The Outsider: The Michel Saint-Denis Archive: A Theatre Archive Project of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The University of Sheffield, And the British Library‪.‬

The current primary focus of this five-year project is the partially-sorted postwar British Theatre Archive that is held at the British Library. Research development work is being undertaken on significant theatre collections (John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke, Michel Saint-Denis), a process that will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of British theatre between 1945 and 1968. This period represents theatre produced from the end of the Second World War to the abolition of censorship in 1968. The project's aim is to ask new questions about this crucial period of British theatre history. Although some material has been sorted and described, there is still a wealth of invaluable unsorted material that has yet to be seen by scholars. The project aims to create a complete, detailed catalogue of archive descriptions which will be accessible online. The first archive to have been sorted as part of this project is that of the French director, actor, producer and designer Michel Saint-Denis. Although he was highly regarded in the 1950s and 60s, Saint-Denis's contribution to contemporary performance has not received due recognition. Jane Baldwin remarks that 'more often than not [Saint-Denis] appears only as a passing reference in a theatrical biography or study of modern British theatre'. (1) Baldwin's monograph, together with the rich archival material, highlights the need for a reassessment of this theatrical polymath.