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Creator
Barr, Richard; Wilder, Clinton, 1920-1986
Call number
*T-Mss 1978-002
Physical description
31.13 linear feet (52 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Richard Barr-Clinton Wilder Papers, *T-Mss 1978-002. 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
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The Richard Barr-Clinton Wilder Papers contain a great deal of documentation on the working aspects of the collaboration between Barr, Wilder and Edward Albee whose various producing units helped to establish a number of important American playwrights in the 1960s. In addition they document the work that Barr did with Charles Woodward, Jr. after Wilder left the Playwrights Unit as well as the work done by Barr and Wilder before they formed their partnership. The Administrative Files and Production series contain correspondence; production files, such as contracts, agreements, cast and crew lists, inventories, schedules, costume plots, and lighting plots; some scripts; programs; legal papers; business papers and clippings. The bulk of the documents, however, are financial records including royalty statements, box office statements, ledgers, bank statements, invoices and receipts. The more personal papers in the collection including writings, photographs and ephemera document Richard Barr's life and work. There are no similar items documenting the life of Clinton Wilder. The scrapbooks document the work of the Playwrights Unit, mostly through clippings; they appear to have been put together by Barr.

Biographical/historical information

Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, founders of the Playwright's Unit, along with Edward Albee, were a major force in producing plays by new, talented playwrights during the 1960s and helped to establish Off-Off Broadway as a viable theatrical venue. Their commitment to emerging playwrights whose works were outside of the mainstream of Broadway productions allowed them to showcase the early works of playwrights like Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Jean Claude Van Itallie, William Hanley, A.R. Gurney, Terence McNally, Jack Richardson, John Guare and Paul Zindel. Their work garnered them a number of awards including the Vernon Rice Award (1962) for their "Theatre 1961" productions; and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? received the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award (1963) and the NY Drama Critics' Circle Award (1963). The Margo Jones Award for encouraging new plays and playwrights was awarded to Barr and Wilder in 1965. While both men attended Princeton University, four years apart, they took slightly different paths in their careers.

Richard Barr was born Richard Baer on September 6, 1917 in Washington D.C. He graduated from Princeton in 1938 and began his career as an actor with the Orson Welles-John Housman Mercury Theatre, performing small parts on the stage and the radio, including their production of War of the Worlds. He joined Welles in Hollywood becoming his Executive Assistant on Citizen Kane as well as performing a bit part in the film. He left the company in 1941 and served in the United States Army Air Force (1941-1946) making military training films, eventually becoming head of the motion picture unit, working with Ronald Reagan. In 1947 he returned to Hollywood becoming a dialogue director on several films. During the late 1940s to mid 1950s he made his name primarily as a director both in summer stock companies and in New York. He began producing shows in the late 1950s. Some of his early productions include Hotel Paradiso, Fallen Angels and All in One. In 1960 Barr joined up with H.B. Lutz to form "Theatre 1960" in order to produce experimental plays Off-Broadway including Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape in a double-bill with Albee's The Zoo Story. The following year he joined up with Clinton Wilder to form "Theater 1961". Their first production was the eventual double-bill of Albee's The American Dream and The Death of Bessie Smith.

Clinton Wilder was born in Irvine, Pennsylvania in 1920. He attended Princeton University, graduating in 1942. He also served in the Army Air Force (AAF) during World War II (1943-1945) appearing in the AAF production of Moss Hart's Winged Victory. He began his professional career in 1947, serving as stage manager for the touring company of Heartsong and Streetcar Named Desire at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but he soon moved onto producing. In 1949 he was associated with Cheryl Crawford in the production of Regina. In the 1950s his productions included The Tender Trap (1954), Six Characters in Search of an Author (1955) Visit to a Small Planet (1957) and The World of Suzie Wong (London, 1959).

