Reperforming memories: Using the reminiscence theatre archive as a resource for new intergenerational work

In 2012 the University of Greenwich acquired the reminiscence theatre archive of Pam Schweitzer, founder and former Artistic Director of Age Exchange Theatre Company. This article is an account of our first performance project using the archive in collaboration with student volunteers and Schweitzer herself, to explore the possibilities for activating the archive materials through reperformance. Through a process of devising new plays from the archived transcripts of elderly people’s memories, and then performing them in local Sheltered Housing units, the project was designed to enable an assessment of what ongoing benefits the archive might bring to the teaching, research, student experience and community engagement activities of the drama programme. The project has offered indications as to how Schweitzer’s well-known reminiscence theatre methods can be adapted for working with archived materials; and the research findings suggest some of the challenges and possible new directions that might be taken, in the continued reuse of the Reminiscence Theatre Archive.