1So, Finn, I've done as much as I can for our project on theatre programmes.
2How's your research coming along?
3Okay, Maya.
4I didn't know theatre programmes are called playbills in the USA till I started looking into the topic.
5Even though I struggled to find many useful websites, I'm glad we picked this subject.
6No one else on the course is doing the same as us,
7although it is one of the research areas of the module convener.
8That might actually put some people off.
9I suppose so.
10Anyway I hadn't realised there are actually companies specialising in creating theatre programmes.
11Yes they are quite common nowadays.
12Contrary to what many people think, theatres don't hire people to do the programmes.
13In fact, companies buy the rights to publish programmes on the theatre's behalf
14and then make their money selling advertising space within the programme booklet.
15It must be easier for theatres to do it that way.
16Yes.
17I remember reading something about programmes in early British theatre.
18It said that the cast was always very important.
19Yeah, audiences were very familiar with leading actors and big names would draw huge crowds.
20But I hadn't realised that if the programme named a famous actor,
21that's who the public expected to perform.
22And if that didn't happen, people accused the theatre of breaking their agreement with the audience.
23They would demand refunds and if they didn't get them, there were riots.
24Outrageous!
25That'd never happen now.
26No, people are too polite,
27even when they're disappointed if the star of the show misses a performance.
28We should definitely include that information about early audiences in our project.
29I also think it's important to mention that lots of ordinary people at that time were illiterate,
30so theatre programmes were of limited value in advertising plays.
31When a company of actors arrived in a town, they'd parade around the streets in their costumes,
32beating drums and announcing their upcoming performances.
33Interesting.
34I couldn't imagine that happening now either.
35There's also an interesting comparison to make between 18th and 19th century programmes.
36Wasn't it in the 19th century that theatre programmes started to resemble programs today.
37Yes and unlike programs from the 18th century they always used colour.
38And there was a greater variety of designs.
39But personally I think 18th century programmes were superior
40because they told the theatregoers so many things, including about the actors.
41And about the writer, the plot and sometimes the history of the play.
42That's right.
43What should we say about theatre programmes in the 20th century?
44I reckon the most important thing is the dramatic change they underwent during World War II.
45When the government imposed restrictions on the use of paper.
46Yeah, but that was only in the UK.
47In the USA, programmes, or rather playbills, continued to be published in the same format.
48While here in the UK, programmes became merely a single sheet of paper folded to create four pages for text.
49What I don't really get is that after the war they didn't go back to being more than one sheet
50or change in any way for over 25 years.
51I know there were paper shortages after the war,
52but only for five or ten years.
53Hmm... strange.
54I've got some pictures of programmes we could include on the slides for our presentation.
55I found a couple too, Maya.
56Let's go through and see what we think.
57Um... oh, this is an old one for a play called Ruey Blass.
58Hmm... never heard of that.
59But the programme looks very decorative.
60Good enough to put in a frame on the wall.
61The images are just beautiful.
62Finn, what did you find?
63I've got some pages from a programme for Man of La Mancha.
64I thought this was a good programme to show,
65not because of the pictures, but because it contains articles written by members of the theatre company,
66so we can learn how the production was created and the thoughts and feelings of the cast.
67Good.
68I've got a copy of a programme that's now in a museum.
69It's for The Tragedy of Jane Shore
70and it's said to be the earliest surviving document to have been printed on Australia's first printing press.
71Fantastic!
72Another programme to talk about is for The Sailors Festival.
73It comes from the British Library's digitised collection of programmes that was started a few years ago.
74It already comprises over 200,000 programmes, which is amazing!
75Wish I'd known about it while I was doing my research...