Where Next?

This evaluation covers the Black Plays Archive (BPA), an ongoing digital archive project created by the National Theatre (NT). It’s aim is to remember and catalogue the works of Black British, African, and Caribbean playwrights produced in the UK.

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This evaluation aims to explore the origins and outcomes of the BPA. It also suggests how the project can develop and progress into the future.

This evaluation was written alongside guidance for creating digital archive projects that remember and catalogue performance online. The guidance uses the BPA as a specific case study. Read the guidance to learn more.

Since launching to the public in 2013, the BPA has catalogued over 800 plays, charted the works of over 300 playwrights, and has become an internationally recognised resource. It celebrated 10 years of the project with a website redevelopment and continues to catalogue new work across the UK. Without records of their happening, many of these plays would likely be forgotten or lost.

This evaluation was created to establish a record of how the BPA was created, managed, and operated following its creation in 2009 and initial launch to the public in 2013. It also covers the subsequent redevelopment of the project in 2023 to celebrate the project’s 10th anniversary.

The findings of the evaluation conclude:

• The project was created as a one-off digital archive project in collaboration with the NT Archive and Digital departments. Its aim was to display and share the works of Black playwrights online, though no future planning or sustainability of project was built into its initial brief.
• The team initially working on the project assumed that a finite number of productions by Black playwrights existed historically and that any new productions wouldn’t likely need cataloguing after the launch of the BPA in 2013.
• Following the departure of the original project creators and a refocusing of the NT’s Digital Department, the BPA was absorbed by the team working in the NT Archive.
• A series of teaching resources and external events made the BPA an internationally recognised resource, despite the lack of top-down oversight on the project.

Recommendations

• A dedicated top-down strategy should be created and implemented to ensure that the BPA fulfils its true potential, meeting the needs of its target user groups through the creation of events, resources, tours, talks and exhibitions (both aligned with productions staged at the Southbank and elsewhere)
• Continued resourcing is needed from the NT Archive to catalogue and update the productions within the BPA, in addition to updating and maintaining its digital infrastructure.

Concluding thoughts

The BPA project has a large remit and goal and acts as an expanding hub of information. The project highlights the theatrical works of Black playwrights, who have been historically marginalised within the performing arts sector, and creates permanence around performances that may likely have been forgotten otherwise. The need to create resources and celebration around the plays within its catalogue further aids in users in engaging with the BPA and learning more about work that may be new to them and contextualise plays for a variety of users.

Discover the history of the BPA, from 2009 to today.

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Please contact the National Theatre Archive (archive@nationaltheatre.org.uk) for any questions or enquiries about this evaluation.

This evaluation was written alongside guidance for creating digital archive projects like the BPA. Read the guidance about remembering and cataloguing performance online.

The NT Archive would like to thank the following people for their time in discussing the BPA and for their awareness, perspectives, and involvement in the project over a number of years: Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE, Martina Laird, Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway, University of London), Dr. Michael Pearce (University of Exeter), Deirdre Osborne FRSL (Goldsmiths, University of London), Sula Douglas-Folkes, Dawn Walton OBE and NT staff members.