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Kwame Kwei-Armah: Case Study “Without the past we have nothing to stand on – the present is not robust enough.” CREATING AN ARCHIVE Ideology Archives are central to Kwame Kwei-Armah’s practice as a student of history and a writer and actor who engages in political and social narrative. For Kwame, there is a strong connection between his artistic and archival practices, both play provocative roles but at the core of both is a vision of political and social action. Kwame has been collecting the scripts, plays and work of Black British playwrights. He has been drawing together a new archive which recognises the contribution of of Black British playwrights to British theatre. Staff at the National Theatre have been involved in supporting the programme. This has included providing access to their space (s), supporting the development of the infrastructure, financially and in the documentation of the archive, as well as considering how their own programme might pick up the work that is being uncovered. Process Ignited by his own experience, and growing with an increased awareness of the wider cultural landscape, Kwame recognised a prevailing lack of understanding of the theatrical and social traditions and heritage with which he was working. He compared his experiences in the UK with those in the USA and identified a stronger awareness, knowledge, and engagement with the work of African American writers than existed in the UK. On a visit to Broadway, at the New York performing arts library at the Lincoln centre, Kwame was able to engage with a diversity of plays without having to do so through the prism of a reviewer - access which was entirely lacking within the UK. In the UK, there was just one person to whom his work was compared Roy Williams - even though their content and social engagement differed considerably. Kwame saw this as being partly influenced by the lack of a black theatre canon and so set out to identify and draw together an archive. Kwame was appropriately connected so as to gather a black theatre archive. Whilst working with Radio 4, he had drawn together Michael Bhim - Alfred Fagon Award Winner who had worked with Soho Theatre and the Royal Court and whose first play ‘Pure Gold’ was commissioned by Talawa Theatre Company - and Michael Abbensetts a playwright who had written for the Royal Court Theatre and the BBC and is considered one of the foremost Black British writers. Abbensetts, in particular, related and talked about plays that Kwame was unfamiliar with, plays that went unrecorded and that lacked a documented presence and therefore lacked any wider engagement. When he began his journey, Kwame anticipated finding in the region of 100 plays, he discovered almost 4 times as many. To draw them together, he spoke to a cross section of individuals, to theatre directors, producers, writers, practitioners, venues, producing houses etc. He and his team also contacted a number of different institutions, including the British Library. The problem he encountered however was that over 95% hadn’t ever been published but likely lay, instead, in filing boxes, under beds or in attics – undocumented. That his overall hypothesis had been correct was evidenced by the experience of his project manager Similia Hodge Dallaway. Presenting their work at a seminar, she was told by one young director that whilst keen to direct a play by a Black writer, they were unable to find anything; Similia was able to present her with 375 potential plays. CONSIDERING ACCESS Healing On a personal level, Kwame sees the project as providing something in the way of healing generations who have been largely invisible. He recognises that he is in a privileged position but wishes to use this to play the part of a broker. Kwame believes that the programme offers Black communities a route into the National Theatre since there is now a foundation, an archived heritage; a canon which offers subsequent generations a more stable foundation, resting upon the shoulder of giants who were previously unknown. Inspiration The plan is for the work to be made widely accessible. All of the plays will be available on the internet. 10 minutes from each of the plays will be selected for audio recording. Then, 10 plays will be performed in full and filmed, with the recordings also accessible. This information will be held on a number of websites, (National Theatre, Sustained Theatre) as well as archived within physical spaces (Black Cultural Archives). The hope is that this body of work inspires new generations, provides a strong foundation for growth and development and instigates change within the UK’s cultural landscape. This belief is already reaping results; Radio 4 has now agreed to take on 3 or 4 of the programmes and shape a season of radio drama. Radio 4 is also considering how they will archive their own plays, recognising the importance of legacy. So further stories are now emerging – spinning out from a history that people previously knew nothing about.