Information and Documentation Department

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Contacts

Characteristics

Hours of operation

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Characteristics

The Documentation Department collects and makes available information about the practical activities of professional theatres and theatre companies in the Czech Republic. It continues to add to its archive additional programmes, printed materials, press cuttings and photographs. Its services are available to the wider specialist public, providing information about current events in the field of theatre.

Contacts

Characteristics

Hours of operation

Collections

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Hours of Operation

Contacts

Characteristics

Hours of operation

Collections

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Collections

Collections available in the Reading Room include:
• Theatre productions
• Theatre artists
• Theatres, Theatre and cultural institutions

Collections accessible with the assistance of the Reading Room staff:
• Theatre and dance festivals and visiting companies
• Photo-documentation
• Scenography
• Video Library

Newspaper clippings found in the Documentation Department Resources are taken from the daily press; relevant press materials are at your disposition in the Reading Room of the Theatre Institute Library and the Bibliography Department makes it easy to retrieve them.
According to normal procedures, visitors of the Reading Room can individually work with the database, catalogues, collections of artistic personalities, yearbooks, and bound volumes of programmes. Photocopying facilities are available for a fee.
Visitors must obtain assistance from the Reading Room staff in order to retrieve documents found in other collections. In some special cases, a member of the Reading Room staff must provide assistance for the relevant collection.
A unique computer programme was developed for broader and complex cataloguing of all data contained in the collections of the Documentation Department. It is possible to access this information through four basic databases: Theatre Artists, Plays and Productions, Festivals and Visiting Artists, and Video Excerpts. All these database applications contain current information, and will gradually be supplemented by the inclusion of past events.

Theatre productions (approx. 22 000 folders)

("State Network" - Czech theatres from 1945; "Alternative Network" - selected Czech companies to the 1989/90 season; other systematically but not necessarily complete) The collection contains invitations, promotional materials, newspaper clippings, reviews and reports. These can be found by using the alphabetical card catalogue sorted according to the playwrights or a chronological list of productions of individual theatres. Another component of the collections are the yearbooks of Czech and Slovak theatre (both series from 1960), and the bound programmes of individual theatres by season (shelved alphabetically according to location and name of the theatre).

Theatre artists (approx. 20 000 cards and 10 000 folders)

The collection contains fundamental biographical information about Czech theatre artists active after 1945, as well as newspaper clippings about those individuals. The collection is organized alphabetically according to the artists' surname. Selected foreign theatre artists can also be found alphabetically in the catalogue.

Theatres, Theatrical and cultural institutions (approx. 3 000 folders)

The collection contains newspaper clippings about the activities, yearbooks of individual theatres. Information can be obtained by using the catalogue of names and catalogue of theatres listed according to their locations.

Theatre and dance festivals and visiting artits (approx. 5 000 folders)

The collection contains programmes, newspaper clippings and publications. This collection is catalogued according to the title of the event (after 1994) and according to the date (those activities before 1994). A computer database accommodates information after 1994.

Photo documentation (approx. 15 000 folders)

The collection contains predominantly black and white photographs from Czech theatre productions. These can be found by using the alphabetical card catalogue of playwrights.
More about Photo documentation

Scenography

The collection contains photographs of stage designs (black and white positives and their negatives and colour slides), photographic documentation of implemented stage designs of selected productions and photo documentation of the Prague Quadrennial. These can be found by using an alphabetical catalogue sorted according to the playwrights, an alphabetical catalogue sorted according to the scenographers; realised productions of individual scenographers listed chronologically.

Videotheque (approx. 1 800 programmes)

The collection contains a predominant study of recordings of Czech theatre productions, a special selection of visiting artists, in the VHS / S-VHS systems. Titles can be found using a computer database.

Other information resources in the Documentation department of the Theatre Institute

Monthly programmes of individual repertory theatres.
Up-to-date directory of theatres, theatre institutes, publishers (not including the personal addresses of these individuals!)

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Collections of the Photoarchive of the Theatre Institute

13 000 files of Czech theatre productions from 1945-1999 - approx 50 000 positives.
Individual productions are sorted alphabetically according to the author, then chronologically according to the plays.
Archival method: Paper envelopes (size B4) stored in 36 metal registers.

2 000 files of portraits - photographs of Czech theatre personalities from 1945 - 1999, approx. 2 500 positives.
Individual files are sorted alphabetically according to the name of the personality.
Archival method: Paper envelopes (size B4) stored in 12 metal registers.

700 files with contact (and some in negative formats of cine-film) from the estate of Vilém Sochůrek, approx. 21 000 contacts
Individual productions sorted alphabetically according to the author, then chronologically according to the plays.
Archival method: Paper envelopes (size B4) stored in 15 metal ledgers.

4 000 negative format 6 x 6 with contacts, inscribed by various activities (activities of the Theatre Institute, opening celebrations of the first PQ, guests of the Theatre Institute, shots of exhibitions about Czech and foreign theatre, etc.)
Archival method: Individual negative frames stored in 9 cardboard strongboxes.

3 600 negative format 6 x 6 and cine-film from 360 Czech theatre productions from the estate of Dr. Jaromír Svoboda
Archival method: 9 boxes made from strong cardboard.