Performing arts | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Performing arts

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Paolo Giorza's 1879 Exhibition album for piano.

Paolo Giorza's 1879 Exhibition album for piano, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-165951572

Music

Our Music collection contains over 300,000 musical scores and the largest collection of music research resources in Australia.

Information article
Text in a retro font reading '1975 Living in the Seventies' on a bright orange background
1975: Living in the Seventies

Look back on life in the 70s including politics, feminism, pop culture, news of the day, and more.

Exhibition
A painting of two stockman riding horses and holding whips high in the air, capturing a bull

The Queenslander, ‘Cutting Out’ A Fat Beast, from Notes on Queensland, April 1894. Colour digital version by Warren Fahey.

Echoes of the long paddock: A folksong celebration

This special concert performance salutes our 70th anniversary as custodian of Australia's folksong heritage and oral history.

Event
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
An audience watching a performance in a theatre with a focused expression
A deep dive into 'Julius Caesar'

Join Dr Kate Flaherty and Bell Shakespeare for a special lecture about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, diving into the play and its history, unpacking what it tells us about our past, present and future.

Event
A stack of old papers and reports spread over a desk.

Annual reports from the Adelaide Repertory Theatre collections. 

Community Heritage Grant: Adelaide Repertory Theatre

Learn about the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, recipient of a 2025 Community Heritage Grant.

Blog
Multiple photographs, including portraits of Jim Sharman and portrait of Magenta from Rocky Horror Picture Show pasted onto a single page in a visual diary

Visual Diary 5 - Photo Portraits in Papers of Jim Sharman, c.1970s, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3652108145

“It’s Astounding”: The Legacy of Frank van Straten AM

With a generous bequest from Frank van Straten AM, the Library has brought Jim Sharman’s visual diaries and an original Rocky Horror Picture Show script online for the 50th anniversary of the film’s release.

News article
visual diary spread with 12 personal photographs showing Tim Curry and Richard O'Brien

Personal photographs in Visual diary 5 - Photo portraits, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3674887841 

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey: explore the papers of Jim Sharman

Enter the time warp and explore the Rocky Horror Picture Show script and Jim Sharman’s visual diaries, now on Trove.

Blog
A portion of the cover of The Rocky Horror Picture Show film script featuring a graphic of a blonde woman's face. The woman is crying.

Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien, Cover page of the original script of The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie, 1973-1975, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn4579845

Time won’t warp this paper: National Library digitises original film script for The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jim Sharman’s visual diaries

A selection of iconic Australian director and writer, Jim Sharman's, papers are now available online via Trove.

Media release
A selection of black and white and colour images displayed in a scrapbook
Jim Sharman in conversation with Hannah de Feyter

The film and theatre legend Jim Sharman – the renowned director of more than 70 productions including The Rocky Horror Picture Show – reflected on his incredible career, his legacy and the future of the arts.

Event
Video
Collection guide
Ingram Collection

Photographs, programs, cast lists, souvenir booklets, invitations and ephemera relating to Australian ballet, plus personal papers of Geoffrey Ingram and Edouard and Xenia Borovansky.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Italian Drama Collection

1,011 plays and libretti published in Italy between about 1,720 and 1,900 including a number of Italian translations of plays written by French, German and other European dramatists.

Collection guide

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