Theater productions, 1925 - 2019

Sub-Group — Multiple Containers

Staff Only

Description of Contents

This is a collection of departmental production programs and other production-related materials such as posters, prompts, scripts, photographs, promotional materials, and tickets. The all-inclusive dates are 1925 to 2019, with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1960s to 2000s. Sprinkled throughout the collection are programs from the College of St. Thomas (CST) in which Katies performed. Also included are Saint Paul College Drama Festival programs and Arts Festival programs. Also included are invitations to Laboratory Players Club formals, and two versions of the theater club newsletters in 1984. Extrainstitutional clippings and publicity serve to round out the collection.

The programs include productions by the department, directing classes, The Players Club, the Laboratory Players Club, Children's Theater, Reader's Theater, and the Little Theater.

Of special note is the entirety of box 913. The box only includes materials related to the 1955 production of "Early Candlelight," an adaptation of the novel by Maud Hart Lovelace written by theater professor Mabel Frey. This box includes programs, unorganized scripts, promotional materials, sheet music, and an historical background of scene IV.

Two boxes of production slides (bulk 1970s) can be found in slide box [ ].

Dates

1925 - 2019

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Biographical / Historical

The Department of Theater started as the Department of Expression. Expression was mainly about public speaking and communication, with a little bit of dramatics in a few of the courses. In 1922 dramatics and public speaking were combined with the English department until 1941, when they split from the English department and became the department of Speech and Drama. In 1970 this was renamed as the Department of Speech and Theater, and in 1978 this was made into the Department of Theater and Communications, then in 1984 the Department of Theater, Communications, and Telecommunications. In 1990 the department split into two, with Communications and Telecommunications as one department and Theater as its own department, which it remained until 2011. During much of this stage from 1990 to 2011 the Theater Department served jointly as the Theater Department of both the College of St. Catherine and the University of St. Thomas.