In 1992 the Theatre 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 at the Lincoln Centre. The first production recorded was the Royal National Theatre production of Richard III starring Ian McKellen and directed by Richard Eyre.