Manuscripts

Early documents, correspondence, and meeting minutes

Description: Includes an invitation to join the Community Playhouse and rules for players, 1917; an undated document, How a Community Play is Made; and a report on the Community Playhouse's 1921-22 season; documentation of the relationship between Actor's Equity and Little Theaters, including Pasadena Community Playhouse, circa 1936-1937; State Theater of California designation, 1937: and the Red Cross's recognition of the Savoy Stock Company and Gilmor Brown, 1917; a photograph of an early board meeting, circa 1925-1929; applications to the Rockefeller Foundation (1947) and a Ford Foundation proposal and reports (1951); a report to the Board on instructional activities, including a school calendar (1946-1948); sales agreements and appraisals of properties (1943-1949); and documentation of various development initiatives (circa 1950-1952).
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1917-1952
Call number: mssPlayhouse
Creator: Pasadena Playhouse

Board meeting minutes and correspondence

Manuscripts

This collection contains the records of the Pasadena Playhouse, a community theater established in Pasadena, California, in 1917. Materials consist primarily of theater programs, scrapbooks, business records, correspondence, clippings, scripts, school catalogues, brochures and ephemera, indexes, photographs, original drawings of set and costume designs, and research materials originally housed in the organization's library. The materials document the performance history of the various theaters of the Playhouse and also contain partial administrative records and school records, with particular strength in coverage for the "Mainstage" theater and an extensive run of programs and performance photographs. The core records are strengthened by the complementary personal paper collections of directors, performers, and others associated with the Playhouse.

mssPlayhouse

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Production data and calendars of events

Manuscripts

Includes Pasadena Community Playhouse chronological list of productions from November 1917-July 1934; statistics regarding performers, 1938-1940; Pasadena Playhouse Association chronological list of productions from July 1934-circa 1937; activities records 1947-1952; and theater program data sheets from 1952-1953 and circa 1960. Also includes calendars of events dated 1950-1956, 1958-1963, and 1965-1968.

mssPlayhouse

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19th- and early 20th-century scripts and scores

Manuscripts

mssPlayhouse

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Playhouse Scrapbook of Mrs. A. H. Palmer, approximately 1925

Manuscripts

Contains clippings, circa 1925, about all aspects of the newly-established Pasadena Community Playhouse, plus an undated list of Community Playhouse of Pasadena founders on front cover verso.

mssPlayhouse

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Correspondence and related materials

Manuscripts

mssPlayhouse

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Character and costume sketches, stage designs, other

Manuscripts

Includes a sketch of Guy Bates Post, from The Play's the Thing, by John W. Haynes; drawings and sketches of the Mad Hatter and unidentified characters; two sketches of Shylock by [Donald?] Finlayson, one for a production of The Lady of Belmont and one for The Merchant of Venice; annotated magazine pages featuring costume and set designs, 1929 and undated; a blueprint of a stage design for Dancing Days by Corliss McGee, 1930; and drawings and photographs depicting stage settings and designs for plays including Skidding, On the Spot, The Armored Train, The Watched Pot, and Marco Millions. Also includes photographs dated circa 1920-1969 depicting costume and wardrobe fabrication, and photographs dated circa 1922-1937 depicting stage sets and design for productions including The Sunken Bell, Hassan, The Pirates of Penzance, King Lear, The Makropoulos Secret, and an unidentified Shakespeare set, as well as for unidentified productions, circa 1937-1960. Also contains one photograph depicting stagehands surrounding a Pasadena Community Playhouse truck, circa 1918-1925.

mssPlayhouse

Early documents, correspondence, and meeting minutes

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

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Board meeting minutes and correspondence

Production data and calendars of events

19th- and early 20th-century scripts and scores

Playhouse Scrapbook of Mrs. A. H. Palmer, approximately 1925

Correspondence and related materials

Character and costume sketches, stage designs, other