Child Drama Collection
 

Collections

Contents

The manuscript collection fills over 1,000 linear feet of shelf space. Included are: collections for individuals, theatre companies and publishing houses; audio-visual media; pre-print materials; production materials; posters; typescripts; oral histories; musical scores; study guides; teaching aids; correspondence; curricula and lesson plans; photographs and slides; theses and dissertations. Many of these items are unique, the only ones in existence. In 2002, there were over 2,000 books and over 3,000 playscripts. (See the Table of Contents page for a complete list of the holdings in the Child Drama Collection.)

Collections Held

Some examples of the manuscript collections for major theatre for youth figures and organizations are:

International: Artifacts, books, and other information about theatre for young audiences companies, festivals, plays and educators from England, Sweden, Russia, Yugoslavia and other European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan.

National organizations: AATE, AATY, ASSITEJ/USA, Children's Theatre Foundation of America, CTAA and SSTA.

Periodicals: Full runs of all CTC/CTAA/AATE and ASSITEJ/USA journals and newsletters, Australian and British educational theatre journals, and other American arts education journals.

Playscripts: Included are all of the plays ever published by New Plays, Inc. and Anchorage Press and all of the theatre for young audiences playscripts currently in the Dramatic Publishing, Samuel French and Baker's Plays catalogues. These are housed either in the Child Drama Collection or in the Hayden Library curriculum stacks.

Playwrights: Sandra Fenichel Asher, Flora Atkin, Ric Averill, Max Bush, Moses Goldberg, Aurand Harris, V. Glasgow Koste, Brian Kral, Joanna Halpert Kraus, Rosemary Musil, Joseph Robinette, James Still, Mary Hall Surface, Lowell Swortzell, Y York and Suzan Zeder--75 per cent of the recipients of the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Cup for longstanding creation of quality plays for youth.

Professional theatre companies: Childsplay, Inc. (Tempe, AZ), The Coterie Theatre (Kansas City, MO), Dallas Children's Theater (Dallas, TX), Honolulu Theatre for Youth (Honolulu, HI), Metro Theater Company (St. Louis, MO), Nashville Children's Theatre (Nashville, TN), Seattle Children's Theatre (Seattle, WA), and Seem-To-Be Players (Lawrence, KS).

Publishing houses: Anchorage Press, Coach House Press and New Plays, Inc.

Reference collections: Information about American university theatre for youth programs, playwriting symposia, puppetry, liaison arts associations, regional and state theatre organizations.

University Professors and authors: Roger L. Bedard, Don Doyle, Barbara Salisbury Wills, Lin Wright (Arizona State University); Rita Criste (Northwestern University); Jed Davis (University of Kansas); Kenneth Graham (University of Minnesota); Jeanne Hall (California State University, Hayward); Coleman Jennings (The University of Texas at Austin); Judith Kase-Cooper (University of South Florida); Laura Gardner Salazar (Grand Valley State College); Geraldine Brain Siks (University of Washington); and Nellie McCaslin, Lowell Swortzell and Nancy Swortzell (New York University).

Youth theatre companies: Cain Park Theatre (Cleveland, OH); The Children's Theatre of Evanston (Evanston, IL), Harwich Junior Theatre (Harwich, MA) and the King-Coit Theatre, (New York, NY).

See the Table of Contents page for a complete list of the holdings in the Child Drama Collection.

Related Collections

Cherie Bennett Collection with Jeff Gottesfeld Materials - Cherie Bennett writes young adult novels, plays, screenplays, television shows and a syndicated newspaper column. She collaborates regularly with her husband Jeff Gottesfeld. Her collection includes: correspondence; drafts of plays for adults and young audiences, novels and screenplays; newspaper columns; letters from teenage fans; and production materials for her plays.

Irene Corey Collection - Irene Corey is an award-winning theatrical set, costume and make-up designer, who believes in the unification of all theatrical design elements. She was the Artistic Director for the Everyman Players and is the designer of Barney, the Purple Dinosaur, and his television friends. Her collection includes: over 700 costume, set and make-up renderings, research notes, production and working slides, reference files, and costumes for The Book of Job and The Tempest.

Everyman Players - This internationally touring theatre company began with a production of The Book of Job in 1957 and continued performing until 1980. In the 1960s Everyman added Reynard the Fox and other plays for young audiences to its repertoire. This collection includes: promptbooks; production and publicity photographs; touring notebooks; business and management records; newspaper articles and reviews; scrapbooks; and presentation books.

Jonathan Levy Collection - Dr. Jonathan Levy, university professor, theatre for youth historian and playwright, donated his library of over 600 books (dating from the 17th-20th century) that document the history of theatre for youth, the life of the child and trends in society; and manuscripts that document his playwriting and theatre for youth academic and research careers. This collection includes: typescripts for his plays and books; research materials; rare book catalogues; International Baccalaureate Theatre Curriculum materials; playwriting curricula; and his work with Project Zero at Harvard University.

Joe E. Marks Collection - Joe E. Marks, comic, and stage and screen actor played Pappy Yokum in Broadway's Lil Abner and Smee in Mary Martin's Peter Pan and was a member of a children's vaudeville troupe. His collection includes: joke books; personal correspondence; programs; typescripts of routines; playscripts; photographs of vaudevillians, actors, productions and family (some autographed); publicity postcards; and props.

Paul Morse Collection - Paul Morse, playwright, composer, actor and theatre educator turned his focus from adult theatre to creating multicultural plays for young audiences in Southern California in 1980. He is best known for his plays Letters to Harriet Tubman and Two Friends/Dos Amigos. His collection includes: correspondence, awards, articles about Morse, typescripts, promptbooks, research materials, musical scores, sheet music, teaching materials, posters and audio and video recordings of Morse shows.

Joann Yeoman Tongret Collection - Joann Yeoman Tongret is an award-winning theatre actress, director, choreographer and ASU professor. Her collection includes: her thesis research on Stuart Walker; published articles on theatre; production photographs; and scrapbook pages