For twenty one years, Talawa has kept detailed records of every production that it has mounted. It has also completed a number of projects aimed at documenting Black Theatre and its achievements, including a series of taped interviews with pioneers of Black British theatre called Blackstage, an oral history of Black Theatre in Britain. Yvonne Brewster, Talawa's founder and Artistic Director, was at a cultural festival in Ghana in 1994 when she heard that Norman Beaton, star of Desmond's and one of Britain's most accomplished black actors, had died. She was hit not only by a sense of personal loss, but by a sense that history was slipping away.

"It made me realise that we had no record of what he'd done," she says. "If you go into the archives you have nothing. That night I thought, 'We've got to do something about this'. And that's when I actually drafted the little proposal to the Arts Council."

The result is Blackgrounds and Blackstage, two oral histories of black theatre in Britain. Blackgrounds (recorded in 1997 and supported by Arts Council England) and Blackstage (recorded in 2002 and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund) consist of 16 videotaped interviews with the pioneers of black British theatre-from the first black student of RADA to the man who started Britain's first funded black theatre company.

Until now, this collection of recordings, and all Talawa show materials, have been housed in Talawa's offices. Students and theatre practitioners involved in research or project development have been allowed access to it and as far as possible, care has been taken to maintain the collection intact. We are aware however, of how valuable a resource this archive is and of the need for it to be properly housed and curated.

In 2006, Talawa initiated discussions with Dr. Alda Terracciano of Future Histories to archive the Talawa collection. The initial agreement was that Talawa would provide Future Histories with the funding to prepare a grant application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to cover the cost of archiving what is the most extensive collection of Black theatre memorabilia within the Sector.

It is expected that if this bid is successful, the Talawa's archive will be taken into the care of the Victoria and Albert Museum at Blythe House under the auspices of the Theatre Museum Department in early 2007, and that an online exhibition of Talawa's work will be created and launched in October 2009. All Talawa's records will then be in the public domain and available for research, curated by the V & A. A member of Talawa's staff will also be trained in curating techniques to handle the material generated by future productions.