Good my Lord, will you see the players well bestowed?
Hamlet Act II Scene ii
Set up after a fifty year campaign, London’s Theatre Museum holds one of the world’s finest collections of material on the performing arts. It is administered as a department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which for reasons of economy wanted to close it as an independent attraction and to relocate it to a few of its own galleries.
London’s Theatre Museum - Something Worth Saving
The Guardians Team
Messages of Support
- I wholeheartedly support the Theatre Museum and deplore the closure of the Russell Street premises as an act of artistic vandalism.
Derek Jacobi
My support for the Theatre Museum is unqualified. The Museum is the ONLY
resource the general public has to consider the ‘backstages’ that
have made British theatre such a vibrant force over the generations. Its
loss will be equivalent to losing any one of our prized heritages.
Jatinder Verma
- The loss of the Theatre Museum is unthinkable. It is vital that we unite to stop the closure and keep the museum alive.
Harry Landis, President, Equity
Since opening its doors in 1987, the Theatre Museum has welcomed thousands
of visitors each year. It would be a great tragedy if future generations were
not given the opportunity to take such inspiration from our extraordinary theatrical
past.
Don Foster, Liberal Democrat Culture, Media and Sport Spokesperson
- As guardians of the memory of Sir Henry Irving, this Society is greatly concerned at the loss of the Theatre Museum; a more pusillanimous decision could not be imagined.
Michael Kilgarriff, Hon Secretary, The Irving Society
Rest assured you have our support in trying to stop the ridiculous closure
of this hugely important resource for the theatre community as well as the
public.<
Rick Fisher, Chairman, Association of Lighting Designers
- As joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Theatre Group, I am deeply saddened by the closure of the Museum. I fear a valuable and impressive collection will be lost to sight. … London is in very large part about theatre and we need to celebrate its lively history, not just its current vitality
Peter Luff MP
Theatre in London is world-class and renowned around the globe. The presence
of the Theatre Museum in the heart of Covent Garden provides a great opportunity
to promote access and understanding about the history and heritage of theatre
as well as promoting the understanding and enjoyment of theatre for many
thousands of Londoners, tourists, school students and young people.
I would
like to see the Theatre Museum remain open on its current site and believe
that through working in partnership with other organisations and cultural
institutions its programme and collections can be expanded and enhanced for
the future.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
- I am passionate about the role The Theatre Museum plays in providing inspiration for the future of theatre in the UK by celebrating its glorious past and examining its present. Live theatre has kept the Covent Garden heart of London beating for many centuries. The Theatre Museum is in the right place to ensure that heart keeps beating as vigorously in the future as it did in the past.
Yvonne Brewster, OBE
of course the Theatre Museum must remain in Russell Street and I’m
more than happy to add my name to the list of its Guardians. It is a vital
institution for all of us, and not only for members of the theatre profession,
but also for the theatre-going public.
I strongly support any initiative or
movement to keep it alive and will ardently join the ranks of those who urge
its continuation and the furtherance of its existence.
Paul Scofield,
CH, CBE
"When I think of the money spent on the Dome and various other government initiatives that have cost a fortune and come to nothing, I begin to feel we are fast becoming a land of missed opportunities as far as our cultural heritage is concerned.
- The Theatre Museum must be saved - Our Theatre has been, for four hundred years and more, our chief artistic expression and it seems extraordinary to me that we don't as a nation want to celebrate the Theatre's past and present and preserve our heritage. Our theatre is the envy of the world and the Government and the Department of Culture should be fighting to keep the Museum open, not seeking ways to reduce its importance and stature. "
Sir Peter Hall
The
Dancing Times, and 16 distinguished signatories (Jack Anderson, co-editor
of Dance Chronicle; Knud Arne Jorgensen, Head of Drama collections, Royal
Library, Copenhagen; Martin Butlin, CBE, FBA; Clement Crisp, OBE, dance critic
of Financial Times; Mike Dixon, President, Critics Circle; George Dorris,
co-editor of Dance Chronicle; Wayne Eagling, artistic director, English National
Ballet; Ivor Guest, D Univ MA FRAD; Bob Lockyer; Lady MacMillan; Erik Naslund,
director, Dansmuseet, Stockholm; Richard Ralph, editor, Dance Research; Luke
Rittner, Chief Executive officer, Royal Academy of Dance; Nancy Reynolds,
George Balanchibe Foundation; Kathrine Sorley Walker, dance historian and
critic; and David Vaughan, archivist, Cunningham Dance Foundation) to a letter
published in the edition of April 2006, have deplored the closure of the
Theatre Museum. It plays a vital role in celebrating all aspects of our thetre
history and is an unrivalled source of research for the profession. The Dancing
Times would like to add our support to the Guardians of the Theatre Museum.
The
Dancing Times
The Unicorn Theatre believes passionately in the Theatre Museum. In building
our own new theatre, we have worked closely with the Museum over the past few
years. The work of key children\'s companies like theatre-rites has been given
prominence by the Museum. So the Museum exists as a living force in addition
to its role as a focus, archive and source for our history. Other cultures
seem to take this so much more seriously than we do.
Closure would be an act of cultural vandalism.
Tony Graham, Director, Unicorn Theatre
The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) believes that
the collection held by the V&A and displayed in part at the Theatre Museum
is of public value and should therefore be accessible for enjoyment, education
and inspiration.
The NCA is dismayed that the museum is due to close before an alternative means
of displaying the collection has been found. In response to the V&A’s
consultation earlier this year, the NCA spoke in favour of retaining the Covent
Garden location because of its situation in Theatreland and in order to maintain
its thriving education programme. The NCA supported plans for touring and a
digital strategy but stated that these should be additional to the permanently
displayed collection. The NCA hopes that funding can be found to maintain and
improve the collection and its display.
The NCA believes that the arts present a stronger case when they are united
and urges the museum and theatre sectors to work together to their mutual benefit
and speak with a united voice to Government and funding bodies.
- The Theatre Museum is a valuable asset in the heart of London\'s Theatreland. It would be a tragedy if it disappeared.
Gillian Diamond
The history of British theatre is the richest in the world and must be preserved at all costs. The loss of the wealth of information and memorabilia available to both scholar and lover of the theatre would be incalculable. If this was the U.S.A. all these riches would be valued and preserved. Why are we so intent on destroying our heritage?
John Savident
- The Theatre Museum is a vital attraction in the heart of the West End, providing theatregoers and all theatrephiles with a tangible repository of Britain's extraordinary history of dramatic achievement. Its closure will be a blow to London\'s tourism as well as everyone's consciousness of the artistic process.
Tracy C. Davis, President, American Society for Theatre Research
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