The African Continuum Theatre Company (ACTCo) was founded in 1989 as a service organization. Initially, its mission was to assist the African American community theatres of Washington, D.C. in improving the quality and visibility of their work. In 1995, the organization transitioned into a theatre company, producing professional-caliber plays from an African American perspective. African Continuum has produced over 34 works, including seven world premieres, and has hosted numerous public readings of new works by playwrights of color. The African Continuum Theatre Company records consist of business and administrative records, press materials, performance recordings, photographs, prompt books, scenic art, and other organizational documents outlining its history.
This collection documents a course twice offered by UMD’s iSchool during the summers of 2013 and 2014. Conceived and taught by the late Professor Mary Edsall Choquette (d. 2014), the course, as she described it, "introduces students to the fundamentals of documentation and preservation of, and access to performance activity information. It specifically focuses on documentation and preservation of movement phenomena performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The New Playwrights' Theatre was founded in 1972 by artistic director Harry M. Bagdasian as a non-profit theatre in Washington, DC devoted to aspiring American Playwrights. From 1972 to 1984 the Theatre produced 75 world premiere productions and over 200 readings of works-in-progress. The collection consists of 109 scripts of original productions, CDs, 1 DVD and 1 book. This collection is unprocessed; an inventory is available upon request.
Potomac Stages, a theater review website, was created in 2001 by theater critic Brad Hathaway. From 2001 until 2010, Potomac Stages published nearly 2,200 reviews of professional and community theater productions in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, as well as some reviews of productions outside the Potomac region. Potomac Stages sought to educate theater-goers, providing reviews of a wide variety of productions and information about over two hundred venues in the region, all within a single website. The majority of reviews were written by Brad Hathaway, with additional reviews by David Siegel and web design by Teddie Hathaway. The site ceased being updated on January 1, 2010.
The Smallbeer Theatre Company was a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of new playwrights in the DC area. This collection contains the records of the company before it disbanded, including scripts of various playwrights that were workshopped through the organization.
Founded in 1978 through collaboration between artistic director Joy Zinoman, designer Russell Metheny, and arts advocate Virginia Crawford, The Studio Theatre has grown into a premiere cultural organization of Washington D.C. With four performance spaces, a partnership with the Acting Conservatory, and numerous community outreach programs, Studio Theatre is able to deliver a diverse array of special events, performances, and professional and educational training. This collection contains the professional materials of The Studio Theatre such as financial documents, production materials, renovation and expansion documents, board minutes and information, awards, press materials, and photographs as well as pre-Studio and personal materials of the founding members.
In 1985, the playwright Samuel Beckett had his plays Waiting for Godot, Krapp’s Last Tape, and The Endgame performed widely throughout Europe and Asia under the production title “Beckett Directs Beckett”. The plays were performed by the San Quentin Players to wide acclaim.
The UMD Visual Press & San Quentin Drama Workshop Samuel Beckett's ENDGAME Collection covers the period from 1965 to 1993 with the bulk of the materials falling between 1990 and 1993. The collection consists of notated scripts, newspaper clippings, brochures, VHS tapes, one DVD, assorted books, correspondence, and various other materials pertaining to the performance of Beckett’s Endgame at UMD.
