The National Library of Australia’s latest exhibition, On Stage, is a celebration of Australia’s love of the performing arts.

It features cultural treasures, vibrant characters and milestone moments from Australia’s performing arts history from the 1790s to the present day.

Showcasing more than 180 objects, this free exhibition brings together highlights from the National Library’s vast performing arts collections.

On Stage curator, Dr Susannah Helman, told Canberra Daily the National Library’s extensive performing arts collections reflects “how much Australians love live performance”.

“Australians have loved going to performing arts of all different kinds for decades and centuries,” she said.

“As a big fan of live performance of all kinds, I thought I knew the history of Australia’s performing arts, but our collections have opened my eyes to the cultural lives Australians of the past could have known,” she said.

Starting work on the exhibition “a couple of years ago”, the process saw Helman exhaustively survey the National Library’s performing arts collection.

It was a highly collaborative project that involved talking to colleagues, reading, and researching extensively, and a lot of looking: “opening drawers, and going with the happy accident kind of thing; you never know what you might find”.

“It’s a little overwhelming because we have such a rich collection, and it’s hard to make decisions because you can only fit a certain number of items into a space,” she said.

“It’s always a balance, it’s a jigsaw puzzle. It’s just picking out some of the interesting and fascinating stories, and bringing them out of the stacks, and putting them together into a narrative.

“It’s been great fun to explore our collections and bring them out.”

Having begun work on the exhibition prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, On Stage is particularly timely and relevant given the devastating effects pandemic restrictions have wreaked on Australia’s performing arts sector.

“It’s clear from the collections that Australians have long loved performing arts, and I think we have a rich history as well to look back on and look forward to better days ahead,” Helman said.

The exhibition is laid out chronologically, starting with Australia’s earliest surviving document printed in the country, a playbill for a convict-led production at a Sydney theatre in 1796.

The entirety of the 20th century is well represented, with rooms documenting the turn of the century, WWII-era, retro 1970s style and design, and more contemporary photographs and posters from the likes of Bangarra, AC/DC, Big Day Out festival, and The Hilltop Hoods.

Helman said On Stage brings together a diverse range of stories, making a point of balancing items of great significance alongside others where there’s a lot more than meets the eye.

“There are some items that might be a little plain at first, but when you look into them you can find the gold,” she said.

“They show some very interesting details about Australia’s performing arts history, and particularly the passion and activity that has been happening in that sphere.”

Props like maquettes used by Jørn Utzon as he designed the Sydney Opera House sit beside printed salary books full of annotations, and a record book of acts than ran at Sydney’s Tivoli Theatre in 1914.

“It’s full of richness, because it basically shows you all of the performers,” Helman said, “you’ve got a comedian, you’ve got dancers, acrobats, gymnasts, contortionists.

“I find it really evocative to see that detail.”

On Stage: Spotlight on Our Performing Arts is open at the National Library of Australia until Sunday 7 August; nla.gov.au

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