Manuscripts Collection
This collection contains theater programs collected by Peter Vaughan
during his employment as theater critic for the
All of the well known Twin Cities theaters are represented in this collection including the Guthrie Theater, The Children's Theatre Company, The Chimera Theatre Company, Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop, The Old Log Theater, The Mixed Blood Theatre Company, and The Penumbra Theatre Company. Programs from more than 100 theaters in all are included in this collection. Programs from theaters Vaughan attended only once or twice are arranged by the first letter of the name of the theater in a miscellaneous folder for that letter. Programs from various college, high school, and unknown theaters, as well as some non-theater brochures, are filed last, following the letter Z.
Some of the programs have been annotated by Vaughan, but since his handwriting is largely illegible one should seek out his reviews in the newspaper if one wants to find his reaction to a particular play. Postcards and posters announcing some of the productions are included for some of the theaters.
Accession number: 15,494
Processed by: Richard W. Arpi, November 2002
Catalog ID number: 001737790
Programs from the first season at the Foley Theatre at the College of St. Thomas through the 13th season when the Theatre was located on West Seventh Place in downtown St. Paul. Programs are a mixture of classic plays from well known playwrights such as Ibsen (Hedda Gabbler), Chekhov (The Three Sisters), Moliere (Tartuffe), G.B. Shaw (Pygmalion), and Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing), to some of the first plays of new playwrights such as Athol Fugard, Amlin Gray, Tom Stoppard, Brian Friel, Clifford Odets, and Vaclav Havel.
Programs from a women's theater established in 1974.
Programs from various theaters whose first name begins with "A."
Program for a performance of Camelot.
Mostly programs of plays from local playwrights such as Jon Klein (Private Places), Lee Blessing (Marjorie), Jim Stowell (Traveling Light), Bruce Charlesworth (Utopian Nightlife), and Patty Lynch (Wreck of the Hesperus and Dr. M. Kurtz's Christian Radio Hour).
Programs from miscellaneous theaters whose names begin with "B."
Programs from the theater sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Minneapolis. Programs are from their 9th through their 16th seasons including programs for Yentl, Fiddler on the Roof, Side by Side by Sondheim, Pippin, The Fantasticks, Daughters of Abraham, Funny Girl, Working (Studs Terkel), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Neil Simon's Sweet Charity.
Complex of four dinner theaters located in a Minneapolis suburb, usually performing musicals and comedies. Programs for The Sound of Music, The Music Man, The Fantasticks, Hello, Dolly!, Annie, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady, On Golden Pond, Death Trap, The Importance of Being Earnest, and I Do! I Do!, and many others.
Among the plays included are Mother Goose, Romeo and Juliet, The Dream Fisher, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Alice in Wonderland, Phantom of the Opera, The Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Little House on the Prairie, Beatrix Potter's Christmas, Oliver Twist, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Hobbit.
Included are programs for productions of Camelot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Mikado, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, West Side Story, Death of a Salesman, Of Mice and Men, The Sound of Music, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, Guys and Dolls, Mister Roberts, Babes in Toyland, The Pirates of Penzance, Man of La Mancha, Annie, The Front Page, Evita, Damn Yankees, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and many others.
Theatre is located in Lanesboro, Minnesota.
Included are programs for When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?, The D.B. Cooper Project, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Gin Game, True West, Billy Bishop Goes to War, The Constant Wife, Angel's Fall, Long Day's Journey into Night, Fool for Love, Eleemosynary, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Woody Guthrie's American Song, and many others.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with the letter "C."
Includes programs for I'm OK, You're a Jerk, National Velveeta or What a Friend We Have in Cheeses, May the Force of Habit Be With You, Bomb Voyage or Desperately Leaking Fusion, Radicals for Reagan, Censorship for Fools or Jesse at the Helm, Politically Correct Means...Always Having to Say You're Sorry, Virtual Reality Bytes: Lost on the Information Superhighway, and many others.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "D."
Programs from variousother theaters whose names begin with "E."
Programs for Farmyard, Katzelmacher, Top Girls, Sincerity Forever, Lucy Loves Me, Etta Jenks, Machinal, Tottering House, The Education of Walter Kaufmann, and Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden and several others.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "F."
