Drama and Theater
Archives
Contains material on set and costume design, theatre records and press cutting, posters, playbills, photographs, and features a pamphlet collection and production records.
Reproduces the archives of the Old Vic Theatre, documenting its history from its founding in 1914 to 1963, when it became the National Theatre of Great Britain under the direction of Sir Laurence Olivier. The archives are arranged under prompts, scripts, and production books; programs; press cuttings; photographs; biographies; private correspondence; minutes and annual reports; and contracts, agreements, accounts, and business correspondence.
Dramatic Works
This microfiche collection eventually will include over 14,000 plays from the 17th-19th centuries, including standard editions in complete sets and textually significant editions, school texts, stage adaptations, translations, and poems and prose intended for dramatic presentation. The set is based on the following bibliography: Brenner, Clarence D. A Bibliographical list of plays in the French language, 1700-1789. The following work lists titles included in the 1957-1965 annual shipments: Thompson, Lawrence S. A bibliography of French plays on microcards.
This continuing project includes plays published from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Opera libretti and translations of plays written in languages other than German are also included. From 1961 through 1985, the set was produced in microcard format; from 1986 to date, it is in microfiche. CRL receives additional titles in this set periodically. At its completion, the set will include 12,000–15,000 titles.
Bibliography of Spanish plays on microcards. The complete set is expected to include about 12,000 Spanish, Catalonian, and South American plays from the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. This continuing project receives additional microcards periodically.
Playbills
Reproduced from the collection in the Theatre Museum, London. Although there is no printed guide, CRL has compiled a list of the theaters represented in the set.
Contains approximately 2,500 programs that include play title, staff lists, actors’ biographies, and theater histories. The set is also called the Playbill collection of the Theatre Communications Group.
Press Books and Prompt Books
This set includes materials from the collection of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Studios represented include United Artists, 1919–49; Warner Bros., 1922–49; and Monogram Pictures Corporation, 1937–46.
This set contains thirty-seven plays annotated by the prompters at Covent Garden performances. The originals are in the Newberry Library. Wikipedia
Prompt books for all of Shakespeare's plays except Titus Andronicus. Materials range from complete revisions of plays to copies with the direction of entrances and exits shown. Also included are materials on lighting, costumes, music, etc., and printed souvenir books. The 19th-century collection is particularly strong.