News Release – 23 April 2019

The Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive is now online – Dip in to totaltheatre.org.uk/archive Celebrate with us at ACCA on Friday 3 May 2019

For over 30 years, Total Theatre Magazine has celebrated and supported alternative theatre and performance practice. Every issue of the magazine in print (1989–2012) is now online, free to view

Join us at Attenborough Centre of Creative Arts in Sussex at 6.30pm on Friday 3 May to celebrate the successful launch of the Archive, and the completion of our National Lottery Heritage funded project – enjoy the Totally Total Pub Quiz, a glass of fizz, and a slice of cake!

We are delighted to announce that the Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive is live and kicking – a valuable resource for artists, students, scholars, journalists, and anybody interested in Britain’s alternative theatre and performance history. This has been made possible by a substantial grant through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Our Heritage programme.

The Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive website features every print issue of Total Theatre Magazine (1989–2012), available as a PDF, with the original design preserved; together with all of the magazine’s feature articles and reviews reformatted into a fully searchable archive that can be explored via issue number, writer, artist or company, artform or topic.

Over the past few weeks, we have been publishing new material created in response to the archive: interviews with established artists and arts industry giants whose paths have run in tandem to Total Theatre Magazine’s print history; commissioned articles by the magazine’s regular contributors; and new writings that have emerged from the work we have done with our Heritage Volunteers and with the members of the Artists as Writers group mentored as part of the programme.

To celebrate the launch of the website, and the culmination of the Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive project, friends, colleagues and supporters of Total Theatre Magazine are invited to join the editorial team at Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Falmer, Sussex, on Friday 3 May at 6.30pm. There will be cake! RSVP to editorial@totaltheatre.org.uk

After the celebration, please join us to watch Total Theatre Award winner Bryony Kimmings’ critically acclaimed show, I’m a Phoenix, Bitch. This show, co-commissioned by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts with Battersea Arts Centre and Arts Centre Melbourne, is Bryony’s first solo show for over a decade and is a headline show of the opening weekend of Brighton Fringe. Tickets are available to purchase via Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts box office on https://www.attenboroughcentre.com/events/2556/ bryony-kimmings-im-a-phoenix-bitch or via the Brighton Fringe website: https://www.brightonfringe.org/ whats-on/bryony-kimmings-im-a-phoenix-bitch-135247

Editor’s Notes:

About Total Theatre Magazine:

For over 30 years Total Theatre has been at the forefront of the advocacy, celebration and documentation of contemporary theatre and performance – including the support of forms and practices which have often been ignored, or not treated with the seriousness they merit, by other publications.

Total Theatre Magazine was in print 1989–2012, close to 100 issues. Thanks to National Lottery players, this archive will be preserved for everyone to engage with, all content provided free to view. The new Total Theatre Print Archive website was launched in March 2019 after a year-long process that has engaged a team of professional editors, writers and archivists; working with a group of volunteers who have diligently scanned, entered data, and learnt about writing, editing and archiving processes. Newly commissioned responses to the archive are now going live on the website.

For the new Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive, see totaltheatre.org.uk/archive 

Total Theatre Magazine is unique as an artist-led, practice-based publication and resource that celebrates, supports and documents innovative work by artists and companies creating ‘total theatre’ – a term we resist defining too tightly, but which includes: physical, visual and ensemble devised theatre; dance-theatre; mime and clown; contemporary circus; cabaret and new variety; puppetry and mask; street arts, outdoor performance, and site-specific theatre; live art performance and new hybrid artforms.

Total Theatre Magazine is managed and published by Aurelius Productions CIC. The core editorial team is Dorothy Max Prior (editor), John Ellingsworth (web editor), Beccy Smith (associate editor) and Thomas Wilson (contributing editor). www.totaltheatre.org.uk and www.totaltheatre.org.uk/archive

About Total Theatre Network:

Total Theatre Magazine operates in collaboration with, but financially independent of, the Total Theatre Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which are produced by the organisation Total Theatre Network. See www.totaltheatrenetwork.org

About the National Lottery Heritage Fund:

Thanks to National Lottery players, the National Lottery Heritage Fund invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about – from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love; from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. See www.heritagefund.org.uk

Our Partners and Supporters:

Total Theatre Magazine has received financial support from a number of leading institutions and organisations, including: Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, and Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts. The project has been supported by The Keep National Archive Centre, Sussex. We have also received support in-kind from a diverse range of arts organisations and individuals.

About Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts

Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts is an interdisciplinary arts hub connecting University of Sussex with wider regional, national and international arts communities. The centre presents a seasonal programme of performance, dance, live art, film, music, discussion & debate and digital practices. Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts is guided by the values championed by Sir Richard Attenborough (former chancellor of University of Sussex) in his life and work: human rights, social justice, creative education and access to the arts for all. Michael Attenborough CBE is the patron of Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. www.attenboroughcentre.com

Website: www.totaltheatre.org.uk
Archive website: www.totaltheatre.org.uk/archive Facebook: Total Theatre Magazine
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Press enquiries: Dorothy Max Prior max@totaltheatre.org.uk
+44 7752 142526