Forkbeard Fantasy – Where to Begin?

By Rosie Smith

“The Theatre Collection has recently been given the archives of a theatre company called Forkbeard Fantasy. My job is to organize the archive, catalogue it, repackage it, and tell the world it exists.” 

This is how I have been describing my new job to family and friends. Most of the time, this is met with the response: “Gosh! Where do you even begin with a job like that?” 

You begin by getting to know the history of the company. One of the quirks of being an archivist is that as you move from project to project you quickly but briefly become an expert in a variety of niche topics. I have previously known a lot about Quaker boarding schools, Yorkshire parish magazines, and the Dutch National Ballet – not that I can remember much of it now. For the duration of this project, I will be an expert in all things Forkbeard Fantasy.

Preparing to perform The Great British Sqaure Dance on Dam Square in Amsterdam.

Forkbeard Fantasy was set up by brothers Chris and Tim Britton in 1974. Their first big show, “The Rubber Gods Show,” was performed in village halls across the country, and set the stage for their own brand of absurdist theatre dealing with serious topics. They were also advocates of using street theatre to reach a wider audience. The Great British Square Dance involved four performers (or sometimes three performers and one unsuspecting audience member) attaching their feet to long wooden poles and attempting to follow a serious of dance steps. Chaos inevitably ensued. Personally, I am intrigued by The Statue, which involved two ‘city officials’ placing a statue in a town square, only to have the statue move itself as soon as they were not looking. Again, chaos ensued.  

Forkbeard was also the home of Desmond and Dorothy Fairybreath, a pair of poets who travelled the country in a tiny car full of outlandish props. It took me far longer than it should have to realize that Desmond and Dorothy were Tim and Chris in costume. Later Chris and Tim adopted the personas of Chrissy and Timmy Brittonioni, two eccentric film producers accompanied by their long-suffering assistant, Mr. Jobling. Ed Jobling joined the group as a lighting technician but became a regular performer after being convinced to first appear onstage as a singing mushroom.  

Mammon, the God of Money, with his light up shoes.

Later in their work, Forkbeard became great advocates of what they called “Breaking the Celluloid Divide.” Characters on stage would interact with characters on film. Actors would “enter” the film by walking behind the screen and appearing on it. This required precise timing from the actors, who were often also playing multiple roles with multiple costume changes.  

Forkbeard were well-known for their use of elaborate props, most of which were created by Forkbeard’s third member, Penny Saunders. Notable props include: a seven-foot-high rabbit costume, an animatronic elderly lady who laughs manically when approached, and Mammon, the God of Money with light up shoes. Having previously lived at the Musuem of Forkbeard, these objects have now made their way to the Theatre Collection, where it falls to me to condition check, package and catalogue them. Wish me luck! 

The next step when approaching a new collection is to create a provisional cataloguing structure to decide how the archive will be arranged intellectually. Then the stage I am at now: opening every box to see what’s inside. If I find items that do not fit my catalogue, the catalogue structure gets amended. If I find things that are in the ‘wrong’ place physically, a note is made so they can be moved later. But mostly, as I go through the collection I laugh at long forgotten jokes and gape at the amazing cartoons and drawings. As I go through the collection in more detail, more stories will emerge and be shared here, so do come back soon to read about my progress! 

A drawing from the archive that made me laugh, despite the character’s directive not to. 

Critical Analysis of Oral History Practice Interviews

By Unit students Naama, Nell and Lola

 

Critical Analysis of Interview by Jan Wozniak with Lucy Hunt, Director of Engagement at Bristol Old Vic

This blog recognises that most of these critical observations arose from the specific circumstances of classroom-based practice interviews and are unlikely to occur in typical oral history interviews.

The interview took place in our usual seminar room, a relatively large space that accommodates around 30 people. Under different circumstances, a smaller, more intimate setting would have been preferable for recording. Upon reviewing the recording, I noticed significant background noise, particularly the sound of passing police cars. Ideally, interviews should be conducted in a smaller, acoustically soft room without an audience, to minimise external sounds and distractions. The presence of laughter in the recording, for instance, may have influenced the interviewee’s responses or reactions. Furthermore, the recording was done on a basic camcorder without specialised audio equipment, which impacted the audio quality significantly. In retrospect, using microphones and high-quality recording devices would have enhanced clarity and reduced ambient noise interference.

Jan made a conscious effort to maintain strong eye contact with Lucy, which helped her feel engaged and listened to. He avoided crossing his arms – while a natural and comfortable position for many, it can sometimes convey a sense of closed-off body language. As an interviewer, it is important to remain mindful of one’s body language and how it might be perceived by the interviewee, as their perception can influence the openness of their reponses.

