NT : Archive : Archive Collection : Prompt Scripts (Bibles)

Prompt Scripts (Bibles)

At the end of a production the Stage Management team for that particular show create a "Bible". This is a prompt script containing calls, cues, blocking and indeed any information required to restage the production. These scripts will therefore often contain additional information such as prop lists, furniture and prop settings, costume lists, truck and flying plots, lighting and sound plots, and ground plans. The notations in the script are usually made by the Deputy Stage Manager and this job is called being 'on the book'. These "bibles" are deposited in the Archive on completion.

The NT collection runs to over 800 prompt scripts, we receive these in lever arch files and repackage them in robust acid-free enclosures.

Image of a page from Tony Harrison's script for the Oresteia

Tony Harrison's annotated copy of The Oresteia

First night telegrams

Image of First night telegram from John Lennon

Telegram from John Lennon
The play In His Own Write by John Lennon, Adrienne Kennedy and Victor Spinetti and directed by Victor Spinetti was performed at the Old Vic in 1968 as part of a triple bill with The Covent Garden Tragedy by Henry Fielding and A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion by John Maddison Morton.

Image of Tanya Moiseiwitsch First Night telegram

A telegram sent by Tanya Moiseiwitsch (designer) to the cast and crew on the opening night of Phaedra Brittanica in the Old Vic. The card incorporates a 19th century photograph of the Old Vic.