| Ref No | MEL/PLA |
| Collection | Melville Theatre Collection |
| Title | Material relating to plays |
| Name of creator | Melville, Andrew III, 1912-1988, actor |
| Date | c1843-1946 |
| Extent | c1500 items |
| Description | This section includes advertisements, agreements, assignments, flyers, indentures, letters, licences, lists of plays, parliamentary acts, play texts, posters, press cuttings, programmes, receipts, reports and telegrams. There are also three large scrapbooks, two of which contain material relating specifically to Melville productions and one containing publicity material for various theatrical events. The licences are arranged in chronological order.Also included in this section are a series of pictures mainly taken from The Sketch concerned with pantomimes in London and the Provinces. These show cast members and also details about the pantomime genre. |
| Notes | The Melvilles were actors and theatre managers. They were involved in the assignment of plays from authors such as Christopher Hazlewood and from theatrical agents such as Harry Wall. The brothers Frederick and Walter Melville wrote their own plays, most notably the ‘Bad Women’ dramas. As part of the production of plays at theatres which the Melvilles managed, they were also involved in the production of publicity material, such as programmes, posters and advertisements. |
| The 'Bad Woman Dramas' and the other manuscript and typescript texts are in LibrarySearch (http://librarysearch.kent.ac.uk) |
| Associated Person | Wall, Harry, dramatic and musical agent |
| Hazlewood, Colin Henry, 1823-1875 |
| Lord Chamberlain, licensor of plays |
| Melville, George, 1824-1898, actor and theatre proprieter (real name George Robbins) |
| Melville, Andrew, 1853-1896, actor (real name Andrew Robbins) |
| Access conditions | This material is available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU (specialcollections@kent.ac.uk). |
| Copyright | Material within the archive may remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Special Collections & Archives staff will assist where possible in helping trace copyright holders, but it is ultimately the responsibility of users to obtain the permission of the copyright holder for reproduction of copyright material for uses other than research or private study. |
| Level | Series |