, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Eddie Kulukundis, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Lord  Rix and Sir Donald Sinden and many others, with the support of major representative theatre organisations, have formed the Guardians of the Theatre Museum.  Their aim is to prevent the museum's Covent Garden site being closed and the Collection being absorbed by the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

What do they want?

·         Short Term: to ask the Victoria and Albert Museum to withdraw its notice of closure on the Theatre Museum's Russell Street site, in order that alternative proposals for its future may be coolly examined.

·         Medium Term: To look for better ways of managing the Theatre Museum and supporting its funding.

·         Long Term: To investigate broader possibilities for properly housing what the V&A describe as 'the largest collections in the world for the UK's performing arts'.

The Russell Street site is due to close to the public on 7 January  2007, which leaves very little time to put pressure on the V&A to rescind their decision. If it does close, the public will not have access to its exhibits for at least two and probably five years. Further, the huge potential of the site as a cultural focus in Olympic Year 2012 will have been thrown away.

The Guardians plan to enrol as many members of the theatre professions and the theatregoing public as possible, as quickly as possible. Membership is of course free - all that is needed is enough voices. 

The aim is to have 100,000 Guardians by Christmas

Said a Guardians spokesperson, 'Our supporting organisations already account for tens of thousands of people. If we can mobilise the theatregoing public, this target can be reached very easily. The V & A, and their masters the DCMS, have suggested that no one cares about the Theatre Museum. We care about it passionately, and we can prove that we are not alone.' Sir Derek Jacobi added, 'I deplore the closure of the Russell Street premises as an act of cultural vandalism.'

Act Now: join us at www.theatremuseumguardians.org.uk -  and tell everyone!

 

The Guardians are convened by the Save London's Theatres Campaign and the Society for Theatre Research.  They are supported by The Actors' Centre, The Association of British Theatre Technicians, The Association of Lighting Designers, The Association of Personal Managers, BECTU, The  British Music Hall Society, The British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild,  The Critics' Circle, Equity, The  International Association of Theatre Critics, The International Federation for Theatre Research, The International Society of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts, The Irving Society, The Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection, The  Musicians' Union, The National Campaign for the Arts,  The Noel Coward Foundation, The  Noel Coward Society, The Puppet Centre Trust, St Paul's Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), The Society of British Theatre Designers, The Stage Management Association, The Standing Committee of University Drama Departments and The Theatres Trust

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" . . . we have to accept that our tragedy lies always in our past, that we have to live with our ancestors' folly and suffer for it, just as they, in their turn, suffered, and as we, through our vanity and ignorance, ensure the pain and suffering of our own children. How to correct history, that's the thing."--Robert Fisk
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"In 2005, the world . . . pass[ed] the trillion-dollar mark in the expenditure, annually, on arms. We're fighting for $50 billion annually for foreign aid for Africa: the military total outstrips human need by 20 to 1. Can someone please explain to me our contemporary balance of values?" --Stephen Lewis.
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Denis Salter
Professor of Theatre
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke St. West
Montréal, QC
H3A 2T6
Tel (514) 398 6592 
Regular Fax (514) 398 8146
Computer Fax (309) 294 0444
denis.salter at mcgill.ca
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