Ref No | MS 1611 |
Title | Banner Theatre of Actuality |
Date | 1973 - |
Level | Collection |
Description | Charles Parker was a leading figure within Banner Theatre until his death in 1980 and the records reflect this. Parker was both business manager and creative inspiration and his contribution is charted in almost all elements of the collection. Papers dating from Parker's time with the BBC and his collaboration with performers such as Dilip Hiro and Ewan MacColl are included, as are personal papers that refer to performance matters of various sorts. Banner Theatre's commitment to honouring the memory of Charles Parker is also reflected in this collection. The company played an active role in establishing the Charles Parker Archive Trust [see MS 4000].
A striking feature of the Banner Collection is its re-use of material at different points throughout the collection. This can be attributed to a number of factors: economy, Parker's contacts & performance output, the principle of actuality.
At a practical level, Banner Theatre has generally operated under severe budgetary constraints. This is reflected in the collection by the extensive re-use of paper with notes, scripts etc being writtten or typed onto the reverse of previously used paper [and the widespread use of scrap paper for notes etc]
At a creative level, Charles Parker provided a useful source of copy radio scripts as research material for Banner's productions. Scripts of the Radio Ballads and B.B.C. radio broadcasts produced by others appear in these records, as do transcripts of folk music and folklore recordings undertaken by Parker and others in the 1950s and 1960s.
A key principle of actuality as adopted by Banner is the maintenance of a 'library' of recorded material [whether audio, visual or written] that can be deployed across a range of productions wherever an 'authentic' insight or message is required. In keeping with this principle, a 'data bank' has been assembled of photographic stills, slides and video images, recordings of oral testimony, music and sound effects and written reference material [original research notes, newspaper cuttings and collected secondary sources] and material often appears in more than one production e.g. certain images and extracts of miners' oral testimony has been deployed in 'The Big Hewer' radio ballad and T.V. broadcast and the Banner productions of 'Collier Laddie' and 'Saltley Gate'.
The following arrangement of papers has therefore been adopted for this collection. For written resources, whether scripts & transcripts or research notes, the material is located wherever possible with the relevant production. Where material appears in two or more productions, it is left with associated records for those productions. This resultant duplication across the whole collection is accepted as a consequence of its particular nature and the background & operating ethos of the Theatre Company. However, duplication within individual components of the collection is minimised, with exact duplicates being removed wherever possible. Where paper records cannot be identified directly with particular productions, they are listed as a general research resource under MS 1611/F.
MS 1611/F is styled as 'Technologies of Memory' and this designation reflects both the practical and informational aspects of 'multi media' records. Whilst some audio and visual records can be associated with specific productions, the concept of a data bank [as demonstrated by the original archiving project of 1985 which generated a card index system based on name and subject] and the particular conservation needs of 'multi media' records has resulted in this separation of such records from the main run of productions.
As well as the main theatre company, Banner has also supported a singing group for many years and its records are reflected in the collection. Banner has also collaborated with a range of groups over the years, such as the Women's Group, Handsworth Youth Project and North Staffordshire Miners' Wives Group. Again, these records are relflected in the collection.
MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES OF BANNER THEATRE Joy Ashworth Performer [amateur group] Deborah Aston Stage Manager Jilah Bakhshayesh Musician, performer Jan Bessant Performer [amateur group], administrator Pam Bishop Tour organiser Larry Blewitt Photographer Paula Boulton Performer Don Bouzek Theatre director, Ground Zero, Canada Rhoma Bowdler Choreographer, director Stuart Brown Writer, administrator Dave Butler Administrator Josephine Cannon Stage Manager - 'Little Red Mole' Rocky Chessman Performer Jacqueline Contre Performer, administrator, Dave Dale Performer, musician 1984 - Miriam Dale Tour organiser, Administrator Charlie Davis Technician, sound engineer, video editor Bob Etheridge (d. 2008) Performer[amateur group], photographer Antonia Finch Administrator Gaelle Finlay Administrator Anna Ford Theatre director Ian Gasse Financial development worker, co-ordinator George Gordon Performer[amateur group] Kevin Hayes Performer [Song group], photographer Tim Hollins Performer [amateur group], management committee member Jazz Jackson Stage manager Aidan Jolly Musician, performer, audio-visual co-ordinator Cheryl Martin Playwright Tsepe Mukeba Performer, musician Bill Murphy Performer, tour co-ordinator Amani Naphtali Director [Redemption Song] Gaylan Nazhad Performer, musician Bernard O'Donnell Co-ordinator Marion Oughton Performer (amateur group), singer, management committee member, professional storyteller with a long association with Banner Theatre Charles Parker Founder member, performer Sophie Partington Performer Naomi Paul Performer [amateur group] Marion Pike Administrator Frances Rifkin Performer, director Maureen Russell Performer, management committee member Chris Rogers Founder member, performer, musician and song-writer Dave Rogers Founder member, performer, song-writer and artistic co-ordinator Vic Summerfield Performer [amateur group] Fiona Tait Archivist, Management committee member Bob Whiskens Performer Colin Whiskens Technical assistant for 'Redemption Song' tour Dean Whiskens Technical assistant Fred Wisdom Musician, performer John Wrench Musician, performer [amateur group] Peter Yates Musician, performer, photographer ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS CATALOGUE ACA Association of Community Arts ACGB Arts Council Great Britain ACTA Action for Southern Africa AEGIS Adult Education group in Barnsley [South Yorkshire] AES Adult Education Services AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union AFCA Association for Community Arts AFFOR All Faiths for One Race AMEC Turkish Political Party ASTMS Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs AUEW Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers AUEW TASS Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers [Technical Administrative and Supervisory Section] BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BL / BLMC British Leyland [Motor Corporation] BMI Birmingham and Midland Institute CABIN Campaign against Building Industry Nationalisation CARF Campaign against Racism and Fascism CBI Confederation of British Industry CCA Corby Community Arts CDP Community Development Project CD - ROM Compact disc - read only memory CET Council for Educational Technolgy for the United Kingdom CIS Counter Intellingence Services CJA Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 CND Camapign for Nuclear Disarmament COHSE Confederation of Health Service Employees COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions CPAG Child Poverty Action Group CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CRE Commission for Racial Equality CRIS Coventry Resource and Information Service CSEU Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions CTUC Commonwealth Trade Union Council DHSS Department of Health and Social Security DLO Direct Labour Organisation FBU Fire Brigades Union FEDC Federation of Engineering Design Companies GBAC Green Ban Action Committee GDR German Democratic Republic [East Germany] GLA Greater London Arts ICA Institute of Contemporary Art ICEC -Chile International Commission of Enquiry into the Crimes of the Military Junta in Chile ICPP Inner City Partnership Programme IMF International Monetary Fund IRA Irish Republican Army ISTC Iron and Steel Trades Confederation IWA Indian Workers' Association LRD Labour Research Department MAAS Minority Arts Advisory Service MAC Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham MEM Midland Electrical Manufacturing Co. Ltd MIR Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria [a Chilean revolutionary political party] MSC Manpower Services Commission NALGO National Association of Local Government Officers NCB National Coal Board NF National Front NPLA National Power Loading Agreement NTO National Tenants' Organisation NUM National Union of Mineworkers NUM-COSA NUM - Colliery Officials & Staff Association NUPE National Union of Public Employees NUT National Union of Teachers NUVB National Union of Vehicle Builders ODR Outdoor Relief Strike [Belfast] PCN Political Song News POP Post Office Preservation Campaign [Birmingham] PTA Prevention of Terrorism (Special Provisions) Act 1974 RAWP Resource Allocation Working party RCN Royal College of Nursing ROSAC Retention of Steelmaking at Corby RTI Research Training Initiatives SACU Society for Anglo - Chinese Unity SCARF Sandwell Campaign against Racism and Fascism SPAM Saltley Print and Media Workshop SWAPO South West Africa People's Organization TACT The Association of Community Theatres T & GWU Transport and General Workers Union TOM Troops Out Movement TUC Trades Union Congress TURC Trade Union Resource Centre (Birmingham) UCATT Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians UDA Ulster Defence Association UDM Union of Democratic Mineworkers UNISON Public Service Trades Union VDU Visual Display Unit WEMAS West Midlands Ethnic Minority Arts Service WMA West Midlands Arts WOW Women of the Waterfront YOP Youth Opportunity Programme YOTA The Year of the Artist 2000 - 2001 YTS Youth Training Schemes |
Extent | 8.59 |
Format | Cubic metres |
AccessStatus | Open |
AccessConditions | All accessions: NO COPYING of recorded material or artistic papers (e.g. scripts, songs, music) or images permitted without permission from Banner. Tape recordings and DVDs etc. from this accession cannot be served until surrogate playing copies have been made. See Depositor field for Contact details. |
AdminHistory | Banner Theatre of Actuality was formed in 1973 as a theatre group of the Grey Cock Folk Club, which had itself grown out of the Birmingham and Midland Folk Centre. Banner developed as a socialist theatre company. It was part of a movement of radical theatre companies that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Whilst Banner generally regarded itself as deriving from the Russian revolutionary tradition of agitprop [agitation and propaganda] theatre, it specialised in incorporating 'actuality' and music into its performances.
