Tuesday 16th October 2012, from 6pm
Windsor Building Auditorium
Royal Holloway
Egham, TW20 0EX

Royal Holloway, University of London invites you to the launch of the Roy Waters Theatre Collection. Drinks and nibbles will be served.

Acquired by the university in 2010, the catalogued collection will be available to external researchers from October 2012. The material, amassed over the course of forty years by Roy Waters (1928-2010), a former teacher and school inspector, provides a fascinating insight into theatrical entertainment through the interests of a private collector. With a particular emphasis on well known actors, actresses and dramatists, the collection vividly illustrates their careers via autograph letters, programmes, playbills, photographs, news cuttings, prints and artefacts, ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. Royal Holloway also holds Roy Waters’ personal papers, providing insight into the man behind the ephemera.

The material, eclectic and varied as it is, can be brought together to tell a compelling story about the relationship between theatre and the society in which it operates. Highlights include letters from Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens, a Samuel de Wilde painting of Stephen Kemble as Falstaff, and almost four hundred pieces of sheet music, including songs performed by the actress, singer and theatre manager, Madame Vestris.

At 6pm there will be presentations by Adele Allen (collection archivist), Gilli Bush Bailey (Royal Holloway Drama Department), and David Robinson (British film critic, author, and friend of Roy Waters).

An exhibition of original material from the collection will be displayed during the event.

Click here for more information, or call on 01784 443814, before 28th September 2012.