Theater -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 20th Century -- Sources

Collection documents the work of Claudia Allen, a Chicago playwright. Includes scrips and production information.

Collection documents the career of E. Eugene Baldwin, a Chicago playwright. Collection includes several revisions of his play Moonlight Daring Us to Go Insane, which played at the Body Politic Theatre in fall 1987.

Clara Hemmings Furry pasted her theater programs and occasionally news clippings and pictures into scrapbooks. Pages are annotated with place, date of performance and the identity of Furry’s companions.

In 1947 Max Maier exhibited his collection of Chicago playbills, programs and scrapbooks at the Chicago Public Library. A Chicago native, Maier was a contributor to the Chicago Tribune “Line O’ Type” column and an avid theater-goer. This collection documents the exhibit through photographs and clippings, as well as contains several examples of Maier’s correspondence.

In November 1986, Chicago Public Library hosted a series of 15 lectures and panel discussions in which Chicago playwrights discussed their work, presented performance excerpts and answered audience questions.

The National Jewish Theatre was founded in 1986 as a professional company devoted to producing plays that, according to one of its artistic directors, “explore and illuminate contemporary Jewish life.” This collection includes newsletters, board minutes, scripts, production contracts, programs, press clippings and photographs. The theater closed in 1996.

Founded in 1969 by Stuart Gordon and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, the Organic Theater staged a number of influential productions, including Warp, a science fiction epic adventure, and Bleacher Bums, which featured Dennis Franz and Joe Mantegna. The collection consists of artistic, administrative, outreach and production files.

The compiler of this scrapbook series remains anonymous. The volumes include programs, newspaper clippings and the compiler’s comments and notes. Productions represented include operas, concerts, plays and dance.

The Thomas F. Schulfer Program Collection was donated to Special Collections in 1988 by his son, Roche Schulfer, Executive Director at the Goodman Theatre. The collection documents primarily Chicago-area productions from the 1940s, 50s and 60s and includes a series of souvenir programs.

The compiler of this scrapbook remains anonymous. She attended a wide range of plays, operas and concerts. The scrapbook is annotated and includes reviews, clippings and occasionally pictures.

The Theater Portrait and Clipping Files collection consists of portraits and clippings relating to actors, actresses, dancers, singers and vaudeville performers who performed on Chicago stages as well as in New York, London and smaller venues across the United States and Europe. Included are portraits, in the form of either professional photographs or clippings from programs, as well as obituaries and other clippings.

Theater scrapbook “D” consists of portraits of late 19th and early 20th century actors and actresses clipped from sources such as newspapers, periodicals and programs.

Includes a collection of programs, newspaper reviews and a few pictures pasted into a theater-goer's scrapbook, possibly compiled by Mrs. Rosalie E. Lang.

Theater Scrapbook “H,” compiled by T. Lovel D. Hadwen, includes clipped theater and opera playbills, predominantly from venues in and around Chicago from the years 1921 through 1924, though there are also programs from Milwaukee, New York, Washington, D.C. and Canada.

Theater Scrapbooks “10-13” consist of materials relating to actors, actresses and performances circa 1900-1929. Materials include photographs and portraits clipped from sources such as newspapers, periodicals and programs, as well as parts of programs themselves and newspaper articles and reviews relating to plays or performers.