Title: Attic Theatre Records
Inclusive Dates: 1950-1972

Creator:

• Attic Theatre

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 97

Quantity: 1.4 c.f. (4 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Records of an Appleton, Wisconsin, community theater (1950- ), largely consisting of financial and box office records. Also included are general correspondence, minutes, booking information, a constitution, and fragmentary production files including rehearsal schedules, scrapbooks, programs, and photographs.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0097

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The Attic Theatre, a community theater in Appleton, Wisconsin, was founded in 1950 by Zoe Cloak. The first meetings of the group were held in Mrs.Cloak's attic, giving the theater its name. During the summer months a series of four plays was produced, with rehearsals and performances held at Jefferson School in Appleton. In its first ten years the Attic Theatre attracted community-wide interest and support. In 1960 a peak summer season attendance of 7,000 and the addition of a three-play winter season necessitated the Theatre's move into larger facilities at Lawrence College in Appleton. In 1963 the summer series was expanded to five plays.

In addition to its regular play series, the Attic Theatre also offered short dramas and one-person comedy routines as program supplements for high schools, senior citizens centers and service organization meetings in nearby cities. For several years the theater also maintained the Attic Theatre Booking Service. In most years the Theatre was self-supporting and often able to pay small salaries to production staff and actors. Occasionally outside financial assistance was necessary.

Mrs. Cloak served as board member and managing director of the Attic Theatre from 1950 to 1962, often with the assistance of her husband, F. Theodore, a drama professor at Lawrence College. In 1961 the theater was incorporated and its structure reorganized to include a board of governors, executive committee, president, business manager, publicity director, and committees. Mrs. Cloak was succeeded by Boyd L. Payne and Donald E. Jones, who alternated in the posts of manager, president, and director from 1961-1964; and by presidents James Auer, 1961; Boyd L. Payne, 1962-1964; William M. Schutte, 1965; Tom Jacobs, 1966; Carl Wenzel, 1967; Helen Dixson, 1968; F. Theodore Cloak, 1969; Marilyn Auer, 1970-1971; and Dr. Edmund C. Roney, 1971.

The records of the Attic Theatre are quite fragmentary, and best illustrate the administrative, financial and business aspects of the theater. Records of the Board of Governors and membership meetings consist of an incomplete run of minutes and agenda, with scattered correspondence. Committee records are even more sparse, including a few reports and minutes. A more complete file exists of constitutions, revised drafts, and amendments. There is a small file of general correspondence and folders of letters from the presidencies and directorships of Zoe Cloak, Boyd L. Payne, and William M. Schutte. Most of the letters are fairly routine in nature and concern arrangements for facilities at Lawrence College, finances, and production matters. In the financial records, the files of box office and ticket sales records are most numerous, and like the ledgers and associated financial records, span the history of the theater to 1968. There are also folders of miscellaneous bills and invoices, mainly production related; insurance, taxes, and contracts; royalty payments to publishers; and financial statements. Routine financial records and most tax returns and records were separated from the papers and returned to the president of the Attic Theatre.

Only a very few newsletters are found in the collection. Records of plays presented each season are located in the fragmentary files of production records. Materials from the mid-1960's on are the most comprehensive, including some layouts, sketches, and property plots for staging the plays, playbills, publicity and advertisements and other materials. The Theatre's public relations efforts are also illustrated through small files of correspondence and papers of the Public Relations Council and of the publicity director.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mr. and Mrs. James Auer, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1964, 1972, and by H.P. Dixson, Appleton, Wisconsin, 1972. Accession Number: MCHC65-126, MCHC72-070, MCHC72-072

Processing Information

Reprocessed with additions by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt, February 1985.

Box   1 Folder   1-2	Board of Governors and Membership Meetings: Minutes, Agenda, Related Correspondence, and Lists of Board Members, 1961-1971
Box   1 Folder   3	Booking Service: Performer's Fees, 1961-1964
	Committee Records
Box   1 Folder   4	Budget Committee: Report, 1963
Box   1 Folder   5	Contracts and Negotiations Committee: Minutes, Contracts with Staff Members, 1970-1971
Box   1 Folder   6	Executive Committee: Minutes and Summaries of Meetings, Reports, 1963
Box   1 Folder   7	Nomination Committee and Selection Committee: Minutes, 1962
Box   1 Folder   8	Constitution and By-Laws: Revisions and Amendments, Incorporation Records, 1961-1969
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   9	General, 1953-1964
Box   1 Folder   10	Cloak, Zoe, 1950-1961
Box   1 Folder   11	Payne, Boyd L., 1962-1964
Box   1 Folder   12	Schutte, William M., 1965
	Financial Records
Box   1 Folder   13	Bills and Invoices, 1953-1966
Box   2 Folder   1-8	Box Office, Advance Box Office, and Daily Ticket Sales Records, 1951-1959, 1961-1963, 1967-1968
Box   3 Folder   1	Insurance, Taxes, and Contracts
Box   3 Folder   2-8	Ledgers, Ledger Sheets, and Other Financial Records, 1951-1964
Box   3 Folder   9	Miscellaneous Financial Records
Box   3 Folder   10	Royalty Payments, 1950-1967
Box   3 Folder   11	Statements and Revision of Accounting Procedures, 1950-1965
Box   3 Folder   12	Newsletters, 1962,1968, 1970, 1971, 1972
Box   3 Folder   13	Organizational Table
	Production Records
Box   3 Folder   14	1950 Season: Production Expenses
Box   3 Folder   14	1951 Season: Schedule of Plays
Box   3 Folder   15	1952 Season: List of Plays, Staff, Production Notes
Box   3 Folder   15	1953 Season: List of Plays, Playbill
Box   3 Folder   16	1954 Season: Playbill
Box   3 Folder   16	1957 Season: List of Plays, Rehearsal Schedule
Box   3 Folder   16	1958 Season: Tickets
Box   3 Folder   17	1960 Season: Stage and Prop Layouts
Box   3 Folder   18	1961 Season: Sketches for Props, Sound and Lighting Cue Sheets, Schedules
Box   3 Folder   19	1962 Season: Listing of Plays, Playbill
Box   3 Folder   20	1963 Season: Set Layout, Sound and Effects Cue Sheets, Schedules
Box   3 Folder   21	1964 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Sound and Property Plots, Schedules
Box   3 Folder   22	1965 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Staff, Property Plots
Box   4 Folder   1	1966 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Staff, Production
Box   4 Folder   2	1967 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Property Plots, Sketches
Box   4 Folder   3	1968 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Property Plots, Sketches
Box   4 Folder   4	1969 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Property Plots
Box   4 Folder   5	1970 Season: Playbills, Publicity
Box   4 Folder   6	1971 Season: Playbills, Publicity, Props
Box   4 Folder   7	1972 Season: Playbills, Flyer, Audition Sheets
Box   4 Folder   8	Public Relations Council, 1958-1960
	Publicity Director
Box   4 Folder   9-10	Correspondence and Papers, 1950-1970
Box   4 Folder   11	Shawn Exercises