In Situ (Jun 2024)
La collecte des archives des Centres dramatiques nationaux et Scènes nationales dans les Hauts-de-Seine
Abstract
The Hauts-de-Seine to the west of Paris is not a very large department but it is one that is densely populated. It has two Centre dramatiques nationaux (CDN), national dramatic centres, which are the Nanterre-Amandiers Theatre and the T2G Theatre, at Gennevilliers. The department also has two Scènes nationales, national theatres, the 71 Theatre at Malakoff and the Gémeaux Theatre at Sceaux. The departmental archive service, based at Nanterre, holds the archives of three of these establishments, the two national dramatic centres and the 71 Theatre.The article first takes a brief look at the origins of these theatrical ventures, all of them initiatives of the early 1960s bearing witness to the success of what was called cultural decentralisation. It then goes on to recount the steps which led to the transfer of their documents to the Hauts-de-Seine departmental archives and to suggest something of the diversity of these documents. This diversity, particularly in terms of the media involved and on account of the large number of fixed images required much thought as to the best conservation conditions and are an issue where reproduction rights are concerned. A last part of the article then examines the specific case of the archives of the T2G Theatre, which had its own centre for audiovisual recording. This original form of record-keeping required the establishment of a specific protocol for the safekeeping of documents that neither the departmental archives nor the theatre itself could view. The documents have turned out to be of considerable interest not only for the history of the theatre itself but also for the history of the whole territory of Gennevilliers.
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