The collection primarily documents Viehman's work as a director, and his career with the Tulsa Little Theater. His papers are perhaps most valuable to a study of the history of American community theater, with which Viehman was especially active. His work as a director is mainly illustrated through his annotations on scripts and the accompanying production notes. There is somewhat less evidence of Viehman's early acting career, his work as a drama teacher, and his folk dancing. Although many plays and productions are represented, most of the files are sparse. The collection is arranged in four series: Theaters, Productions, and Plays; Pageants; Activities and Clubs; and Other Materials.
The THEATERS, PRODUCTIONS, AND PLAYS series contains materials pertaining to Viehman's directing career, arranged alphabetically by theater and thereunder by production title. Plays for which a place of production is not indicated are filed alphabetically by title at the end of the series. Included in the series are Annotated scripts, production notes, programs, fragmentary correspondence, set and costume designs, and publicity. Within each of the theater listings, the plays produced are arranged by title in alphabetical order; other materials relating to each theater, such as general correspondence or promotional material, are located just after the production files. Viehman's acting experience is illustrated in both the Carnegie Institute of Technology files and the Guild Players of Pittsburgh files. Production information is most extensive and informative for the 1943 musical revue Count Your Blessings (in the Pittsburgh Playhouse file), and for many plays produced at the Tulsa Little Theater. Following the individual theater listings is an alphabetical arrangement of Annotated scripts and production notes from plays for which the theater is unknown, including a Christmas play, The Frolic of the Toys, written by Viehman and his brother, William. Also included here are production materials relating to unidentified plays and unAnnotated scripts.
The PAGEANTS series documents Viehman's involvement with community pageantry on all levels of production from acting to directing. While most of the files on individual pageants are fragmentary, there is a fairly complete file on the 1934 “Masque of Niagara,” including photographs and music, directed by Viehman under the general supervision of his mentor, Thomas Wood Stevens. There is also a fair amount of material concerning Stevens' “The Drawing of the Sword”; the clippings and circulars are of particular interest. Other materials in this series include advertisements, circulars, clippings, programs, scripts, and set designs (including a dozen scene panels for an unidentified pageant, located at the end of the series).
CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES relates to Viehman's involvement in various theater organizations. These include several regional, national, and international groups, represented by bulletins, circulars, correspondence, programs, reports, and speeches. Included in the Southwest Theatre Conference folder is a 1953 speech by Wilma Malkin on play selection and casting procedures at the Tulsa Little Theatre. In addition, there is a particularly complete folder on a joint session of the American Educational Theatre Association and the National Theatre Conference that Viehman chaired in 1953. Included in the session records is nearly all of the correspondence related to the meeting, some of Viehman's organizational notes, and the program of the 1953 Speech Conference, of which Viehman's meeting was a part.
OTHER MATERIALS is comprised of a variety of general papers, including articles on theater written by Viehman, with a response by Maurice Gresin to one of these articles. Also in this series are general clippings and correspondence, letters of introduction from two of Viehman's several trips to Europe, and several programs and playbills for productions which Viehman attended (all with his notes). In addition, there is a folder of miscellaneous material collected by Viehman from general interest, and a small file of papers concerning his brother, William Viehman. While personal material is virtually missing from the collection, Viehman's articles on theater are of interest, as is an essay or lecture on style in acting, which may have been written by Viehman. Some sense of his tastes and style may be found in some of Viehman's annotations on playbills and articles in the miscellany folder.
