The focus is on pre-21st-century theatre, film, media and performance

The focus of the ESAT project has from the start been the entire history and practice of South African theatre, film, media and performance, and all the people, systems, activities and institutions involved therein. However, that history is not an inert or unchanging one, since the processes of making theatre and performance in all its many forms continues daily and will do so in future. Fortunately most activities are today recorded on the internet and are thus accessible to researchers. Not so for the photo- and print-based documentation processes of previous centuries (to a large extent archival and library material from the 15th to 20th centuries, often including descriptions of, research on and speculation about earlier performance traditions, forms and activities).

So, while the intention is to document it all, the initial aim has inevitably been to make such written, printed and other material available online, so our major attention has been on available publications and recorded performances Our argument so far has been that there are so many online sources available to researchers today, sources that cover productions and activities of the 21st century in particular, that we should reall

However,