Grace Santry

Theatrical models are a critical component in the creation of theatre and performance. From experimental first drafts in the form of initial and sketch models, the working and experimental white card models, all the way through to the final scenographic model and theatrical model box, multiple forms of theatrical model will be made and most will be destroyed by the end of the production process.

In the National Theatre Archive there are only twenty-one models out of the over eight hundred plays the National has produced since opening on the 22nd of October 1963. My dissertation explored the place of theatrical models post their lives as tools in exhibitions. And to what extent can curators and exhibition creators use design to engage audiences with theatrical models most effectively?

In chapter one this is done through textual and material analysis of theatrical models, identifying and defining the different forms of theatrical models designers will use throughout the pre-performance process and identifying theatrical models as having an essence of performance not dependant on the live performances for which they were made. Chapter two uses three case studies of theatrical models displayed post-performance at the Royal Opera House, National Theatre, and Victoria and Albert Museum to explore how curators and exhibition creators can engage audiences with this essence of performance in theatrical models. Demonstrating how the design of exhibitions has allowed theatrical models to move between models of and models for, facilitating a deeper relationship between theatrical models and their audiences in museums and displays. Granting theatrical models their own identity – not by completely exorcising the ghosts of performance past from them, but by offering more possibilities for visitors to engage with not just the history and memories of theatrical models but the essence of performance and the tools for imagination found in all models.