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Theater and the Performing Arts

Within the area of theater and the performing arts, Special Collections’ holdings include the personal and professional papers of Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, which are supplemented by a series of photographs negatives, and color slides of Lanford Wilson in his house and garden, taken in the 1980s and 1990s.  The collection also contains hundreds of published plays, librettos, and technical manuals from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as hundreds of 20th-century theater programs for productions of plays in New York, London, Washington D.C., and St. Louis dated from 1945 to the present.

How to Use the Collection

With a few exceptions, the collections can be accessed and requested through the library catalog. Finding aids for individual collections are linked on this website. Materials are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 401) during regular hours. Materials do not circulate. 

Finding Aids for Theater and the Performing Arts

Diane Gorodnitzki Photographs of Lanford Wilson.

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Scope and Contents Photographs, negatives, and color slides of Lanford Wilson in his house and garden, taken in the 1980s and 1990s…

Lanford Wilson Collection.

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Biographical Sketch Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was born in Lebanon Missouri to Ralph and Violetta Tate Wilson. In 1942 his parents divorced, and he…

Theater Program Collection.

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Scope and Contents The majority of the programs are for performances dated from 1945 to the present in New York, London, Washington D.C., and St.…

Selected Items

Voices of a Town.

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Review of a production of The Rimers of Eldritch.

Hirsch on Theater. 'The Rimers of Eldritch' at Tufts Arena Theater.

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Review of a production of The Rimers of Eldritch at Tufts Arena Theater.

Paperbacks.

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Clipping of a review.

Lanford Wilson's The Rimers of Eldritch [program].

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Program for a production of The Rimers of Eldritch directed by Stephen Jarrett at Trinity Theatre, Trinity Lutheran Church, New York, NY.

The Rimers of Eldritch [program].

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Program for the production of The Rimers of Eldritch directed by Cyprienne Gabel at the Equity Library Theatre, April 1-11, 1976.

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