- Creator
- Frank Silvera Writers Workshop
- Call number
- Sc MG 64
- Physical description
- 83 linear feet
- Preferred Citation
- Frank Silvera Writers Workshop records, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Some collections held by the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are held off-site and must be requested in advance. Please check the collection records in the NYPL's online catalog for detailed location information. To request access to materials in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, please visit: http://archives.nypl.org/divisions/scm/request_access Request access to this collection.
The Workshop was founded in 1973 by playwright/director Garland Lee Thompson, along with famed actor/director Morgan Freeman, director/actress Billie Allen and journalist Clayton Riley, as a living memorial to the late actor, director, teacher and producer, Frank Silvera (1914-1970). The Workshop has been based in the heart of Harlem, New York, for the past 26 years. The Workshop has built a long time-honored and prestigious reputation as a nationally and internationally renown playwrights development theatre for up-coming and established artists of all colors, sizes and shapes. Records contain administrative files, production files, including contracts and set designs, and more than one thousand play scripts from the Writers/Directors series and the Larry Neal Memorial Seminar Series. Scripts are chiefly unpublished and unproduced and were written by members of the workshop. Among playwrights included are Mari Evans, Billy Graham, A. Marcus Hemphill, Larry Neal, Vinnette Carroll, Ruby Dee, Owen Dodson, Charles Gordone, Charles Fuller, Laurence Holder, James De Jongh, Clifford Mason, Ntozake Shange, Ed Shockley, Garland Lee Thompson, Richard Wesley, and Samm-Art Williams.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift, Frank Silvera Writers WorkshopKey terms
Names
- Frank Silvera Writers Workshop
- Carroll, Vinnette
- De Jongh, James
- Dee, Ruby
- Dodson, Owen, 1914-1983
- Evans, Mari, 1923-2017
- Fuller, Charles
- Gordone, Charles
- Graham, Billy, 1918-
- Hemphill, A. Marcus
- Holder, Laurence
- Mason, Clifford, 1932-
- Neal, Larry, 1937-1981
- Shange, Ntozake
- Shockley, Ed
- Thompson, Garland Lee
- Wesley, Richard, 1945-
- Williams, Samm-Art
Subjects
- African American dramatists
- African American theater
- American drama -- African American authors
- Drama -- Study and teaching
- Dramatists -- United States
Material types
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor
Access to materials
Some collections held by the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are held off-site and must be requested in advance. Please check the collection records in the NYPL's online catalog for detailed location information. To request access to materials in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, please visit: http://archives.nypl.org/divisions/scm/request_access Request access to this collection.Conditions Governing Use
Photocopying of scripts requires permission of the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop