Scope and arrangement
This collection consists of the records of the National Repertory Theatre, and other companies run by producer Michael Dewell, including the Phoenix Theatre, the American Festival, and the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival. Materials in this collection include photographs, scripts, scrapbooks, publicity materials, and administrative files.
There is an incomplete run of administrative files, containing the company's records, arranged alphabetically by city name, or by subject. These materials cover all aspects of running a theatrical company and date from 1958 to 1979. Items found in the alphabetical files include signs, flyers, banners, advertisements, photographs, and other publicity materials; information on prominent local individuals and organizations; contacts with and technical specifics for the theatres NRT played; and information on schools and study guides for school groups. Also included are letters from company and crew members to Michael Dewell describing production issues. There are business letters negotiating the rental of theatres, and arranging for publicity for the NRT tours. Also held here are tour schedules, budgets, box office statements, and programs. A small amount of other administrative files, include NRT meeting minutes, programs, progress reports, and business correspondence are also included in Administrative Files.
This collection includes an extensive photograph component, containing numerous production shots from NRT's 1960s tours. They are arranged by season. There are also rehearsal shots, photographs of actors in costume, and posed publicity photographs of NRT administrators, actors, and productions. Also held here are photographs of other productions produced by Michael Dewell and Frances Ann Hersey, including the 1960 national tour of Once Upon A Mattress, and productions of the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival and The American Festival.
Scripts document the touring productions produced by the NRT during the 1960s. Some of the scripts present are from the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival. Though all the plays produced by NRT were well-known works, in some cases new adaptations or translations were written specifically for the NRT production, sometime by Eva Le Gallienne or Michael Dewell. Many of the scripts are annotated with stage managers' notes, documenting technical and blocking cues, as well as directorial choices.
Production books are binders usually maintained by the stage manager, containing extensive prop lists, study guides, stage maps, business correspondence, rehearsal call sheets, lighting cues, sound cues, photographs of set design models, and costume inventories. The critical response to NRT's touring productions is documented with clipping books, arranged by city, within each season. There are also copies of articles on NRT productions in the Printed Materials, which contain full cast and creative team lists and information, as well as memos, letters, tour schedules, progress reports, and budgets. Scrapbooks contain clippings, programs, press releases and photographs from NRT's 1960s tours and the touring productions produced by the Phoenix Theatre.
This collection also contains files on various special projects developed by NRT, as well as other production companies run by Michael Dewell. Materials pertaining to the re-opening of Ford's Theatre include commemorative programs, flyers, official proclamations, clippings, reports, and correspondence. The class action suit NRT brought against Ford's Theatre is documented with transcripts of court proceedings, depositions, and legal opinions. There are also photographs, including publicity shots of the NRT founders and production shots from the 1967-1968 season.
The Los Angeles workshop Dewell started in 1969, The Company Theatre, is also represented here with such materials as board meeting minutes, box office statements and projections, business correspondence notes, programs, photographs, and clippings. The National Play Awards, started by NRT in 1980, are represented with publicity materials, press releases, articles, letters soliciting donations, letters discussing the merits of nominated plays, and lists of contributors. Materials covering the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival, The Bilingual Foundation for the Arts, La Celebration, and other NRT projects include clippings, feature articles, brochures, flyers, programs, and press releases.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in the following groups: Administrative Files, Photographs, Scripts, Production Books, Clippings, Printed Materials, Scrapbooks, and Specific Projects and Companies.