In 1963, Barr, Wilder and Albee established the Playwright's Unit. It was an Off-Off Broadway company that showcased the works of new, talented playwrights. Albee, an up-and-coming playwright himself, became the main focus of Wilder and Barr during the early productions of the theater group. In addition to the early Albee plays listed above they also produced Albee's Tiny Alice (1964) and the Tony Award winning Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1963). Among the later Albee plays were two Pulitzer Prize winners, A Delicate Balance (1966) and Seascape (1975). Other works that were presented by the Unit were Up to Thursday (1965) by Sam Shepard and Home Free! (1965) by Lanford Wilson. In addition the company produced another double-bill of Beckett's Play with Harold Pinter's The Lover and Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, among many others. Barr, Wilder, and Albee were a team for 8 years, until Wilder left the Playwright's Unit in 1968, producing a range of work from short one-acts by established playwrights like Beckett and Pinter to experimental works by up and coming playwrights and revivals. Charles Woodward, Jr. replaced him and he and Barr continued to produce shows on and Off-Broadway including the national premiere of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band (1968).

Barr later became the president of the New York League of Theatres. He died at the age of 71 on January 9, 1989. Wilder became the founder and director (1968-1974) of the Theatre Development Fund and remained a member of its board of directors until his death in 1986.

Scope and arrangement

The Richard Barr-Clinton Wilder Papers contain a great deal of documentation on the working aspects of the collaboration between Barr, Wilder and Edward Albee whose various producing units helped to establish a number of important American playwrights in the 1960s. In addition they document the work that Barr did with Charles Woodward, Jr. after Wilder left the Playwrights Unit as well as the work done by Barr and Wilder before they formed their partnership. The Administrative Files and Production series contain correspondence; production files, such as contracts, agreements, cast and crew lists, inventories, schedules, costume plots, and lighting plots; some scripts; programs; legal papers; business papers and clippings. The bulk of the documents are financial records including royalty statements, box office statements, ledgers, bank statements, invoices and receipts.

The more personal papers document Richard Barr's life and work. There are no similar items documenting the life of Clinton Wilder. All the materials in the Personal Papers series are related to Barr. The Correspondence series also contains letters addressed to Barr, some of which are very personal, especially the correspondence with Edward Albee. This series shows the range of personal and professional contacts that Barr had. The Writings series contains materials written solely by Barr, including speeches, reports, drafts of works and a typescript of an autobiography. While the Photographs series documents work done by the Playwrights Unit it also includes snapshots and prints of Barr's family and friends and the work that Barr did with Orson Welles in Hollywood and documentation of his work as a dialogue director as well as his theatrical work without Wilder. The Ephemera series also contains items related to Barr including a caricature of Barr and invitations to his sixty-fifth and seventieth birthday party celebrations. The Scrapbooks document the work of the Playwrights Unit, mostly through clippings, but they appear to have been put together by Barr. Overall, the materials document the work of Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, both together and before and after their collaboration, and the life of Richard Barr.

The Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder papers are arranged in ten series:

  • Series I: Administrative files - Playwrights Unit,.
    1952-1976

    Half of the documents in this series are correspondence, including personal and business correspondence. Some of the correspondents include Richard Barr, Clinton Wilder, Edward Albee, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Rogers, Jerome Lawrence and Uta Hagen. The organizations represented in the correspondence include the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities. The series also contains notes, list of members, list of produced plays and plays for possible production, fact sheets, reviews and interviews, financial papers, legal papers, agreements, articles, clippings and a script entitled The Bait by James Merrill. Papers from the League of New York Theatres, Inc. are also included.

  • Series II: Administrative files - Theater Companies,.
    1950-1975

    This series contains files from various theater companies with which either Wilder or Barr were involved. The files are mainly financial statements, box office statements and agreements. Some correspondence and clippings are also included. The theater companies are: ABW Productions, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Melody Grove Theatre Company, The Enclave Theatre Company, The Noel Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre New Company, Theatre of the Absurd, Theatre Guild, and Theatre 12 Company.

  • Series III: Productions,.
    1940-1979, n.d.

