Loading...
Creator
Prentice, Herbert M, 1890-
Call number
*T-Mss 1964-005
Physical description
38 linear feet (75 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Herbert M. Prentice Papers, *T-Mss 1964-005, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The collection is almost entirely bound promptbooks, annotated with notes and cues by Prentice, for the plays he produced. The extensive handwritten staging directions as well as many loose lighting and property plots, cast lists and set design diagrams provide substantial documentation of these productions of the regional British theater in this period (1920s-1950s). There are also some autobiographical writings, notes and drafts for speeches he gave, a small amount of correspondence, mostly with playwrights, photographs from unidentified productions and some photographs of Prentice with colleagues.

Biographical/historical information

Herbert M. Prentice, British producer, director and designer staged hundreds of plays during his career including many first productions as well as popular revivals. His focus was on well known playwrights of his time including James Bridie, Noel Coward, St. John G. Ervine, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale, W. Somerset Maugham, A.A. Milne, Eugene O'Neill, J. B. Priestley, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde.

His first production was The Silver Box at the Little Repertory Theatre in Sheffield in 1918. He formed the Sheffield Repertory Company and directed plays there for seven years. He was then with the Festival Theatre, Cambridge and the Repertory Theatre, Northampton before being hired as producer by Sir Barry Jackson for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1932. He was at the Birmingham until 1940 and staged many first productions there including The Adding Machine, The Brontes of Haworth Parsonage and 1066 and All That. His first London production was Once in a Lifetime in 1933. During this period he also produced plays at the Malvern Festivals (1934-1937) including Saint Joan with Wendy Hiller on the occasion of George Bernard Shaw's 80th birthday.

In the 1940s and 1950s Prentice staged plays at the Sheffield, Southport Repertory Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, Birmingham, the Civic Theatre at Chesterfield and the Pitlochry Festival. Prior to his tenure at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Prentice designed most of the settings for his productions. He also wrote a few of the stage adaptations he produced, including one for Alice in Wonderland.

Scope and arrangement

The collection is almost entirely bound promptbooks annotated with notes and cues by Prentice for the plays he produced. The extensive handwritten staging directions on the scripts as well as the many loose lighting and property plots, cast lists, and set design diagrams provide substantial documentation of these productions of the regional British theater in this period (1920s-1950s). There are also some autobiographical writings, notes and drafts for speeches he gave, a small amount of correspondence mostly with the playwrights, photographs from unidentified productions and some photographs of Prentice with colleagues.

The Herbert M. Prentice papers are arranged in three series:

  • Series I: Correspondence and other papers
    1935-1960

    This series contains autobiographical material, mostly handwritten manuscripts and notes by Prentice on his career in the theater. His writings are on loose pages and in two notebooks, one dated 1960. Includes notes and drafts for speeches, notes taken during a rehearsal and correspondence with the playwright Ralph de Pomerai discussing his plays.

  • Series II: Promptbooks and other production files
    1922-1954

    This series makes up the bulk of the collection because related papers such as correspondence, set designs, lighting and property plots and cast lists, have been kept with the play to which they pertain. It is arranged alphabetically by playwright. Most of the promptbooks are bound volumes consisting of the typed, usually published, pages of the scripts unbound and then pasted into larger, blank volumes, allowing ample room for Prentice's extensive notations. Some contain photographs and cast lists from original (pre-Prentice) productions. A few of these bound volumes contain two different plays. These are necessarily arranged under only one playwright with the other given an added entry for retrieval. Many of the volumes have a number pasted on the front which undoubtedly was relevant to Prentice. However, since not all volumes were numbered, this was not the system chosen for arrangement.

  • Series III: Photograph

    This small series consists of informal photographs of Prentice with colleagues including Cyril Phillips and George Bernard Shaw, at rehearsals for Saint Joan at the Malvern Festival and with star Wendy Hiller after the show, and unidentified production photographs.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The Herbert M. Prentice Papers were purchased from B.F. Stevens and Brown, Ltd. of London in August 1964.

Source of acquisition

Papers: Purchase, B.F. Stevens & Brown, Ltd, 08/--/1964

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Access restrictions

Some collections held by the Dance, Music, Recorded Sound, and Theatre Divisions at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 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. For general guidance about requesting offsite materials, please consult: https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/lpa/requesting-archival-materials Photocopying prohibited.