The theme of the upcoming workshop “Archiving theatre”, hosted by the FU Berlin, will highlight critical approaches to theatre and performance research and the archive. We depart from the observation that archiving, i.e. collecting, ordering, accessing etc., involves a plethora of historical practices which produce or affirm a specific concept or idea of theatre. Thus, this meeting sets out to contest ontologies of the archive as well as ontologies of theatre and performance. By examining the various historiographical issues arising from archiving theatre and performance, the working group’s interim spring meeting will enable discussion of the impact of archiving on that which life has left behind—the debt and debris of theatre history – as well as on how what remains defines the archive. The working group welcomes papers dealing with any possible period or topic in theatre history and historiography that discuss archival practices, methodological issues concerning the archive, as well as discussions of theatrical manifestations that respond to the archive, as a cultural, social and political institution, and an act of collecting and preserving vestiges.