The National Video Archive of Performance is a film and video archive in London, England which holds recordings of stage performances.

In 1992 the Theatre Museum

Theatre Museum

The Theatre Museum in the Covent Garden district of London, England, was the United Kingdom's national museum of the performing arts. It was a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum...

, a branch museum of the Victoria & Albert Museum, began recording stage performance in the United Kingdom. The project was named the National Video Archive of Stage Performance and later renamed the National Video Archive of Performance. The model for the project was the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

 at the Lincoln Centre. The first production recorded was the Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 production of Richard III

Richard III (play)

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...

starring Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

 and directed by Richard Eyre

Richard Eyre

Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...

.

The National Video Archive of Performance (NVAP) was the outcome of an agreement between the Federation of Entertainment Unions

Federation of Entertainment Unions

The Federation of Entertainment Unions is a joint representative body based in the United Kingdom, representing workers in TV, theatre, film, music, gaming, cinema, publishing, new media, professional football and other performig arts....

and the V&A Theatre Collections enabling the museum to make high quality archival recordings of live performance without payment of artists' fees.