ACTUALITY Actuality is recorded interview material and sound effects, and Charles Parker, one of the founding members of Banner, was influential on the style of actuality employed. He was adamant that, 'the technology must be anchored in working class experience, which is where the folk revival, the ballad form and vernacular speech come in, to create a genuinely popular theatre.' [Parker 1974]. Charles Parker was a performance specialist, initally as a radio producer and later through live music and drama performances. As a B.B.C. radio producer in the 1950s, he embraced the then new technology of the portable tape recorder. This allowed him to incorporate vernacular speech and folk songs into radio programmes without the intervention of an announcer. Parker was made redundant from the B.B.C. in 1972 and used much of his redundancy package to purchase tape recorders and other equipment for Banner Theatre.
DEVELOPING A CONCEPT OF PERFORMANCE In collaboration with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker developed a series of 'Radio Ballads' from 1958 to 1964 [see MS 4000]. These placed working class voices at the heart of the performance and so avoided their experiences being mediated by B.B.C. narrators. Ewan MacColl's influence on Charles Parker was significant both for Parker's personal development and for the future development of Banner Theatre. MacColl had worked with Joan Littlewood from the 1930s, in the Workers' Theatre Movement and also with Archie Harding's experiments with B.B.C. radio documentary. They developed a montage technique both for radio programmes and theatre productions. Parker would later draw on these experiences. In the early 1960s he produced 'The Maker and the Tool', a series of four multi-media documentary pieces for the Centre 42 Festivals. Centre 42 had emerged as an organisation committed to spanning the gap between artsworkers and a potential working class public. Whilst it ultimately failed to maintain the support of the Trades Union Congress [TUC] and did not sufficiently engage with working class audiences, Centre 42 did indicate that working with grass roots trades unionists could prove more beneficial to artsworkers than working through union hierarchies. This lesson was adopted by Charles Parker and his 'Maker and the Tool' series bridged the gap between the 'Radio Ballads' and later experiments which culminated in Banner Theatre.
Another device that Parker incorporated into the Banner performing philosophy was the 'Festival of Fools', a satirical cabaret format used by MacColl and the Critics Group in the 1960s. This device was based on the notion of 'the world turned upside down' and permitted hard hitting points to be made in a humourous, mocking manner. Productions such as 'On the Brink' and 'Sweat Shop' utilised this device.
CREATIVE INFLUENCES Banner Theatre's first full show was 'Collier Laddie' [see MS 1611/B/1] and was regarded by Charles Parker as expressing, at least in embryo his ideas on proletarian culture. He asked Rhoma Bowdler to adapt it from the Radio Ballad 'The Big Hewer' in a manner that made it accessible to working people. Bowdler needed to work with the strengths of the available performers, which were musical rather than conventionally dramatic. The production established some basic elements which have since been incorporated in many other Banner productions; 'actuality' material, folk songs and slide projections.
One of the members of that first production was Dave Rogers, who has continued with Banner Theatre to the present day and can be regarded as providing, with Parker the major focus and drive for Banner. Indeed, Roger's influence on Banner over 30 years has provided both continuity with its founding aspirations and the impetus to adapt to new political and social challenges that have emerged during this period.
