‘Crossed Archives’ was the title of the first international conference organized in the framework of project ARTHE – Arquivar o Teatro (‘to archive the theatre’), led by CET – Centro de Estudos de Teatro (Centre for Theater Studies) and of which IHC / IN2PAST is a partner. The meeting took place this week, at Teatro Nacional de São João, Porto, on December 11 and 12^th, 2023.

Bringing together researchers and artists, from Chile to Brazil, from Italy to the United Kingdom, one of the main goals of the Conferência Internacional Arquivos Cruzados was to open a space for discussion about the circumstances of archiving as a practice, highlighting its fundamental role in the preservation and understanding of the performing arts.

Ana Bigotte Vieira, IHC / IN2PAST researcher and co-principal investigator of project ARTHE, was one of the moderators, as were Hélia Marçal and Paula Caspão, also affiliated with IHC. CESEM researcher Filipa Magalhães presented a communication titled ‘Archiving and reactivating Portuguese music theater’.

Starting from the analysis of two archives donated to CET / Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa – the archives of Teatro da Cornucópia, an essential company in the aesthetic and political renewal of theatre after the revolution of April 25^th, 1974, and those of Mário Barradas, the main promoter of theatrical decentralization –, ARTHE – Archiving the Theatre aims to identify, map and study the state of theatre archives in Portugal, in order to establish a good practice plan involving a network of institutions. The project is funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/ART-PER/1651/2021) and headed by CET researcher Maria João Brilhante.