Best before...? The Dutch theatre sound archive between shelf-life and "functional memory"

This article examines the institutionalization of phonic theatre memories at the example of the historical Dutch theatre sound archive, founded in 1965 and at the time known under the name «Theater Klank en Beeld». After decades of collecting and archiving, the collection was rendered dysfunctional, long before the dissolution of the theatre museum it pertained to. Under the metaphor of limited shelf-life the memory-related paradoxes seemingly implicit to theatre sound archiving are considered in regards to their temporal and institutional organization. In order to theorize the archiving and re-use of theatre sound documents, particular acts of «shelving» and reuse will be considered against the background of memory theories.