As the interview progressed, Jan noticed that Lucy appeared confident and secure in her responses, which allowed him to introduce more challenging questions. For example, when Lucy explained that the Young Company was divided by age groups, Jan questioned this and asked why the young people were separated into year groups as at school, when the goal is to distinguish this environment from traditional schooling. Lucy responded comfortably, demonstrating that she felt respected and that Jan’s questions were a product of active listening and critical engagement.

Finally, I observed that Jan began taking notes during the interview. This was likely a practical strategy to aid in post-interview debriefing, yet, as we are reflecting critically, it raised a potential issue. Note-taking during an interview could potentially affect the intervewee’s comfort, as they may become self-conscious about what is being noted versus what is not, leading them to question the perceived significance of their statements. This highlights the importance of considering how the interviewer’s actions may subtly influence the interviewee’s mindset and responses. As noted earlier, while the interviewer is actively perceiving and analysing the interviewee, the reverse is also true: the interviewee is reading and responding to the interviewer’s cues.

Personal Reflection of Student Interview with Lisa Gregan, Director of the Bristol Old Vic Young Company

After Jan completed the interview with Lucy, he opened up the next interview with Lisa Gregan to the rest of the class. I nervously raised my hand, thinking someone else would too. They didn’t of course, so 10 minutes later there I was with Lisa, conducting an interview. Scary stuff!

It helped that Jan had gone first; I was able to take inspiration from his style and questions, as I had none prepared. I tried to maintain open body language, show active listening through eye contact and verbal recognition, and asked follow-up questions where it seemed right.

I realised as I sat there panicking about what to ask next, that it didn’t actually matter. The point was never to be the most interesting interviewer, rather to help and facilitate the most interesting interviewee! This change in my understanding allowed me to relax and truly, deeply listen to Lisa, which resulted in far better questions and a more comfortable environment for Lisa.

World Digital Preservation Day: Reflecting on a Year of Digital Archiving

Lori Stirland-Legret, Digital Archive Assistant, reflects on the last year of digital activities in Special Collections and Theatre Collection for this year’s World Digital Preservation Day.

Today is the first Thursday of November, meaning it’s World Digital Preservation Day 2024! This is a day to celebrate all things relating to digital preservation, and this year’s theme is ‘Preserving Our Digital Content: Celebrating Communities’. It has also been almost exactly a year since I started working as Digital Archive Assistant for Special Collections and Theatre Collection, so it seemed like a good time to reflect on the work I’ve been doing, as well as the importance of digitally preserving our collections.

One of the main tasks that I’ve undertaken is creating a Digital Asset Register to keep information about all of our digital collections in one place. It contains high level information such as how much storage space each collection takes up, and the types of digital files they contain. With a Digital Asset Register, we can get a better idea of which collections to prioritise to make accessible for users.

Making a Digital Asset Register sounds easy until you consider that Special Collections has over 40 terabytes and Theatre Collection has over 50 terabytes of digital content. To put it into perspective, the average laptop usually has a capacity of around 500 gigabytes of storage – meaning it would take almost 200 normal laptops to hold all of our digital materials! Luckily, we have access to a large amount of network storage as well as Preservica, our digital asset management system.

I’ve also been able to do a lot of work on creating online exhibitions for Special Collections and Theatre Collection. Most recently, in October the Cultural Collections Black History Month online exhibition went live. Working on these has given me a lot of perspective on the amount of work from everyone that goes into making collections accessible: from selecting suitable materials, digitising copies, and doing all the technical coding. However, it feels very satisfying to finally create a finished product which anyone can access from their mobile phone in the palm of their hand! It’s currently still online, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

Cultural Collections’ Black History Month online exhibition. Image shows playwright Winsome Pinnock (left) with director Hettie McDonald. Theatre Collection (ref WPT/1/1/2/2/9/1)

Looking forward, over the next year one of our main goals is to get more content into Preservica and accessible to users, ensuring our digital collections are as protected and accessible as possible. In the same way that you can put a book at the back of a pile and then forget about it, digital files can be hidden away in folders on old computers only to be lost. Physical archives are vulnerable to a number of real-life disasters, and whilst digital archives have their own vulnerabilities, taking a multifaceted approach gives our records the best chance of surviving for as long as possible.

Bristol Old Vic Young Company and Interviewing BOV Staff

By Unit students Natasha, Cerys and Honor

 

Bristol Old Vic Young Company

As part of the project, we spent time at the Bristol Old Vic, working with Lucy Hunt, Director of Engagement at the theatre, and we were able to explore their boxes of archival educational material dating from 1960 – 2012. The items ranged from scripts and programmes of shows the Young Company put on, as well as other educational resources and projects the BOV did before the Young Company was created. As the Young Company is a much newer element of the engagement programme, it was interesting to delve into its history of the performances they did and also learn about the types of productions they put on, ranging from Shakespeare to more contemporary devised work.

