5 decades of theatre + opera programmes - what to do…

[SooooManyTheatreProgrammes]

My closest friend has died. For over 5 decades she would go to the theatre, concerts, opera, ballet three or four times a week - and bought a programme almost every time. There must be thousands of them!

An entire room full of shelves and boxes filled with programmes. Virtually every square foot of floor space filled with piles of programmes…

Is there an organisation or specialist shop that might be interested in having them? The ones suggested by Google seem to be only interested in vintage programmes or those that may be of special interest or significance. Neither I nor her family have time to sort through them - how can we dispose of them responsibly as a job lot?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

EBay

How wonderful! I hope you can find somewhere that can take them

(Sorry, forgot to say, I am so sorry for your loss. It just sounds like she led a very wonderful life )

Sorry about your friend.

Just put the job lot on EBay with a few notable ones featured, and rough categorisation (Opera 1970 -2000, 50 programmes) as far as is possible without too much work.
An enthusiast can put the hours in.

And reflect on the number of happy hours she enjoyed watching the shows.

Oh wow! No advice but that’s hard! I think if you end up dumping them don’t feel bad, your friend took joy from attending the events and collecting the programmes.

You could try offering them to the relevant theatre archives. For example if there are lots of national theatre productions you could try the national theatre archives. Appreciate this is time consuming!

Wonder if a library would be interested? Either public or possibly a university which has theatre courses?

If you can sort by venue and a lot are from one or two, the venue might be interested.

My mother had a lot from her local theatre and they were interested and took them.

I had this issue when my uncle died. I ended up selling a few on eBay but it was very time consuming photographing and captioning them - and they only sold if they were really cheap.
I couldn’t find anyone who would take the rest off my hands so after a year with four big boxes blocking my dining room floor I’m afraid I threw them away. There was some really interesting stuff in there and I still feel bad about it.

What an absolutely fabulous resource.

It would be a dreadful shame for the collection to be broken up. I don’t have an immediate suggestion beyond those already made - but I’m pretty sure they would be valuable to the right researcher / institute.

A theatre archive might be interested, but TBH they will probably bin 90% of it and just keep some examples.

Your local county council archive may find this useful, or any of the local am dram societies or theatre companies featured in the programs.

Thank you all for the various suggestions which I plan to explore.

It’s really sad because she didn’t really look at most of the programmes. The plan was that she would look at them once she got too old to go out and see performances IRL.

Just a couple of months ago we saw High Society at the Barbican. It’s hard to envisage how quickly this can happen.

Auction house specialising in books, prints etc. People collect this stuff.

An easy way to offer to someone who is genuinely interested is to put some/all on gumtree or freecycle for free. I'd keep a few from each decade and a few I attended with the friend then try and rehome everything else.

Ask the theatre archive at the University of Bristol for advice. They might not be able to take them but could tell you somewhere that might. Just remember it’s not always possible to find homes for this sort of thing.

We had this when my great aunt died. She had every programme from every show the local operatic society had performed over about 50 years (plus programmes from so many professional shows). We asked everywhere, including the operatic society itself and members we knew and no one wanted them. They were sadly all binned in the end. My Dad recently died and had years of rugby programmes and I did manage to sell a large pile for about £10 on vinted but it felt they should be “worth” more.

Just a couple of months ago we saw High Society at the Barbican. It’s hard to envisage how quickly this can happen.

I did too, fantastic production. So sorry for the loss of your friend, but it sounded as though she was able to enjoy what she was passionate about right up until the end.
Googling ‘Specialist Theatre Programme Collectors’ came up with what might be some useful contacts. There’s a dealer in theatre programmes listed, for example.

I’m very sorry for the loss of your friend. It sounds like she had a lot of fun at these outings.

I would caution against trying to donate the collection to a library. We get offered things like this all the time and kindly, what is an important collection to an individual is seldom of wider use. Libraries are pressed for space and will have strict collection policies. Even if they did take them they are likely to be disposed of not long after.

I agree with PP that you should try and sell them or maybe put them up at an auction. You might not get a great deal of money for them but they are more likely to go to someone who truly appreciates them which I hope would make your friend happy.

Does your local theatre have a 'Friends of...' type of society/association?

My father contacted his local theatre to ask if they wanted his (hundreds and hundreds) of programmes and they passed him on to their volunteer archive group who snapped them up, even the ones that weren't for their productions.