Seventh Rule of Archiving: Be Persistent

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."
                                ~ Benjamin Franklin

You and your cast and crew worked hard. That work is important. Every reading; every benefit; every production is a step in the evolution of your company, the artists involved, the Off-Off-Broadway community, and the theatrical art form itself. Be steadfast in your commitment to archiving your work.These records demonstrate the vital role OOB has in the theatrical ecosystem of NYC and beyond and your activities contribute to this moment in our artistic heritage.

Sixth Rule of Archiving: Storage & Preservation Materials

Ensure that the products you are using to preserve and label your artifacts will extend the life of your collection and not actually contribute to its deterioration. We've all seen photos or news articles have have faded, become discolored or deteriorated. How and where you preserve and store your archive will determine how well it will weather the elements and passage of time.

Check out this great post by Jill Davis, Founder of Scrapbook.com - Fourteen facts every scrapbooker should know. (I know we are not scrapbooking, but the information she provides is relevant to archiving)

1. Make sure digital files are backed up regularly. Of course you'll want to have files available on your computer, but if the hard drive fails, those files will be lost. Saving files to the cloud or online storage is great, but don't rely solely on a third party server. You never know when the company may discontinue services - or heavens forbid are the victim of a hacker or virus. Having files on a computer, backed-up to an online storage site and saved to an external drive or CD that is stored with any physical files is an excellent, all-bases-covered, back-up policy.
   
   
2.  Physical files should be stored in dry, cool places that are out of the sun. Moisture, sunlight and extreme temperatures will destroy memorabilia.
   
   
3. Most adhesives will damage photos or paper. Avoid using adhesives when possible, however if it is necessary look for "archival safe" or "acid-free" adhesives.
   
   
4. Store files in sturdy file cabinets or boxes with lids (that are clearly labeled on the outside). Files can be damaged or destroyed if they are crushed or exposed to dirt or moisture.
   
   
5. Instead of photo albums, consider photo safe boxes made of polypropylene (some plastic boxes exude a vapor that is harmful to photos).
   
   
6. Always use acid free materials including: polyester sleeves, paper, labels and even pens. Acid free means it has a pH level of 7 or higher. Look for "archival safe" or "acid-free" on the label when purchasing your materials. Other terms you should look for are: acid free, lignin free, or buffered
   
   Susan Luke from Paper Craft Central explains these terms:
   
   • Acid is a substance that dissolves things. It eats them away. Acid is added to paper to make it easier to write on. Unfortunately, this same beneficial acid can eat away at your photos over time. I have seen friend's photo albums where the photo itself has been eaten through and the picture even obliterated over time. In some older albums, the photo itself had protected the paper it was mounted on and not the other way around! If I want a photo to last into another generation, I choose "acid free lignin free buffered" scrapbooking elements.
   • Lignin is a substance that occurs naturally in wood. Paper is made out of wood. Lignin makes paper stronger. It is a biodegradable substance though so over time, it breaks down, turns brittle and changes colour to yellow and brown. If you have ever kept a newspaper article for a couple of years, you will know what I mean as it becomes very brittle and yellow. And newspaper is about 98% lignin free! I found some "acid free lignin free buffered" photocopying paper and I make sure I copy my precious newspaper articles onto it if I am going to put them in a scrapbook. I also make sure my other scrapbooking elements are lignin free if I want my project to last through the years without becoming brittle and yellowed.
   • When paper is Buffered it means an alkaline substance has been added to it to reduce the effect of the acid content in it. So buffered paper will be safer for your memorabilia. However, some people say alkaline substances can also weaken paper. Certainly there seem to be fewer buffered paper products out there on sale for use in scrapbooks. You can find them, though. (More commonly you just find acid and lignin free products. They are safer than products without these characteristics).

Document Your Productions in Theatre World

             

Since 1945, Theatre World has been documenting Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. It has been continually published for 69 years, offering the most comprehensive and definitive record of what is happening in American Theatre. It has become the leading archival resource that is referenced everywhere by scholars, students, casting directors, producers, and other industry professionals on a daily basis and is included in the Library of Congress.

The editors of Theatre World recognized the legitimacy of our community and felt that it deserved a place in this record. So in 2008 it began including Off-Off-Broadway.
 
It is so important that our community is represented when looking at the entire landscape of American Theatre. These books  bring to light the vital role this sector plays and demonstrates the number of productions, the variety, the innovation and the determination of the work being created in our community.  

We are currently collecting data about the 2013-2014 Off-Off-Broadway season. Please take the time to submit your productions for inclusion in this important record.

http://goo.gl/Mn56eF 


Please share this link with all of your OOB producer friends.  

Collection of this data is made possible by

Fifth Rule of Archiving: Be Consistant

When you are preserving and cataloging information that you intend to file, search or filter it is important to be consistent in the type of information you are capturing, how it is recorded and how it is labeled. Consistency upfront will allow you easier and faster access to files and information later on.

