Exploring new routes in theatre archive research

The Mikron Theatre Company have been bringing professional theatre to the UK by canal, river and road for nearly 50 years. After depositing their archive with the University of Huddersfield in 2013, the collection has been fully catalogued. This has led to the identification of new and underexplored research topics which have the potential to engage new and diverse audiences. While the University’s theatre department would be a natural audience for this material, their research interests lie elsewhere, which challenged us to explore opportunities for research with other non-theatre disciplines. We have worked with the depositors on important anniversaries, encouraged use of and engagement with the archive with the company’s Friends Group, and worked with University audiences from artists to oral historians to students starting out in archival research. This talk discusses some of the results of these collaborations, how expectations and access to material was managed, and how we want to work toward improving access and use of this multi-format and multimedia collection in the future.