From the late 1970s, another major influence on Banner was Frances Rifkin, who was their first recruit from the emerging political theatre movement. She helped Banner to refine its theatrical style as witnessed by the production 'Steel', co-developed with Peter Yates [see MS 1611/B/16]. This used 'actuality' in a more conventionally 'theatrical' mode and employed techniques to convert actuality into dialogue, while still making use of monologue and direct audience address.
Aidan Jolly joined Banner as a musician in 1992 and led a new direction in the company's political and artistic strategies. 'Sweat Shop' was notable for the use of contemporary technology to weave 'soundscapes' where actuality recordings and amplified music were blended together. The production also marked a move away from the ethos of folk club performances with their emphasis on audience participation towards a more classical form of agitprop show, albeit with a range of contemporary sounds and styles.
Jazz Jackson provided stage management services for Banner's production 'In the Reign of Pig's Pudding' and he collaborated on 'Rock 'n' Roll Jordan', a joint project between Banner and Strange Fruit Theatre.
PERFORMING TO CAMPAIGN Banner's ethos has always been to use performances to campaign for change and its focus of campaigning has evolved in parallel with its creative advances. The subject matter considered has also reflected social, economic and political developments in the past thirty years.
Banner's origins as a performance element of the Grey Cock Folk Club imbued it with an affection for the intimacy of small scale activities. It undertook radical street theatre protests on local issues, such as 'Green Ban' and 'The Great Corbini' which were concerned respectively with the threatened demolition of Birmingham's Central Post Office and the proposed closure of Corby Steelworks. Such street theatre initially continued alongside full theatre productions but the demands of the latter eventually led to street theatre being abandoned.
By Banner's later standards, its first full production 'Collier Laddie' was not politically hard hitting [see MS 1611/B/1]. Whilst the performance did consider unemployment in the inter-war period and the dangers of pit life, there was an emphasis on comradeship and craft pride in the mining industry at the expense of critical analysis of the adverse circumstances remaining in that industry.
Similarly, 'Saltley Gate' was a celebration of working class solidarity [see MS 1611/B/9]. It was deployed to good effect as a morale booster during the prolonged industrial disputes of 'Grunwick' [1976 - 1978], the Miners' Strike [1984 - 1985] and the protests against pit closures [1992 -1993].
Originating as street theatre protest against works closures in Corby, 'Steel' was developed into a full theatre production from 'The Great Corbini' with relevance, not only to steelworkers but to all workers fighting against closures and redundancies [see MS 1611/B/16].
With 'Sweat Shop' [see MS 1611/B/28], Banner began to move away from single issue, geographically narrow subject matter. In story and song, 'Sweat Shop' looked at 250 years of struggle against low wages and inhuman working conditions across the world.
'Redemption Song' [MS 1611/B/31] used physical theatre, 'actuality' and music to link stories from African asylum seekers, the British Black experience and the Liverpool Dock Strike.
Banner has had a close but sometimes turbulent relationship with the trades union movement. Whilst receiving commissions from national union figures for works such as 'Put People First' [NALGO] and 'Black and White in the Red' [Fire Brigades Union], Banner has sometimes fallen out with union hierarchies over its support of grass roots movements, such as 'Steel' which supported rank and file strikers against the wishes of the ISTC leadership.
BANNER THEATRE AS AN ORGANISATION Whilst Banner Theatre is a creative theatre company that utilises performance to campaign for change, it also operates within the existing legal framework. It is a company limited by guarantee and also a charity as determined and supervised by the Charity Commission. All this generates a tension within the collection, between the production records that reflect the campaigning, often radical stance taken by performers and the administrative records that reflect the practical aspects of operating within the established legal and social order.
Banner Theatre has operated from a number of addresses over the years. Initially based at 30 Hartopp Road, Saltley it has since occupied premises at 117 Lozells Road; 173 Lozells Road; 44 Bradford Street, Deritend; All Saints Street, Hockley; 85 Grosvenor Road, Handsworth and the Friends' Meeting House, Moseley Road, Balsall Heath. It is currently [2007] based at the Oaklands Centre, Winleigh Road, Handsworth. The company's socialist and anti-racist stance has attracted negative comment and worse. The Lozells Road premises were fire-bombed in 1988.