Name of this theatre was changed slightly to The Great American History Theatre in 1991. Theatre specializes in local history productions by mainly local playwrights. Among the programs are ones for A Servant's Christmas, The Lady Knight (Eva Valesh), The Man who Bought Minneapolis (James J. Hill), Plain Hearts, Nina! Madam to a Saintly City, Mesabi Red, Days of Rondo, Flak Happy, Tomboy Stone, and The Orphan Train. Playwrights represented include Lance S. Belville, John Fenn, John Orlock, Evelyn Fairbanks, Brian Friel, Syl Jones, Roger Neiboer, Jim Stowell, and Patty Lynch.
A fairly complete set of programs from the Guthrie's 11th season through its 35th. See box 3 as well. Plays by Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Moliere, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill, Anton Chekhov, several of the ancient Greek playwrights and lesser known modern dramatists are the theater's main productions.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "G."
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "H."
Including programs for the Short Wave Man, The Angels of Swedenborg, The Einstein Project, White House Wives, Southern Cross, Lloyd's Prayer, Miss Evers' Boys, Hard Times Come Again No More (about Meridel LeSueur), and Fresh Ink productions (new one act plays). Playwrights include Martha Boesing, Beth Gilleland, Kevin Kling, Ping Chong, and John Orlock.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "I."
Programs for Under Milkwood, Dial M for Murder, The Diary of Anne Frank, Old Times, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?, The Miracle Worker, Waiting for Godot, Fool for Love, Bus Stop, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and several others.
Theater established in 1953 in White Bear Lake. Among the programs are those for productions of H.M.S. Pinafore, My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Oklahoma, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Bus Stop.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "L."
Theater located in Winona at Saint Mary's University.
The Mixed Blood Theater Company is a multi-racial company for actors aged 17 to 36 that seeks to make strong human and social statements through their productions. Among the programs included are ones for productions of Badd High, Mother April's, Sty of the Blind Pig, Bleacher Bums, Children of a Lesser God, Calvinisms, I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, and Color Blind.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "M."
Theater located at Normandale Community College, Bloomington.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "N."
One of the oldest theaters represented in this collection with its origins tracing back to the summer of 1940 in Excelsior. Among the programs included here are ones for productions of The Patrick Pearse Motel, Ten Little Indians, Absurd Person Singular, A Bed Full of Foreigners, Run For Your Wife, Funny Money, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Biloxi Blues.
Included are programs for Three Tall Women (Edward Albee), Sarafina!, Big Band Jamboree, Pirin, Lend Me a Tenor, Tru (on Truman Capote), An Inspector Calls, Showboat, and Rent.
Minneapolis theater which performed plays which portrayed gay men and women in a positive way. Programs for such productions as P.S. Your Cat is Dead; The War Widow; Boy Meets Boy; Lying in State; Picture Me, Picture You; and Design for Living are included.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "O."
Programs for Getting Nowhere Fast, Loon Lake Times, MacBeth, and several other plays.
Theatre located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
A theater which has performed many of the familiar plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Henry Miller, Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, Eugene O'Neill, Moliere, George Bernard Shaw, and Agatha Christie. Programs for productions of Love's Labour's Lost, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Master Builder, The Importance of Being Earnest, Mrs. Warren's Profession, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Crucible, She Stoops to Conquer, The Glass Menagerie, The Mouse Trap, The School for Wives, and many others are included.
African-American theater company in St. Paul that performs numerous plays by August Wilson, Langston Hughes, and other Black playwrights. Programs for such productions as Bubbling Brown Sugar, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Black Nativity, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and The Mojo and the Sayso are included.
Theatre located at the University of Minnesota.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "P."
Theater which performed plays by local playwrights such as Lee Breuer, Steve Busa, Leslie Mohn and others. Programs for such productions as Humans on Earth, A Prelude to Death in Venice, the Hunger Artist, Floyd's Projector, The Wrath of Kali, Bosnia Blues, and the Near Death Experiences of Leni Riefenstahl.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "R."
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "S."
Programs for such productions as Ubu for President, 1789 The French Revolution, Master Puntila and his Hired Man, Cyrano, Germinal, Don Juan Giovanni, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Conversations after a Burial are included.
Programs for productions such as The Sea Gull, Misalliance, The Mouse Trap, Bullshot Crummond, The Children's Hour, An Inspector Calls, Inherit the Wind, Come Back Little Sheba, Crimes of the Heart, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Steel Magnolias, and All My Sons are included.
Programs from various other theaters whose names begin with "T."
Several programs from Elk River, Minnesota.
Name of theater cannot be determined from the program. Programs are arranged alphabetically by title of play.
Brochures and fliers for various arts events in the Twin Cities.