Tag Archives: Templeman Library

Invitation to Exhibition Launch, Templeman Library, Canterbury, Monday 7th April, 6pm

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Posted by Sarah

The following has very kindly been forwarded by Melodrama Research Group member Jane Gallagher.

 

The students of DR575 Victorian and Edwardian Theatre would like to invite you to an exhibition of their work, opening in the Templeman Exhibition Gallery (Ground Floor, Cartoon Archive) at 6pm on Monday 7th April 2014.

The official invitation from the students (see below), contains further details about their work, including some hints about the melodramatic theme which some of them are taking on!

Invitation altered version

The exhibition is a visual tour through the theatre of the Victorian and Edwardian era, based around the primary sources that are only available in Special Collections. This is the second time which this student exhibition has taken pride of place in the Templeman Gallery and we would like you to join our celebrations to mark their success.

This is an innovative form of assessment which has combined primary source work with more detailed secondary research and is going to be an excellent example of Drama students’ work.

 You are warmly invited to the launch event 6pm on Monday 7th April 2014 where you can enjoy meeting the students, hearing a short presentation, and sampling some light refreshments!

We very much hope that you can attend and your presence will be very much appreciated.

Yours,

Jane Gallagher on behalf of the Students of DR575: Victorian and Edwardian Theatre

Many thanks for the email, and the invitation Jane. I’m sure we’ll all hope to attend this exciting event.

Variety Ultimate Subscription Now Available for Kent Users

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Posted by Sarah

There is some very exciting news about a new resource available for those of us who have a University of Kent login. The Templeman Library now has access to Variety Ultimate. This means that most issues of the American trade journal (from 1905-the present) can now be searched and accessed. This is excellent news for research at Kent generally, and, of course, melodrama.

The link: http://chain.kent.ac.uk/login?url=http://www.varietyultimate.com/

I have had a very quick look in terms of film melodrama and found this very early review by ‘Jolo’ of the film The Big Sister on 15th of September 1916, p 26: http://www.varietyultimate.com.chain.kent.ac.uk/archive/issue/WV-09-15-1916-26

big sister

The film was directed by John B O’Brien and starred Mae Murray.’Jolo’ opined that the film ‘is melodrama without any attempt at concealment’. The mention of concealment is interesting in two ways. Firstly it indicates the reviewer’s, and the general, rather negative view of melodrama by suggesting that other melodramas might try to appear to be something else. But also, as we have seen, concealment is often a key theme of melodrama.

There will be many, many more exciting nuggets relating to melodrama, so do take a look. And do also share your findings by emailing me on sp458@kent.ac.uk. I can then post them to the blog for us all to enjoy!