Guide to Theatre Resources in the Manuscript Collections of Special Collections

Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Abbey Theatre
Collection, 1904-1970
Collection 53; 4 boxes, 1 cu. ft.

Established in 1904 as home to the Irish Literary Society, Dublin's Abbey Theatre quickly became a center of drama. Under the leadership of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and Lennox Robinson, it became Ireland's first National Theatre. The bulk of this collection consists of programs from the Theatre as well as photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, correspondence, architectural briefs and designs, and financial records documenting 65 years productions. Other items include programs from the Abbey Experimental Theater, Apollo Theatre, Dublin Gate Theatre, Q Theatre, and the Royalty and Royal Court Theatre, and material relating to Sara Allgood, a leading actress of the Irish stage. Photographs include some scenes from Abbey plays as well as photographs of the theatre before and after the 1951 fire that destroyed the entire backstage.

Image: Program cover with Abbey Theatre Signet

Dunham, Katherine Mary
Papers, 1919-1968
Faculty Papers 20-7-F1; 106 boxes, 6 packages, 50 cu. ft.

African-American anthropologist, dancer, choreographer, and educator, Katherine Dunham, was educated at the University of Chicago, held both Rosenwald and Guggenheim fellowships, researched dance in Jamaica and Haiti, established her own dance company, starred on Broadway and in numerous Hollywood films, and continues today teaching dance in East St. Louis. This collection consists of correspondence, writings, musical scores, and other material highlighting her career up until her association with Southern Illinois University as visiting artist in the late 1960's. Correspondence comprise the bulk of the collection and document all aspects of her varied career. Notable correspondents include Josephine Baker, Harry Belefonte, W.C. Handy, Eartha Kitt, Butterfly McQueen, Anthony Quinn, and Paul Robeson, among others. Dunham manuscripts represented in the collection include The Dances of Haiti, Journey to Accompong, Island Possessed, and The Negro Dance. There is a separate extensive photograph collection of images of people, places, events, and productions.

Lawrence, Marjorie
Papers, 1926-1977
Collection 127; 97 boxes, 289 free-standing volumes, 17 pkgs. ca. 55 cu. ft.

Australian born dramatic soprano, Marjorie Lawrence, studied in Paris and starred at the Paris Opera until 1935 when she debuted at New York's Metropolitan Opera. In 1941 she was struck with polio but her career thrived, and she toured widely and with great success. From 1960-1973, she served as professor of voice at Southern Illinois University where she established the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theatre. The Lawrence Papers consists largely of correspondence, programs, and memorabilia documenting her impressive singing career, and production material from the Opera Theatre documenting her influential teaching career. Also of note in the collection are manuscript versions of Interrupted Melody, numerous music scores, and taped performances of Lawrence as well as the Opera Theatre and her SUI Summer Opera Workshop. There is a separate extensive photograph collection of images documenting Marjorie Lawrence and her stage career.

Lawson, John Howard
Papers, 1905-1969
Collection 16; 111 boxes, 7 packages, 50 cu. ft.

As a playwright of the nineteen twenties and thirties, a screenwriter during the development of "talking" movies during the thirties and forties, and as an analyst of writing techniques for stage and screen, John Howard Lawson made a significant contribution to 20th century American drama. As a member of the "Hollywood Ten," and as an advocate of social reform, he played a significant, if somewhat controversial, role in the development of American politics, government, and culture. The John Howard Lawson Papers consists of correspondence, manuscripts, scrapbooks, photographs, and tapes. Combined, this material comprises an important resource that highlights all aspects of Lawson's exhaustive career, including his plays, the Screen Writers Guild and his presidency, the New Playwrights Theatre, blacklisting and his prosecution by the House Un-American Activities Committee, his writings on theatre history and screenwriting, and his autobiography.

Image: Lawson signing "A Rollcall for Peace," 1949.

Marshall, Herbert
Collection of Ira Aldridge, 1831-1977
Collection 139; 5 boxes, 1 package, 1.25 cu. ft.

