The database of the Scenography Collection and Documentation of the ATI is now on-line

The Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI) in Prague has posting another portion of digitised materials from its collection of documents. Having already provided access to more than 140,000 images of theatre performances in the theatre photography database (http://db.divadelni-ustav.cz/photographs.aspx) as part of the Theatre Institute’s Virtual Research Room last year, there are now almost 15,000 stage and costume designs by 337 artists that can be accessed at http://db.divadelni-ustav.cz/scenography.aspx.

The materials published online come from the scenography collection of the Theatre Institute founded in 2006, which today has almost 2,000 original stage and costume designs and models, and from the collection of scenographic documentation, which has been systematically put together over the course of the existence of the Theatre Institute

Along with publishing the scenography collection online, the ATI has widened the scope of the database on theatre productions, which is available at http://db.divadelni-ustav.cz/inscenace.aspx. In addition to information about the theatre productions themselves (the authors, stagers, cast, date and location of the premiere, etc.) it is now also possible to obtain information on whether there is a copy of the production in the ATI’s videotheque, whether there exists a bibliographic entry or photograph of the production and even whether there are any stage and costume designs from the production.

The database of productions contains complete information on approximately 38,500 productions that are available in the Information and Documentation Department of the ATI for seasons from 1945 to 2007/8. Exceptions are the Krušná Hora Theatre inTepliceand Těšín Theatre in Český Těšín. These theatres are processed in full for the seasons from 1963/4 to 2007/8. The database is continuously updated and data are being entered for the period from 1945 to 1963/4.

The ATI will continue to expand electronic access to its database sources with access to the database of theatre events – festivals, the hosting of foreign companies and tours of Czech companies abroad.

The Virtual Research Room – a database centre of the Theatre Institute accessible online at http://db.divadelni-ustav.cz  or through the Theatre information portal at http://www.theatre.cz.