Categories include Plays; Play Construction; Costume; Stage Design; History of Stage and Drama; Music; and Miscellaneous, comprising History and Travel, Biography, Philosophy and Religion, General Literature (novels, fiction, essays, and poetry), Technical (encyclopedias, materials regarding fine arts, including radio and television, and periodicals). Also includes Index of Photographs in the Library of Photographs, 1918-1928, compiled by Clinton Clarke.
Contains costume and property lists and lighting plots, circa 1930-1950, some originally from a folder labeled, "Junior Dramatics, technician's copy"; instructions and samples for stage managers; preliminary production coordinating sheets for plays performed circa 1949-1952; cast lists; and a stage manager's report for Mister Angel, 1952. Also includes stage settings, lighting plots, and more for various plays; materials chiefly from the Pasadena Department of Recreation.
Contains personal papers of people affiliated with the Playhouse. Included are the papers of writer, producer, director, and actor Bobker Ben Ali (1921-1985), whose play, Manya: The Story of Marie Curie, helped to launch the career of William Holden; actor, director, and artist Frederick Blanchard (1878-1948); actor and staff director Vincent Yardley Bowditch (1916-1985), who also served as co-director at its College of Theatre Arts; dancer and actor Phil Cook, who studied at the Playhouse before embarking on a career in touring theater; actress, writer, director, and singer June Evans, who was active at the Playhouse from approximately 1930-1960; Ambassador Hotel Theater manager William "Uncle Bill" Haas; actor Graydon Spalding (1911-1993); set designer Helen Howell, active at the Playhouse from approximately 1927-1936; actor and teacher Oliver Prickett (1905-1992); actor Graydon Spalding (1911-1993); actress and associate director Eloise Sterling, active at the Playhouse from approximately 1916-1925; and writer Philip Van Dyke.
Works include: Brighouse, Harold, Hobson's Choice (1916, 1950); Rostand, Edmund, The Far Princess (1934); Van Dyke, Philip, Life Sentence (1937); Sinclair, Upton, Love in Arms ([1935]); Gribble, Henry Wagstaff, March Hares ([1940]); Sternheim, Carl, The Mask of Virtue ([1938]); and Rouverol, Aurania (Ellerbeck), Money ([1935]).
