There are a lot of practical reasons why keeping a record of your body of work is not just useful, but essential. Archival photos and videos can be useful support material for grants. They also can make or break your chances at staging your production at a curated festival, touring, or doing a remount. They can help grow your website and social media presence as you build a body of work.
But archiving is so much more than filming your production. You are legally required to keep certain documents for a determined length of time. Other things you might not need to keep but want to. Then there’s the physical stuff, big and small, that comes along with doing a show.
Your Archive is our history
Your history is our cumulative theatre history. Because live performance is ephemeral, we have a responsibility to record and share our stories and process in order to learn and grow as a community. There is a collective benefit to the sharing of resources, whether it be through public archives (such as libraries), published materials or collections, online platforms (like your company website and artistproducerresource.com), or educational facilities, nonprofits and institutions (such as Generator, university programs, workshops, and forums). The American Theatre Archive Project has an excellent manual outlining the benefits and considerations around public access. As you look through the list below, consider what information you want to make accessible to the public and how. Head to our resources page to see a list of places that archive performing arts.
We will mostly talk about what to keep here, but if you want to learn more about how to store what specifically, check out Storage.
You must keep:
Successful Grant Applications
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Future Reference, Record Retention. |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Hard copies of the received documents. |
| Why Share? | Artists can share successful grant applications with younger artists as a learning resource (one to one sharing, peer mentorship) |
Signed Contracts
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Future Reference, Record Retention |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
| Why Share? | Artists can share and compare contracts as a resource for learning and transparency (like our budget template, or during peer mentorship, workshops and forums) |
Invoices and Receipts
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Record Retention |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
Production Budgets, Box Office Reports, Annual Reports
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Record Retention. |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic. |
| Why Share? | Sharing budgets, B.O. Reports and annual reports helps us recognize trends and compare different models (see Why Not Theatre’s article on PWYCA in Intermission Magazine) |
Licenses and Permits
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Record Retention |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
Certificate of incorporation, other corporate documents
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Record Retention |
| How Long | Permanently (Forever) |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
Fundraising Records
| Why | Tax/Audit Purposes, Record Retention |
| How Long | Seven Years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
Human Resources Documents*
(employment applications, personnel files, accident reports, payroll records, employee benefits records, etc.)
| Why | Legal Purposes |
| How Long | At least 3 years |
| What Form | Paper or electronic |
* There are more specifics that go into record retention for registered non profits. This Article on Record Keeping Obligations for Non-Profit Organizations and Registered Charities provides a great overview.
Archival Video/Production Stills
| Why | Grant applications, Web content*, Applying for Festivals/Remounts or to Presenters, Promo for Touring |
| How Long | For as long as the material can be useful to you and/or the show has the possibility of touring/being produced again (at least 5 years is a good bet) |
| What Form | Electronic (cloud, external hard drive) |
* with permission from performers/CAEA
Script (Production Draft)
| Why | You should definitely keep a copy of the production draft (especially for original work). Even if you aren’t planning on doing the show again, you are a part of a community and our theatre history! Someone may want to do the production someday, or study it in school, or read it, or use a monologue from it. You don’t know! |
| How Long | Forever |
| What Form | Electronic (cloud, external hard drive) |
Awards and Accolades
| Why | Web Content, Visa Applications, Tours/Remounts, Biography |
| How Long | Forever |
| What Form | A spreadsheet with the hyperlinks and a description should be fine. As you build a body of work, you can add new sheets for each production. Store somewhere you can easily update (like Google Drive) so that it doesn’t become archaic and make adding to it part of your show post mortem a standard process. |
You should probably keep:
Cash Flow, Production/Rehearsal Schedules
| Why | Useful should you decide to do the show again, and/or to base future cash flows/schedules off of |
| How Long | Until touring/remounting the show is no longer a possibility for you, and/or until you make a better formatted cash flow or schedule spreadsheet |
| What Form | Electronic (cloud, external hard drive) |
Press/Publicity (reviews, interviews, previews)
| Why | Web content, promotional material for future productions/tours/remounts, applying for visas |
| How Long | Forever (the stuff that’s worth keeping) |
| What Form | A spreadsheet with the hyperlinks and a description should be fine. As you build a body of work, you can add new sheets for each production. Store somewhere you can easily update (like Google Drive) so that it doesn’t become archaic and make adding to it part of your show post mortem |
Marketing Materials (Program, Posters, Print Materials, Digital Content)
| Why | Very useful templates for touring/remounting. |
| How Long | Until touring/remounting the show is no longer a possibility for you |
| What Form | Electrionic (cloud, external hard drive) |
Promotional Photos/Video
| Why | Useful if touring/remounting the show (with the same cast) is a possibility for you, Web content, Support material for grant applications |
| How Long | Until touring/remounting the show is no longer a possibility for you and/or until the footage/quality/content stops working for you |
Sound Design/Audio Files*
| Why | Useful if touring/remounting the show (with the same cast) is a possibility for you* |
| How Long | Until touring/remounding the show is no longer a possibility for you |
| What Form | Electronic (cloud, external hard drive) |
* with the permission of your sound designer
Stage Management Book
The Stage Manager’s Book is a hard copy document of the production script which tracks all the cues/blocking/props throughout the show.
