About AusStage > Event Index

Rationale

Apart from very popular and world touring productions, many performing arts events are largely forgotten about in a matter of months. Traces may remain in various collections, but few collecting agencies, such as libraries, catalogue each flyer or program individually. Hence, unless one knows that an event took place at a certain time in a certain place, tracking down such an event as part of a research project is often a matter of chance.

Where research needs to be carried out on high profile and well-documented productions only, this is not a problem. However, both the historian and the analyst will attest that the cultural, political, or sociological context in which a performing arts event takes place is also of major importance, as are the other events that took place in close proximity, either in place or time. A good overview of such productions provides us with a 'social document' that can greatly enhance cultural studies in ways that extent far beyond the narrow confines of theatre history. For instance, data such as this can be used to monitor the health of communities, particularly when used in association with data obtained from other social science disciplines.

When one researches a particular playwright one might want to know about all the productions of plays by that author; if one wants to investigate what choices a particular audience had over a period of history and compare this to, say, an ethnic breakdown of the population, one would need to know broadly all the events that took place during that time. If one wanted to do a statistical analysis on the shift in popularity of a genre over one or more generations, it is important to have knowledge of most of the relevant major and minor performance events that took place. In this context, issues of aesthetic quality and the professionalism of a production - which will of course have an impact on such studies - are not the determining factors when deciding to include or exclude events, since all events are the raw material for such research.

Solution

The Index of Australian Performing Arts resolved to remedy this situation by creating an extensive index of all performing arts events since European settlement. As the performing arts is a notoriously difficult activity to categorise, we also resolved that the minimum data listed for each event were to be:

• the name (title);
• the venue;
• the date;
• the production company;
• the primary genre

However, allowance was made to collect and enter a number of other relevant details, including the origin of the data, linked articles and reviews, details on contributors and organisations, etc., but this data was not to be mandatory.

The Event Index in practice

The database to accommodate the data described above has now been constructed and data are being collected. There are two categories of data: prospective or current data and retrospective data. This distinction is important because the data-collection techniques vary; current data can be harvested from a variety of publications, providing a weekly snapshot of what goes on throughout the nation. Data harvesting for retrospective events tends to use other sources. We realise that to complete this task with respect to the past will take many years.

Prospective (current) data

Data have been collected since 1 January 2001 by a variety of personnel in various locations around Australia on a weekly basis and entered into the AusStage database. In theory this means that most performing arts events (excluding 'pure' music events such as concerts) are listed in the database, though in practice there will be some gaps: the system of adequate collection is still being fine-tuned and is subject to available personnel and funding. We are making an attempt to include as many country areas as possible and continue to broaden our coverage in this area.

Retrospective data

Retrospective data includes a vast quantity of disparate material held in a variety of locations. Ultimately the scope of retrospective data includes all performing arts events ever mounted in Australia since white settlement, where records survive. Thus we are approaching retrospective data entry by identifying 'blocks' of data that can be mined for information. A block of data is a collection of programs or reviews or articles in one location. Thus each library, museum or company can provide us with blocks of data. The three blocks we have previously identified as good starting points, were:

• The Australian & New Zealand Theatre Record (ANZTR) which collected and reproduced all reviews of all professional productions from 1986 to 1996. 
• The Wolanski Program Collection-this collection of theatre programs, originally owned by the Wolanski Performing Arts Collection at the Sydney Opera House, is now housed in the Library of the University of New South Wales and contains many thousands of programs from the early 1900s onward. 
• The National Library Collection (PROMPT) -this well housed, well archived collection is very comprehensive, with many tens of thousands of programs.

Beyond these collections there are many others which will fill in the gaps. It will take a considerable time to access these and enter data, but the ultimate aim is to achieve a 'critical mass' of data so that it can be seen as representative of our performing arts history and thus an essential resource for research.

We encourage the use of our feedback facility or contact us to alert us to any 'data block' that may be entered. Under special circumstances we can give individuals or organisations permission to enter such data. 

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