This is an old section revived where our regional representatives can keep the membership informed about what's happening in their parts of the country. Editor.
WESTERN REPORT
Don Perkins
Studio Theatre, U. of Alberta Drama Department, is into its 50th Anniversary
season in 1998/99. That's a record worth noting.
Also, for researchers to note, the Edmonton Professional Theatre Project
(a three-year project funded in part by SSHRC, the Edmonton Community Foundation
and the Clifford E. Lee Foundation). The grant holders are Diane Bessai,
Professor Emeritus of U of A English Department and Bryan Corbett, U of
A Archivist. The project has so far acquired and created finding aids for
the archives of several professional theatres centered in Edmonton: Catalyst,
Theatre Network, Workshop West, Nexus, Phoenix, Northern Light, and Chinook/Fringe
Theatre Adventures. There is also a plan to acquire the personal papers
and records of several people important in the development of professional
theatre in this region, and to begin to acquire the records of some of
the independent companies of long standing.
ATLANTIC CANADA REPORT
Patrick O'Neill
Over the past summer, progress has continued on the Atlantic Canada Theatre
Site (ACTS) at the University of New Brunswick. The newly established editorial
board consists of Edward Mullaly, Chair, John Ball, Stephen Johnston, Patrick
O'Neill, Richard Plant, and Mary Smith.
The ACTS site permits researchers to access five additional sites housed
at UNB. First, the Canadian Drama Bibliography site currently indexes all
the annual bibliographic updates that have been prepared for the ACTR newsletters
between 1985 and the present by Drs. Ball and Plant. Work is underway to
make the entire text of the Ball and Plant Bibliography of Theatre History
in Canada available in the near future.
Next comes the Performance Calendar site. This searchable file contains
performance data on some 7,000 entries gathered from four New Brunswick
sources: the Saint John material (1789-1899) is supplied by Mary Smith
from her performance calendar previously published in microfiche form;
the Fredericton material for the mid-1800s is compiled from Professor Mullaly's
work on Henry W. Preston's tours; and performances in Eastern New Brunswick
come from Susanne Alexander's honours thesis "Variety Tonight: Theatre
in New Brunswick, 1875-1895" and from Ralph William's MA thesis "Theatre
in Chatham and Newcastle 1886-1895."
The Theatre Poster site remains under construction, but we hope to have
it available later in the year. The poster collection at UNB's Harriet
Irving Library has been scanned, but the graphics have not yet been added
to the site. Next, the editors hope to add the poster material from the
Saint John Library.
The Theatre Research in Canada site contains two complete issues of the
journal, searchable abstracts for past issues, tables of contents for all
the issues, and an electronic subscription form.
The fifth site is the Drama Texts site where it is hoped that various script
material that is no longer in print will be made available. Currently the
site is under construction, but the texts of some ninety-three prologues
and epilogues (most published originally in eighteenth and nineteenth century
Canadian newspapers) should be available by the end of September.
The URL for the Atlantic Canada Theatre Site may be accessed world wide
from any computer. Visit it at http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/
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