The Herbert Marshall Collection of Ira Aldridge consists largely of Marshall's manuscript and research material for his book Ira Aldridge: The Negro Tragedian. Other manuscript material includes a screenplays, "Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius," "Ira Aldridge," and "The Life and Death of Ira Aldridge." There is also a translation by Herbert Marshall of "The King and the Cobbler." Also included in the collection are notes; background, and biographical material concerning Aldridge and his performances, including a chronological list of appearances with synopses and reviews; two music scores, Luranah and Opossum Up a Gum Tree; copies of Aldridge's correspondence; and photographs of Aldridge, his family, and friends.

Piscator, Erwin
Papers, 1927-1971
Collection 31; 195 boxes; 11 packages; 57.6 cubic feet

German-born theatrical director, Erwin Piscator was known for his innovative staging techniques and was the originator of the epic theatre style. In the nineteen thirties through sixties he was a leader in proletarian theatre, producing plays with topics on sociopolitical issues in France, Germany, and the United States. In 1940, Piscator established the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where actors such as Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, and Harry Belefonte trained. The Erwin Piscator Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, play and production material, financial records, publicity records, photographs, and printed ephemera documenting his career in the theatre arts. The extensive correspondents series includes Bertolt Brecht, Charles Freeman, Rosamund Gilder, Mordecai Gorelik, Frank Jung, Arthur Miller, Alfred Neumann, Laurence Olivier, Hans Richter, Jean-Paul Sartre, Upton Sinclair, Robert Penn Warren, Thornton Wilder, and Carl Zuckmayer among many others.

Image: Erwin Piscator, Arthur Miller, and unidentified, on set of All My Sons, 1949. Photographer, Peter Basch

The over 200 Plays and productions represented in the collection include All My Sons, All the Kings Men, American Tragedy, Death of a Salesman, The Giant of Flanders, King Lear, Lady Chatterly's Lover, Lysistrata, Metamorphosis, Our Town, The Petrified Forest, Schwejk, The Stranger, Sunrise in my Pocket, Twelfth Night, and War and Peace.

Sherman Theatre
Collection, c. 1880s - 1940s
Collection 175; 86 boxes, 86 cu. ft.

In 1922, playwright, tent repertory manager, and businessman Robert L. Sherman acquired and built upon the stockpile of play scripts belonging to Alexander Byers' Chicago Manuscript Company. These comedies, tragedies, exotic spectacles, minstrel shows, and domestic dramas document the social period of the late 1800s and early 1900s during which they were available for order and were produced by theatre groups across the United States. The Sherman Theatre Collection consists of over 2500 scripts, many with acting, directing, lighting and scenery notes, as well as descriptions of costumes. Individually, they provide interesting glimpses into American theatre, and combined they highlight the impact that repertory theatre played in the evolution of American popular culture.

Playbill for Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, 1958. Designed by A.J. Bellue

Unity Theatre in Great Britain
1936-1950
Collection 29; 19 boxes, 4.75 cu. ft.

Unity Theatre began in February 1936 from a worker's drama group and consisted primarily of voluntary labor, with the actors organized into several companies, rehearsing and performing in rotation. The aim of the Unity Theatre was to "help in the struggle for world peace and a better social and economic order by establishing drama that dealt with realities and reflected contemporary life." It was the first theatre group in Britain to perform the work of Clifford Odets, Irwin Shaw, and Bertold Brecht, among others. The papers in this collection are from the files of Herbert P.J. Marshall, a co-founder of the Theatre and include correspondence form 1931 to 1943.

Unity Theatre in Great Britain (Accession II)
1938-1940, 1965-1974, n.d.
Collection 201; 2 boxes, .5 cu. ft.

This collection complements collection 29 and includes administrative material, correspondence, scripts, music lyrics, playbills, promotional flyers, newspaper clippings, photographs, and illustrations documenting the Unity Theatre in Great Britain.

VFM 250