A key element of Banner Theatre in its early years was a practical dependence on and a philosophical commitment to volunteer and amateur performers. Between 1974 and 1979, Banner operated as an amateur company. By 1980, sufficient grant aid had been secured to employ a paid core of 5 members and this allowed Banner to develop its community theatre approach. It retained its 'main' group as an amateur ensemble with a 'floating population' until the late 1980s. The resulting interaction between a professional core and amateur group enabled Banner Theatre to capitalise on the community art model where small numbers of paid professionals facilitated community groups with their own performances. From the early 1990s the company has operated as a professional organisation with paid company members. |
Arrangement | MS 1611/A Administrative records MS 1611/A/1 Minutes of meetings MS 1611/A/2 Financial records MS 1611/A/3 Correspondence; grant applications; booking forms MS 1611/A/4 Publicity material MS 1611/A/5 Reviews of performances MS 1611/A/6 Theatre unions and other companies MS 1611/A/7 Funding bodies, including grants MS 1611/B Banner Theatre Productions MS 1611/B/1 Collier Laddie, 1974 MS 1611/B/2 Shrewsbury 24, 1974 MS 1611/B/3 Race Show/The Great Scapegoat, c.1974 MS 1611/B/4 Sell Out of the Century, 1974 MS 1611/B/5 Fields of Vietnam, 1975 MS 1611/B/6 Christmas Choppers, 1975 MS 1611/B/7 Viva Chile!, 1974 MS 1611/B/8 The Great Divide, 1976 MS 1611/B/9 Saltley Gate, 1976 MS 1611/B/10 Green Ban/ General Post Office campaign, 1976 MS 1611/B/11 Acocks Green Project, 1977 MS 1611/B/12 Dr Healey’s Casebook, 1977 MS 1611/B/13 Housing Game and Direct Works show, 1979 MS 1611/B/14 Tenants’ show, 1981 MS 1611/B/15 People’s March for Jobs, 1981 MS 1611/B/16 Steel, 1981 MS 1611/B/17 Motor Trade/On the Brink, 1981 MS 1611/B/18 Unemployment show, 1982-83 MS 1611/B/19 Put People First, 1984 MS 1611/B/20 Miners’ Strike, 1984-85 MS 1611/B/21 Songs of Struggle, 1987 MS 1611/B/22 Liquid Assets, 1988 MS 1611/B/23 The Little Red Mole, 1988 MS 1611/B/24 In the Reign of Pig’s Pudding, 1989 MS 1611/B/25 Ewan MacColl, The Red Megaphone, 1990 MS 1611/B/26 Rock ‘n’ Roll Jordan, 1990 MS 1611/B/27 Nice Girls, 1990 MS 1611/B/28 The Green, Green Shoots of Recovery, 1995 MS 1611/B/29 Sweat Shop, 1994 MS 1611/B/30 Criminal Justice show, 1996 MS 1611/B/31 Redemption Song, 1997 MS 1611/B/32 Fortress Europe, c.1998 MS 1611/B/33 Come with me, c. 1998 MS 1611/B/34 Free for All, 1999 MS 1611/B/35 Reclaim the Future, 2000 MS 1611/B/36 Black and White in the Red, 2000 MS 1611/B/37 Wild Geese, 1999 MS 1611/B/38 Migrant Voices, 1999 MS 1611/B/39 Burning Issues, 2005 MS 1611/B/40 Strangers in Paradise Circus, 2007 MS 1611/C Handsworth Community Theatre Project MS 1611/D Women’s Group Projects: Womankind,1975, Women at Work, 1980, You've got no sense of humour,1981 MS 1611/E North Staffordshire Miners’ Wives Projects MS 1611/F Technologies of memory MS 1611/F/1 Audio tapes MS 1611/F/2 Video tapes MS 1611/F/3 Photographs and slides MS 1611/F/7 Printed books and papers for research, campaigning material etc. MS 1611/G Banner Song Group |
Related Material | 'Workers' Playtime; Theatre and the labour movement since 1970' Alan Filewood and David Watt 2001 Rogers, Dave 'Singing the Changes' (2005) Website: www.bannertheatre.co.uk See also Acc. 2020/011 Material deposited by the Charles Parker Trust which includes Banner Theatre scripts. |
Language | English |