Brian Smith Theatre Programme Collection

Brian Smith's collection of theatre programmes, collected over many years of theatre going. The programmes date from 1954 up until 2005 covering productions at theatres all over London’s West End and some from New York, Paris, Sydney and Cape Town. The programmes cover a range of theatre including Shakespeare, classical theatre, modern plays and musical theatre; including several programmes for the first runs of now well known shows. There is also a large collection of opera, ballet and concert programmes.

Brian Smith was a mathematics teacher with a passion for the arts, having worked as a dresser in the theatre in the 1950s. He regularly visited the theatre and kept the programmes for all the plays, concerts, ballets and events he attended.

Original order- the programmes are ordered alphabetically by the name of the theatre where the shows were performed, and then within each file are arranged chronologically.

Open to researchers by appointment- please email archives@kingston.ac.uk. Appointments typically offered Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9am - 4.30pm. For more information on Kingston University Archives and Special Collections please see our website at http://blogs.kingston.ac.uk/asc

Also see our archives catalogue here

Some items in the collection can not be copied from due to their physical condition or copyright law. Please send all copying enquiries to the Archive at archives@kingston.ac.uk