| Why | This hard copy should be kept if touring or remounting the show is a possibility for you. |
| How Long | Until remounting the show is not a possibility for you, and/or at least 5 years |
| What Form | Hard Copy |
You could keep:
Lighting Plots, Design Sketches/Models etc.*
| Why | Web Content*, Useful for transferring the show into a new space (lighting plot), Incorporating the original design into future productions (in lieu of keeping original set and costume pieces), Support material for grant applications |
| How Long | Up to you. |
| What Form | Physical or Electronic - depending on how much space you have and what you want to keep.** |
* with the permission of your set/lighting/costume designer
** Original models and sketches do take up physical space, so if you aren’t planning on keeping original sketches or designs, reach out to the designer to see if they would like to keep it for their own portfolio before tossing it out.
Set/Costume Pieces, Show Specific Technical Equipment
| Why | If touring or remounting the show is a possibility for you, keep it if it is irreplaceable or incredibly expensive to recreate. If you aren’t doing the show again, what use does this item have for you? This may be very personal, and should be weighed against the cost of storage |
| How Long | Until touring/remounting the show is no longer a possibility for you, and/or it’s up to you. |
| What Form | Physical Storage |
Non-Show Specific Technical Equipment
| Why | Weigh the cost of buying/renting the equipment again vs. having to storage/pay for/live with the equipment between productions. Are you steadily building a body of work and want to invest in having these items? When is the next time you are planning on using them? |
| How Long | Until it is no longer useful. |
| What Form | Physical Storage |
You do not need to keep:
- Ticket Stubs (unless it is your receipt)
- Hard Copies of Handbills, Posters, Programs, Old Scripts, Documents you already have stored electronically, etc.
- Set/costume pieces that are easily replaceable and relatively inexpensive
- Other people’s stuff post-production
More Resources
- CRA Keeping Records Article: Information from the CRA website on what are records and who has to keep them. Essential information for preparing and archiving your income tax.
- MaRS Article “Keeping and protecting employee records: The Ontario Employment Standards Act“: The Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA) outlines the employee information that organizations, including startups, must securely store as part of their employee record keeping. This article is designed to assist employers in understanding some of their obligations and rights under the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA) and its regulations.
- Mondaq Overview Of Record-Keeping Obligations For Non-Profit Organizations And Registered Charities in Canada: This article provides an overview of the record-keeping obligations for the following: federal not-for-profit corporations under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act; British Columbia societies under the new British Columbia Societies Act; and non-profit organizations and registered charities under the Income Tax Act.
- American Theatre Archive Project’s “PRESERVING THEATRICAL LEGACY: An Archiving Manual for Theatre Companies”: This manual provides basic information about establishing and maintaining your theatre’s archives. As your company works through the process of assessing, surveying, appraising, storing, preserving, arranging, describing, and making accessible its legacy documents, ATAP archivists and documentarians are available to answer questions and recommend solutions to issues as they arise. The entire manual is available as a PDF download. Sections to check out include A Sample Retention Policy and Schedule and
- Making Archives Accessible/Public Use
- Scannable is an app for your smartphone that transforms pictures of documents into high-quality scans ready to save or share by email/message/airdrop. Incredibly helpful for tracking those receipts or keeping clean records without a home printer/scanner.