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Creator
New Theatre League
Call number
MssCol 2133
Physical description
30 linear ft (44 boxes)
Preferred Citation

New Theatre League Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Papers consist of correspondence, scripts, and administrative materials related to the New Theatre League, a group of theatre professionals working in New York City during the late 1930's and early 1940's.

Biographical/historical information

The New Theatre League, organized in 1935 as a left wing federation of little theatres and amateur theatrical groups, produced plays which sought to address the political issues of the late 1930's and early 1940's. Its most successful productions were Bury The Dead by Irwin Shaw The Cradle Will Rock by Mark Blitzstein. Other artists who worked with the New Theatre League include Leonard Bernstein,Bertolt Brecht,Clifford Odets,Albert Maltz,John Garfield,and Lee Strassberg.

The organization also ran a New Theatre School and Theatre Workshop that trained actors, directors, playwrights, and stage managers. Using the Stanislavsky Method, they worked with many who were later to become prominent members of the theatrical community.

The New Theatre League published the following periodicals: New Theatre, Theatre and Film, and New Theatre News.

Scope and arrangement

The fairly sizable forty-four box collection of papers documents the artistic, intellectual, pedagogical, and administrative history of the New Theatre League. The material provides a very focused shapshot of a particular group of theatre professionals working in New York City during the late 1930's and early 1940's. Some of the highlights of the collection include seventy-seven scripts (including works by Bertolt Brecht and Irwin Shaw);outlines of courses taught at the New Theatre School;publications of the New Theatre League;and photographs from the Moscow Art Theatre,the W.P.A. Federal Theatre Project, and the Bolshoi Ballet. The materials in the collection also include several boxes of correspondence, mostly administrative in nature. See the series descriptions for more detail.

The New Theatre League records are arranged in twelve series:

  • Series I. General Correspondence
    1935-1942.
    8 linear feet (boxes 1-14)
  • Series II. Correspondence with Affiliates
    1935-1942.
    2 linear feet (boxes 15-18)

    Series I and Series II contain both incoming and outgoing correspondence. Both executive secretary Ben Irwin and Alice Evans (of the play department) correspond with theater groups, school officials, colleges, labor unions, and playwrights. Some of the letters relate to routine matters such as the sale of scripts owned by the New Theatre League and permission to perform and publish its plays. Other letters address the development of a progressive or labor theater in America. Correspondents include Barbara Corcoran, Archibald MacLeish, Clifford Odets, and Upton Sinclair.

  • Series III. New Theatre School Papers
    1938-1941.
    2 linear feet (boxes 19-22)

    This series includes correspondence, minutes of faculty meetings, course outlines, applications, registrations, and student evaluations.

  • Series IV. Theatre Workshop Papers
    1938-1941.
    2 linear feet (boxes 23 24 24A 24B)

    This series includes correspondence primarily on financial and legal affairs of The Theatre Workshop and a disorganized administrative card file.

  • Series V. Scripts of New Theatre League Productions
    n.d.,
    2 linear feet (boxes 25 26 26A)

    This series includes seventy-seven scripts arranged alphabetically by author. Included is Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead and Bertolt Brecht's Justice.

  • Series VI. New Theatre League Administrative File
    1935-1940.
    3.5 linear feet (boxes 27 27A 27B 27C 28 29 30)

    This series includes registrations, minutes, play evaluations, publicity materials, and a card file of authors and their scripts.

  • Series VII. Financial Papers
    n.d.
    .5 linear feet (box 31)

    This series includes financial statements, and material concerning fundraising, contracts, and taxes.

  • Series VIII. Ephemera
    n.d.
    .5 linear feet (box 31)

    This series includes printed matter such as bulletins, periodicals, flyers, tickets, and catalogs of plays.

  • Series IX. Publications of the New Theatre League
    1934-1941.
    .5 linear feet (box 32)

    Series contains runs of New Theatre (incomplete), Theatre and Film, and New Theatre News (incomplete).

  • Series X. Press Releases
    1938-1941.
    .5 linear feet (box 33)

    Copies of press releases of the New Theatre League.

  • Series XI. Photographs
    n.d.
    .5 linear feet (box 34)

    Series includes photographs of the Moscow Art Theatre, WPA Federal Theatre Project, and the Boshoi Ballet. Some photographs unidentified.

  • Series XII. Index Cards
    n.d.
    .5 linear feet (boxes 35-38)

    Series consists of index cards.The cards are poorly organized and appear to contain administrative information related to the New Theatre League.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of the Jefferson School Library, 1944

Processing information

Processed by Laura Bailey, 1988. Machine-readable finding aid created by Chatham Ewing, 1999.

Separated material

New Theatre League Records, 1935-1942 *T-MSS 1964-003 Billy Rose Theatre CollectionThe New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Two boxes containing administrative files, manuscripts (reports, scripts, and songs), and miscellaneous materials.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328