November 28, 2025, by Nicholas Blake
Nottingham Theatre Archives Revealed
A selection of material in the Footprints Theatre Trust archive (MS 1049), which is currently being catalogued.
Manuscripts and Special Collections was recently granted Archives Revealed funding from The National Archives to catalogue and make accessible the archives of two theatre companies who both made an impact on children and communities in the Nottingham region and beyond.
Nottingham Youth Theatre was established in 1988 and based at the College Street Arts Centre in Nottingham. They were dedicated – alongside the NYT Inclusive Company – to providing young people, including those with disabilities, with a creative platform to express themselves through the performing arts. Their archive was recently transferred to MSC, and includes tapes and DVDs of theatre performances, photographs, posters, and programmes relating to their productions and activities.
Footprints Theatre Trust were a Christian theatre company founded in 1978. After a few years of touring the country while effectively living out of a bus, they were invited to make a home base at St Nicholas Church, Nottingham. Their plays and sketches were performed in churches, festivals, schools, and prisons, covering topics of faith, community, sexuality, truancy, and civic responsibility. In later years they concentrated on classroom stories for Key Stages 1 and 2, supporting schools’ curriculum needs.
Cataloguing on the collections is expected to last until next summer, after which the archives will be used for research and teaching, community workshops, and as part of a dedicated theatre exhibition at Lakeside Arts.
For more information about the project please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.
This project is made possible through the Archives Revealed funding partnership, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.
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