The announcement that the University Of York has acquired Alan Ayckbourn’s personal archive for the nation really is something for Ayckbourn fans the world over to celebrate.
As Alan Ayckbourn’s Archivist, I’ve been working with these papers for approaching ten years and it is – whether viewed objectively or subjectively – an extraordinary collection. The University quotes the figure that there is more than a tonne in weight of material; I can’t verify that, as lifting the entire archive is one of the few things I haven’t attempted. What I do know from my own experiences is it encompasses tens of thousands of pages of material covering a lifetime in theatre and offers an incredible glimpse into the mind and development of Alan Ayckbourn as a writer and director.
This is one of the reasons I’m delighted it has been acquired by York, which has such exciting plans for making it available to the public in the pipeline. For ten years, I’ve also been administering www.alanayckbourn.net, which from humble beginnings now encompasses more than 3,500 pages of online material, much drawn from Alan Ayckbourn’s archive. I am told it is now one of the largest single online resources dedicated to one playwright in the world. But to put this into perspective, even at a conservative estimate, there is less than a quarter of one percent of the information on the website that is held in the actual Ayckbourn Archive. The website, I hope, does a good job as an online resource about Alan, but in terms of actual quantity available, it barely scratches the surface.
Which is why the acquisition is such good news. Of course, www.alanayckbourn.net will keep expanding and will be working in conjunction with the University Of York to make even more available digitally. But at York, in the Borthwick Institute For Archives, the entire Ayckbourn Archive is now preserved and available for researchers to visit and use. Every play and their histories – from reviews and press cuttings to set sketches and behind the scenes correspondence and so much more – will be there for students and researchers to explore in person or eventually online.
Whether it’s an original manuscript for Alan’s first play The Square Cat, his handwritten early drafts of Absurd Person Singular, unpublished and unproduced plays written when a teenager or his voluminous and fascinating correspondence with his agent Margaret Ramsay and other pivotal figures in British theatre, there is a huge treasure trove of material offering new insight into the playwright’s work and life.
To give a sense of the scale, every day I worked with the archive over the past ten years, I can genuinely say I found some information that, even as Alan’s Archivist and a lifelong fan of his work, was new to me; the very day before the Archive moved to York, I discovered some previously unread notes about Way Upstream and its infamous sailing at the National Theatre.
That pleasure of discovery and working with such a unique resource will now be shared with an audience of all ages, potentially around the world. I can’t wait to share their discoveries and hear about their experiences.
Simon Murgatroyd, Alan Ayckbourn’s Archivist, 2011
Tomorrow's blog will feature Alan Ayckbourn giving his thoughts on the move of his archive to the University Of York.