    This series forms the bulk of the collection. It covers the threatrical work of Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, both togehter and before they formed their partnership, as well as their partnership with Edward Albee. Shows that Barr produced with other partners such as Charles Woodward, Jr. are also represented. The theatrical work represents a range of material produced: from the experimental work of Albee to musicals. Barr's work as a director is also represented. There a few files on Barr's work with Orson Welles including the motion picture Citizen Kane and his work with the Mercury Theatre. There are also some general files consisting of miscellaneous correspondence, notes on Macbeth and Richard III (possibly rehearsal or director's notes) and general notes on running a summer stock theatre. The files under the individual productions contain correspondence, financial records, production files, cast and crew lists, schedules, contracts and agreements, clippings, some programs and a small number of scripts.

  • Series IV: Personal Papers
    1974-1982, n.d.

    This series features biographical material concerning Richard Barr. Items included in this series are a bio and production resume, typescript of a remembrance written by Edward Albee, a family history and clippings.

  • Series V: Correspondence
    1950-1986, n.d.

    The letters in this series are to Richard Barr and represent the wide range of friends and professional acquaintances that Barr had. There are letters from Samuel Beckett, Jean Louis Barrault, Ruth Draper, Jane Fonda, Lynne Fontanne, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Lillian Gish, David Mamet, Henry Miller, Harold Pinter, Carl Van Vechten, Clinton Wilder, Thornton Wilder, Robert M. Wilson and Irene Worth, among many others. Barr's earliest and longest correspondent represented in this collection is Edward Albee, with whom he communicated during a span of over 15 years, documenting their long and fruitful collaborations.

  • Series VI: Writings
    1963-1983, n.d.

    Material in this series reflects writings by Richard Barr and includes transcripts of lectures, proposals, reports, a response to a Walter Kerr essay and typescripts of two works: Is What Is or Is It Not?an undated collection of short adages with illustrations by Gandy Brodie and an undated draft of Barr's autobiography, You Have to Hock Your House: The Story of a Producer.

  • Series VII: Photographs
    1935-1985, n.d.

    This series contains photographs documenting Richard Barr's life and career from his early days as a student at Princeton University, through his early career at RKO Studios and his association with Orson Wellesto his later years as an Off-Broadway producer. Also included are photographs of individuals and groups, some of which are unidentified. Materials include prints, snapshots and a negative.

  • Series VIII: Ephemera
    1949-1982, n.d.

    This series consists mostly of various undated drawings by the artist Gandy Brodie. There is also a pen and ink drawing that appears to have been done by the motion picture director Rouben Mamoulian. The miscellaneous material includes a brochure, a caricature by Don Nute as well as a poem by Nute, a WPAT Gaslight Revue Program Guide, a program for a production of The Ivy Green and two birthday invitations.

  • Series IX: Scrapbooks
    1945-1981

    The scrapbooks, both bound and loose, document a large part of Barr's career. The vast majority of the items pasted into the scrapbooks are clippings, but other items include programs, some correspondence and greeting cards. Only one scrapbook is devoted to one play, Volume 11, which documents various productions of Sweeny Todd, the others document several plays. Many of the scrapbooks are in fragile or very fragile condition, please handle with care.

  • Series X: Oversized Material
    n.d.

    The oversized material consists of three undated pencil drawings and one undated pen and ink drawing by W. [Thut]. The pencil drawings are illustrations of brief quotes from the Book of Revelations alongside the appropriate quote. The pen and ink drawing is of an astrological figure. All are stored in the Rose Building, drawer no. 10. Advance notice is required for access.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder Papers were donated in separate installments between 1978 and 1985. At that time they were cataloged with MWEZ numbers and shelved. The papers were reprocessed according to the revised Theatre Collection archival procedures and rehoused in 1997. Clippings and materials in poor condition were photocopied for conservation. Additional material was obtained by the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 2000. This material, where appropriate, was integrated into the already processed collection. Additional series were created to accommodate other documents.

Processing information

Processed by Ramon C. Cabrera and Mark C. Maniak Machine-readable finding aid created by Mark C. Maniak.

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

Photocopying prohibited.