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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

The Rimers of Eldritch.

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Review of The Rimers of Eldritch by Martin Gottfried.

USC Cast Creates Near-Flawless Play.

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Review of a production of The Rimers of Eldritch at the University of South Carolina.

Censorship? SPJC Play Is Called 'Inappropriate.'

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Clipping of a newspaper article.

[Emmy award nomination for The Migrants, 1973-1974].

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Award nomination from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Best Writing in Drama, Original Teleplay, for Lanford Wilson's…

Linfield College Theatre presents The Rimers of Eldritch [program].

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Program for a production of the Rimers of Eldritch at Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, May 9-11 and 16-18, 1996.

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