As well as this, there were a variety of digital archives of all of the Young Company shows dating back to the 1990s. We were able to identify a gap in information from the years 2001 – 2007. Lucy Hunt was able to provide us with the names of three additional productions which we were able to find through digital pictures from CD photo albums. The gap in information about the Young Company in those 6 years remains a mystery, but through interviews with past Young Company members, we could potentially be able to find out further information.
Overall, this task was very beneficial as it allowed us to gain more context into the history of the Young Company and its impact on the Bristol Old Vic. Its engagement with the rest of the companies performing at the BOV appears vital due to the vast amount of archival material.

Interviews with Lucy Hunt and Lisa Gregan

We conducted two interviews with people that work with the Bristol Old Vic Young Company. The first was with Lucy Hunt who produces and occasionally directs plays for the Young Company. She informed us of her role and how working with youth theatre groups and young people had impacted on her. After the interview finished we assessed the effectiveness of the questions we’d asked, the way they were asked, and the rapport that was created between the interviewer and the interviewee so that we could build from this in the second interview with the Young Company Director, Lisa Gregan. Lisa told us more about her work with the youth theatre and was also able to explain how her own experience in youth theatre as a child had impacted on her and her theatre peers positively. From both these interviews we gained positive qualitative data to add to our research project and now will also have a more informed and confident approach to the interview process in future.

Academic Readings on Interviewing Techniques 

Along with watching Jan and Naama conduct interviews with Lisa Gregan and Lucy Hunt, we also read scholarly articles on interviewing practice, specifically oral history techniques. Cerys and Honor read chapter 7 of The Voice of the Past: Oral History by Paul Thompson which looked at the multiple ways to manage an oral history interview.

Thompson argues that the most important element of interviewing is: ‘an interest and respect for people as individuals, and flexibility in response to them; an ability to show understanding and sympathy for their point of view; and above all, a willingness to sit quietly and listen’.

Thompson looks at oral history specifically as a practice, claiming ‘one of the greatest strengths of oral history evidence is its potential to connect up different spheres of life, the life-story approach, while more time-consuming, is more likely to bring new insights. It also makes a fuller use of the opportunity in recording the memories of someone who may never have been previously recorded, nor will be recorded again.’ (p.222)

The reading also gave examples of what to avoid, such as asking questions which make informants think in your way rather than theirs. At the end of the week 5 seminar, we discussed these interviewing techniques, and the reading really helped me understand what works and what doesn’t, alongside the practical examples of Jan and Naama’s interviews.

Bristol Old Vic Young Company Research Unit – Defining Youth Theatre and Oral History

By Unit students Isabel, Seb and Keir 

Youth Theatre

There are many ways we can define youth theatre. With each different research topic, a new definition is created and developed, and while the definitions are endless and always relative, there are also general themes that appear throughout them all.

Youth theatre is the creation of a community in which young people can thrive, make friends and learn valuable life skills. It is so much more than devising and performing theatre, providing an inclusive environment where members can gain confidence, the ability to effectively communicate and creative thinking skills.

The term ‘youth’ remains ambiguous and can be assigned according to different research pathways and ideas. Essentially, however, ‘youth’ in a youth theatre context are young people who are brought together simply because of their passion for the arts. This united interest is what sparks creativity and innovation in these environments, ensuring successful personal and social development.

Youth theatre plays a significant role in building emotional intelligence by creating a safe and collaborative space for young people to explore their emotions and those of others. Through acting, participants embody different characters and experience a range of feelings, allowing them to develop empathy and a deeper understanding of human behaviour. By interpreting scripts and improvising, they learn to recognise and manage emotions, both on stage and in real life.

Group work in theatre fosters strong communication skills, teaching young performers to listen actively, respond thoughtfully, and work harmoniously with others. It also helps them develop resilience as they navigate constructive criticism and performance challenges, building self-awareness and confidence. Moreover, youth theatre encourages emotional expression in a supportive environment, promoting self-regulation and the ability to manage stress. This unique creative outlet enables young people to cultivate emotional intelligence, a skill crucial for success in relationships, education, and personal development.

What is Oral History?

“All history was at first oral” was a comment made by Samuel Johnson in the 18th century. It refers to how oral history predates the written word as the oldest type of historical enquiry. But oral history as a research methodology was initiated in the 20th century, becoming established in the 1940s with the use of tape recorders. It has now further evolved in the 21st century with the help of digital technologies.

Oral history can be defined as a method of gathering and preserving the spoken memories of people, communities and participants in past events. The potential to then interpret and analyse those voices is available but is not always a necessity. However, for anyone conducting research into a chosen topic, analysis of the oral history they have conducted will be crucial in contributing to their findings.

We will be taking this into account for when we begin to create an oral history of our own for the Bristol Old Vic’s Young Company in the coming weeks.