Almost 300 plays, more than 5 000 photographs and about 250 video recordings of productions staged over the course of 27 years of the International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra will soon be available thanks to our new unique Open Archives project at www.dnarchivy.sk
As part of a new project titled Open Archives of Divadelná Nitra (research → reflection → research), the Association is planning to publish more than 6 000 pieces of documentary material – listings, photographs, performance recordings, original scripts, texts on productions and directors, publications, catalogues, yearbooks… Many are unique and available nowhere else in Slovakia. Some foreign theatrical productions were only staged in Slovakia at Divadelná Nitra, and the Association’s archive is an exclusive resource of information about these works in the country.
Association Divalená Nitra has not only archived material related to the festival but also to its various other activities, including international conferences and seminars, educational projects, international co-productions and collaborative projects.
These materials are a valuable source of information for university students at institutions such as the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava or the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, for students of aesthetics and culture studies at various universities, as well as theatre professionals. They may serve as excellent source material for lecturers at specialised high schools and universities and inspire new theatre productions. They are an important basis for the work of theatre critics, theorists and historians, and for fostering reflection on art and research in the field of performing arts in Slovakia and abroad. A portion of the archive covering the main programme of the festival from 1992 – 2018 has already been released online (festival catalogues, production listings, materials on theatre-makers, photographic documentation), while a section of the archive has been reserved for educational purposes, for reasons of copyright, and will be made available upon request by form by the archive visitor (video recordings, original plays).
In the second stage of the Open Archives project, the Association will focus on mappingthe most important events in the festival’s accompanying programme and its other projects, including Parallel Lives – 20th Century Through the Eyes of the Secret Police, This Is Art, Too, V4@Theatre Critics Residency, How to Understand Theatre, A Tulip for You. The second stage will also see the finalisation of the digital video archive and other activities. In due time, we will also launch an English version of the DN Archives website.
The Open Archives of Divadelná Nitra (research → reflection → research) project is supported by the Slovak Arts Council, the main project partner.
Contact us at archivy@nitrafest.sk
