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| Special Collections |
RECORDS OF THE THEATRE-BY-THE-SEA
1951-1988
MsG# 191
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SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The Records of the Theatre-By-The-Sea Papers
document the history of the Theatre from its opening in 1933 until 1988. The records detail
the auditioning, casting, and hiring of the summer companies and junior
companies, as well as describing the general operations of the theatre,
including payroll, scheduling, and housing arrangements for the members of the company.
The records also include photographs, recordings, news clippings,
playbills, posters, written histories, correspondence, and set designs. Several folders contain material
on Brent's
productions at the Garde Theatre in New London, CT in 1981.
The records were kept by Tommy Brent, the
Producer and Manager of the Theatre from 1967 to 1988, and were donated to the University
of Rhode Island Library Special Collections Unit in three accessions in
2006. Many of the yearly theatre company records had been stored in cardboard file
boxes, with each year's records contained in one or two boxes. Several years
records had separate boxes for the junior companies. Some of the records
have minor water damage, including some photographs from the 1975
season, which sustained the worst damage. Brent
reviewed the records between June 2004 and August 2005, writing short
explanatory notes about the material, people, and events, which he then
included with the records.
The records are divided into the following
series:
Series I, Summer
Theatre Companies (1967-1988), relates to the cast
and crew of the Theatre-By-The-Sea summer stock companies. The series
contains applications, contracts, correspondence, resumes, publicity
photographs, payroll data, notes, news clippings, and staff and cast lists.
Series II, Playbills
(1951-1988), contains
playbills for Theatre-By-The-Sea productions from 1955-1958, and 1978.
Series III, Theatre
Posters (1953-1999),
consists of posters used to advertise the Theatre's productions.
Series IV, Theatre
Histories (1955-2006), consists of written histories, biographical
sketches, records of construction projects, and a map of the
Theatre property.
Series V, Correspondence
(1967-2003), consists of business and audience correspondence, as well
as a folder of personal letters to Tommy Brent.
Series VI, Photographs
(1930s-1982), consists of photographs of productions, cast members, and
the Theatre buildings and grounds.
Series VII, Recordings
(1971-1985), consists of recordings of Theatre productions converted
from cassette tapes to WAV audio file format.
Series VIII, News
Clippings (1933-1971) consists of reviews of productions and general
articles about the Theatre.
Series IX, Production
Designs (1975-1986) contains lighting instructions, drawings of set
designs, and notes on stage and set plans for various productions.