[01:13.11]Maya: So Finn, i've done as much as I can for our project on theater programs. How's your research coming along?
[01:21.00]Finn: Ok Maya. I didn't know theater programs are called play bills in the USA till I started looking into the topic, even though I struggled to find many useful websites, I'm glad we picked this subject.
[01:35.17]Finn: No one else on the course is doing the same as us. Although it is one of the research areas of the module convener.
[01:41.80]Maya: That might actually put some people off.
[01:44.36]Finn: I suppose so. Anyway, I hadn't realized there were actually companies specializing in creating theater programs.
[01:52.02]Maya: Yes. They are quite common nowadays. Contrary to what many people think theaters don't hire people to do the programs.
[02:00.11]Maya: In fact, companies by the rights to publish programs on the theaters behalf, and then make their money selling advertising space within the program booklet.
[02:09.76]Finn: It must be easier for theaters to do it that way.
[02:12.28]Maya: Yes.
[02:13.40]Finn: I remember reading something about programs in early British Theatre. It said that the cast was always very important.
[02:21.37]Maya: Yeah. Audiences were very familiar with leading actors and big names would draw huge crowds.
[02:28.34]Finn: But I hadn't realized that if the program named a famous actor, that's who the public expected to perform. And if that didn't happen, people accused the theatre of breaking their agreement with the audience.
[02:40.73]Finn: They would demand refunds. And if they didn't get them, there were riots.
[02:45.54]Maya: Outrageous. That did never happen now.
[02:49.00]Finn: No. People are too polite. Even when they're disappointed, if the star of the show misses a performance.
[02:55.48]Maya: we should definitely include that Information about early audiences in our project.
[03:00.44]Maya: I also think it's important to mention that lots of ordinary people at that time were illiterate. So theater programs were of limited value in advertising plays.
[03:11.35]Maya: When a company of actors arrived in a town, they'd parade around the streets in their costumes, beating drums and announcing their upcoming performances.
[03:21.00]Finn: Interesting. I couldn't imagine that happening now either.
[03:24.82]Maya: There's also an interesting comparison to make between 18th and 19th century programs.
[03:31.98]Finn: Wasn't it in the 19th century that theater program started to resemble programs today?
[03:37.46]Maya: Yes. And unlike programs from the 18th century, they always used color.
[03:43.57]Finn: And there was a greater variety of designs, but personally, I think 18th century programs were superior, because they told the theater goers so many things, including about the actors.
[03:56.97]Maya: And about the writer, the plot....and sometimes the history of the play.
[04:02.36]Finn: That's right. What should we say about theater programs in the 20th century?
[04:08.04]Maya: I reckon the most important thing is the dramatic change they underwent during World War II.
[04:14.03]Finn: When the government imposed restrictions on the use of paper.
[04:17.58]Maya: Yeah. But that was only in the UK. In the USA programs or rather play bills continue to be published in the same format.
[04:28.00]Finn: Well here in the UK programs became merely a single sheet of paper folded to create 4 pages for text.
[04:35.74]Maya: What I don't really get is that after the war, they didn't go back to being more than one sheet or change in any way for over 25 years.
[04:46.42]Maya: I know there were paper shortages after the war, but only for 5 or 10 years.
[04:52.24]Finn: En, strange.
[05:29.30]Maya: I've got some pictures of programs we could include on the slides for our presentation.
[05:34.83]Finn: I found a couple too, Maya. Let's go through and see what we think.
[05:39.37]Maya: This is an old one for a play called Really Blass.
[05:45.11]Finn: Never heard of that, but the program looks very decorative.
[05:49.62]Maya: Good enough to put in a frame on the wall. The images are just beautiful. Finn, what did you find?
[05:56.80]Finn: I've got some pages from a program for man of la Mancha. I thought this was a good program to show, not because of the pictures, but because it contains articles written by members of the theatre company.
[06:10.01]Finn: So we can learn how the production was created and the thoughts and feelings of the cast.
[06:16.05]Maya: Good. I've got a copy of a program that's now in a museum. It's for the tragedy of Jane Shaw, and it's said to be the earliest surviving document to have been printed on Australia's first printing press.
[06:30.44]Finn: Fantastic.
[06:32.19]Maya: Another program to talk about is for the sailors festival. It comes from the British libraries, digitized collection of programs that was started a few years ago. It already comprises over 200,000 programs, which is amazing.
[06:48.78]Finn: Wish I'd known about it while I was doing my research.
