Curator Hans van Keulen: ‘The performing arts are transitory by nature. Precisely because theatre heritage is partly intangible, the importance of what can still be preserved is great.’ The Allard Pierson is celebrating the theatre collection's anniversary with a number of events, including an exhibition of Baron van Slingelandt's 18th-century model theatre, a symposium and the publication of a book of theatre stories.
Internationally renowned
The Dutch theatre collection has a turbulent history. On 28 February 1925 De Vereniging ‘Het Tooneelmuseum’ [Theatre Museum] was founded with the merger of a number of private collections. The aim was to create a museum of the performing arts, which opened on Herengracht in Amsterdam in 1959. When the Theatre Museum was forced to close in 2012, the collections were taken in by the Allard Pierson - The Collections of the University of Amsterdam. This theatre collection has since grown into an internationally renowned collection covering four centuries of Dutch dance and theatre history which includes over half a million objects: from masks, costumes and set pieces to scripts, posters, photographs, theatre programmes and models.
Collecting theatre
What do you keep from a performance on stage? Thanks to collectors, much has been preserved. The rarest items are objects dating before the 18th century. Unfortunately, because theatres used to be lit by candles, much has literally gone up in flames. Curator Hans van Keulen: ‘In the collection, for example, we have the half-burnt stage book of the Gijsbrecht, which was rescued from the remains of the Amsterdam Schouwburg after the fire of 1890.’ There are many more remarkable items. To mark the anniversary, Collecting Theatre was published on 28 February. The volume contains stories of over a hundred objects, such as costumes of Josephine Baker, Jos Brink and Freek de Jonge and a huge painting showing dancers made by Jan Sluijters in 1910. The publication describes how the theatre collection came into being, how it is managed and used, and how active collecting continues to take place today.
The Van Slingelandt theatre
After being in storage for a long time, from 28 February visitors can once again view the 18th-century model theatre built for Baron van Slingelandt. For years it was one of the most popular items in the Theatre Museum on Herengracht. This famous model theatre is a miniature version of a theatre, complete with sliding scenery flats. It was used to demonstrate how theatre worked. The flats were made by the scenic artists of the former Amsterdam City Theatre that was subsequently destroyed by fire. The theatre has eight 18th-century and six 19th-century scenery flats.
Symposium
On Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February, the Allard Pierson, the Chair in Theatre Studies at the UvA and the TiN (Theatre in the Netherlands) Foundation organised a symposium on theatre archives. The focus was on innovation and new insights into collection management. Based on the theatre collection, the young theatre collective BLAUWDRUK created a performance about the sense and nonsense of preservation.