The relaunch of the Capitol Theatre has created a great chance for us to dive into the history of the iconic theatre and the stories of the people affected by it.

One of my ideas for the oral history project is to compare the theatres original use and purpose in the 1920’s to its purpose nowadays. I think we will find big differences here. From the original theatre that included a lounge just for men to drink whiskey and smoke cigars, to the open, inclusive environment it is going to be when relaunched. By doing a comparison, we can tell a lot about the society and how it has evolved. Practically, this would be done by interviewing different people, who in some ways has a knowledge about this. It could be a historic expert, a person who has visited or worked the theatre in ‘the olden days’ or some of the people in charge of the relaunch.

By using interviews, we can learn more about the Capitol Theatre through oral history. Oral history can be both small and big stories, but something very important, I think, is that it is told by an individual, who is telling their version of the story. Even though oral history should probably be about factual events, it does not have to be objective. By people telling their subjective story, we can get a more complex look into history.

Our visit to Screenworld taught me that there are a lot of different and creative ways to present history to an audience – something I will try get inspired by especially when creating material for the launch. When visiting the Capitol Theatre I was particularly interested in the architecture and the different spaces of the theatre and their respective purposes – and how it has changed.