Performing arts | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Performing arts

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To the left of the image the illustrated film poster shows girls in flowing white dresses in front of a large rock formation. The right side of the image features the film title and credits and a drawing of a large house.

M.A.P.S. Lithography (1967–2009), Picnic at Hanging Rock 1975, National Film and Sound Archive, 1369712

Picnic at the Library

Learn about our rich collections related to the Picnic at Hanging Rock film and to Joan Lindsay's 1967 book of the same name.

Blog
Collection guide
Pinne Collection

2780 music scores for songs and vocal and piano selections from American, British and Australian musicals, music theatre, films and television shows produced from about 1920 to 1990.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Portuguese and Brazilian Drama Collection

2121 books, pamphlets, programs, periodicals and plays published between 1755 and 1972. 

Collection guide
Photographs spread on a table, of a woman throughout her career in ballet, including photos of her dancing and portraits

Photographs of Laurel Martyn throughout her career from Papers of Laurel Martyn, 1901-1988, nla.cat-vn307525

Re-writing Australian ballet history

See how Yvette Grant used the Library’s collections to revive the memory of four women in the story of Australian ballet.

Blog
A drawing of a man and a woman dancing. The title of the song is 'Kangaroo Hop'.

Melville Morris & Gus Kahn, Kangaroo hop song, 1916, nla.obj-175841153

Rights and the Music Collection

A summary of copyright and rights in the Music Collection.

Information article
Collection guide
Rummery Collection

40 recordings of folk music, folklore and reminiscences from people in rural New South Wales recorded from 1983 to 1988.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Schuster Collection

Recordings of folk songs and dance music from Queensland and also stories, legends and recollections of customs and immigrant settlement, particularly German and Scandinavian in rural Queensland.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Scott Collection

Recordings of folk music, dance music, folklore and oral history from New South Wales and Queensland recorded during the period 1955 to 1990.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Sculthorpe Collection

Personal papers, manuscript scores, literary manuscripts, sound recordings and family photographs of Peter Sculthorpe, plus videos of films for which he wrote the music and television interviews.

Collection guide
Old book open to page reading 'As You Like It: A comedy'

Nicholas Rowe (editor), The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, 6 volumes, volume 2, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1709–1710, David Nichol Smith Collection, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1355760

Shakespeare in the Library’s rare books collections

Celebrate William Shakespeare's birthday with Shakespearean gems from the National Library's rare books collections.

Blog
event-image-shakespeare2-2025

A. de Paszthory, Portrait of Nellie Stewart as Rosalind in As You Like It, oil on canvas, 1904, https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3022148; Broadside advertising George Musgrove’s As You Like It, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, Melbourne: Troedel, 1903, https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn107848

Shakespeare on the move: Gold rush to Great War

We held the third illustrated Shakespeare lecture and discovered the objects and stories that reveal how Shakespeare made landfall in Australia.  

Event
Video
To the Reader Shakespeare

Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612, (detail), nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2403507

Shakespeare the Reader: An Illustrated Lecture with ANU and Bell Shakespeare

See Dr Kate Flaherty and actors from Bell Shakespeare explore the link between the books that inspired Shakespeare and Shakespeare's own work.

Event
Video

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