Stories

Peter Cheeseman is on the search for funding to digitise, catalogue and conserve 36 years of local history. The Victoria Theatre Collection is currently housed at Staffordshire University. And whilst the majority of the collection is inaccessible, with sizable funding the materials could be properly archived and digital copies made. This would mean that people could access the materials for interest and study both locally and all over the world.

Cheeseman has already approached various bodies for funding but so far has been unsuccessful. However, he’s keen to keep looking to make sure that Stoke-on-Trent maintains its place on the international theatre map.   

The Victoria Theatre Collection

The New Vic, formally the Victoria Theatre, Hartshill, was co-founded by Cheeseman and Stephen Joseph in 1962 and helped to launch the careers of esteemed actors such as Robert Powell, Ben Kingsley and Bob Hoskins. Spanning four decades until Cheeseman’s retirement in 1998, The Vic Collection contains a vast range of multi-media material representing almost every aspect imaginable of theatre life including performance tapes, scripts, programmes and cast correspondence files. 

It covers hundreds of productions from Shakespeare to original plays written by talented resident playwrights such as Alan Ayckbourn and holds some unique local treasures. Among the most famous are the world-renowned community-focused musical documentaries such as the ‘Fight for Shelton Bar’ and ‘The Jolly Potters’.

Just imagine being able to download these historic pieces and reliving local history, not to mention how valuable they are to theatre professionals and students looking at documentary theatre.

What's happening now?

Whilst applying for larger bids, a small pot of money has been made available by Stafforshire University so that Cheeseman can produce a number of ‘educational packs’ on DVD containing carefully chosen pieces of material from the Collection.