• Digital Files 
• Consider the naming scheme for your files. For example, a file name that consists of: the year, month, day and then an appropriate unique indicative title(s) (20140405_Hamlet_Review.pdf), has several benefits. All files names that begin with the date will automatically be filtered chronologically in your system. You will also be able to glean key information just by looking at the file name; the date on which the review was published, the production in question, and that the file is a review. 
• It is a good idea to organize all files for your 2014 production of Hamlet into one folder. However, do not fall in to the trap of relying on that folder for file identification.  For example the playbill document for Hamlet may be in the 2014Hamlet folder and titled, 'playbill'. However if at a later date you compile all of your programs and that file is moved from the Hamlet folder... you may run into some time consuming confusion; especially if all of your playbill documents are named 'playbill.'
•  Physical Files 
• An obvious first step is to decide on your filing system - alphabetical or chronological - and be consistent. 
• When creating your file folders, place the labels in the same location on each folder. This convention makes it easier to quickly scan for relevant information as you thumb through the files.
• If the physical file has a corresponding digital file, it is a time saver to include the digital folder name/path on the OUTSIDE of the file folder.

If you do have both physical and digital files for the same production, coordinating the naming conventions across the two mediums will help match information.

• Checklist
  Off-Off-Broadway productions come in an endless variety and key details can vary wildly from one production to another. However where possible it is important to try to capture similar information for each production. In order to help create consistency and to prevent things from slipping through the cracks, create a checklist of common artifacts that you would like to include in your production files. If you are asking a volunteer or team member to help gather these artifacts, a checklist is an excellent tool to help them with their task.
  

Of course, this is an example, you will have your own set of items to include on your checklist.

TIP: Make sure that your dates follow the same format throughout your archive; i.e. May 1, 2014; 5/1/14 or 05/01/2014.
INCLUDE THE YEAR ON ALL DOCUMENTATION. (Trust me as someone who has been documenting OOB productions for the last six years, nothing is more frustrating than trying to figure out what year a production was performed.)

Mayan Maps

"Archiving tells us where we came from.
   Your archive is as important as a Mayan pyramid."

                     ~ Robert Patrick, Playwright

Burning to Communicate: Part 2

Contributed by Frank Kuzler, DecadesOut

In 2009, my co-producer and wife, Jennifer Larkin Kuzler, an independent theatre artist herself, and some close friends started DecadesOut, whose mission is to contribute to the growing dialogue between art and science.

We decided to start documenting the people involved and start meeting new people who had perhaps never heard of off-off Broadway or independent theatre. So borrowing a phrase from the Living Theatre’s founder Judith Malina (“If you’re not burning to communicate, why do this? Get out of the way, and let the people who are do their jobs.”) the documentary Burning to Communicate was started. Then in 2010 we started work on the Awareness Project in which we interview people on the streets of NYC and ask them a series of simple questions that have to do with the off-off Broadway/independent theatre world in some way: Define a black box. If you could create one thing, what would it be? If you have a show running for four weeks under the showcase code with 6 equity actors, how many shows can you perform a week, and shouldn’t you be allowed to shoot video for marketing purposes since it’s 2014?

The results so far (and we have just scratched the surface) have been amazing. Over the last four years, we have had the opportunity to sit down with some of the artists who started this movement including  (just to name drop) Lanford Wilson, Doric Wilson, Judith Malina, and Edward Albee. They described textures of careers and historical landscapes that brought our country and the art form to greater life for me. I could see it all playing out visually: the personal or historical events that inspired the work, the creation of the pieces themselves. They welcomed us into their lives as all great artists do, sharing deep passions. Lanford Wilson brought us out into his garden where he described every flower in great detail including its latin genus and species. This is how a great writer’s mind works, I thought. This is what I was doing this for. Listening to these icons of American theatre tell their stories after having read and seen so much of their work as an audience member, student, and young artist was a humbling experience. This is why I wanted to make a film: to grow as an artist, share these moments and capture this history.

We missed some of the important ones though, LaMama's Ellen Stewart in particular. That was a tough one. We tried, but the timing was wrong, and she is sorely missed within the community. She left such a fantastic legacy though, and I am sure there are many people who will help tell that story.

From these, there are the people who got handed the mantle — the over 150 companies working in NYC alone. Companies such as Boomerang, Flux, Gideon, Retro Productions, Vampire Cowboys, Blessed Unrest, Terra Nova, and I am so sorry for the many that I do not have room to list from NYC, the USA, and the world.

It is through the theatre companies, the artists consistently producing new theatre, and the advocate organizations such as the League of Independent Theatre (LIT) and the Innovative Theatre Foundation (ITF) that the independent theatre community is galvanizing into a national cultural institution.

Thank you to all the people (artists and the ever important patrons and donors) who continue to keep it thriving. I believe live theatre — the original 3D dramatic experience, the closest artistic form to actually living the experience — will always be world changing.

Thank you to organizations like the Innovative Theatre Foundation who are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year for being a major element in the support of the new American theatrical life.

If you want to know more about DecadesOut or Burning to Communicate, please visit our website at www.decadesout.org.

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Frank Kuzler is the Executive Director and a Producer at DecadesOut. For the past fifteen years, Frank has been writing, directing and producing independent films, theatre and video. Most recently, Frank has been working on two feature length documentaries related to theatre: FringeNYC, the Film about the dynamic world surrounding the NY International Fringe Festival and Burning to Communicate about NYC’s independent theatre scene. DecadesOut is an organization dedicated to producing and supporting art that is inspired by science and science related themes.