The Playwrights' Company records detail the operation of a representative theatrical producing company of the mid-twentieth century. Because of its well known playwright/members, the operations of the company are of special interest to researchers.
The collection consists of minutes, correspondence, memoranda, contracts, financial records, clippings, scripts, stage designs, and detailed production records of many types. The bulk of the documentation concerns the financial and legal side of play production, but there is also extensive information relating to the artistic aspects of most productions. During its twenty-two year existence, the Playwrights' Company worked with some of the best known theatrical personalities of the period, and the collection contains useful information about many of these individuals. Among the best documented by correspondence are Ingrid Bergman, Marc Blitzstein, Harold Clurman, Katherine Cornell, Noel Coward, Hume Cronyn, Jose Ferrer, Helen Hays, Walter Huston, Garson Kanin, Elia Kazan, Joshua Logan, Alfred Lunt, Raymond Massie, Guthrie McClintic, Jo Mielziner, Sir Laurence Olivier, Spencer Tracy, and Margaret Webster. Many other individuals involved with Playwrights' Company productions are referred to in the collection, although their role may not be documented by correspondence.
The records are arranged as ORGANIZATIONAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, SUBJECT FILES, FINANCIAL RECORDS, PRODUCTION FILES, and INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION FILES.
ORGANIZATIONAL MATERIAL consists of administrative agreements and meeting minutes, together with some related letters of transmittal and agendas. The coverage of the minutes appears incomplete, although it is possible that minutes were not taken on all occasions when the directors convened. Memoranda exchanged between the members are scattered throughout the collection (primarily in the CORRESPONDENCE and the PRODUCTION FILES), and they provide a valuable source for additional information about what transpired at meetings of the members.
The CORRESPONDENCE is subdivided into name files for individual
members of the company and a general correspondence file. Although the outgoing correspondence appears relatively complete, many incoming letters (especially letters to the playwright-members) are missing. Correspondence that deals with a particular play has not been filed here, but instead is located in the PRODUCTION FILES. However, this distinction is not precise, and researchers are urged to search both series.
The alphabetical correspondence documents Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Elmer Rice, Robert Sherwood, Roger Stevens, and Kurt Weill, as well as William Field, the company's publicity agent. The general correspondence file primarily consists of material from the files of Victor Samrock, the general manager, and attorney John Wharton.
The Maxwell Anderson correspondence contains little regarding specific productions, although some items relate to Joan of Lorraine and Devil's Handpipe, which the company announced but did not produce. Prominent correspondents in his file include Garson Kanin (January 1941), Herman Shumlin (January 13, 1943), Freda Kirchwey (May 15, 1947), and Stephen Sondheim (November 21, 1951).
The Kurt Weill correspondence consists of a single folder. Of special note is his 1949 review of Kanin's Sky Is Falling and a lengthy 1946 memoranda on company operations and relations with Hollywood. Behrman's correspondence is also limited, although numerous memoranda and letters refer (sometimes satirically) to his presidency of the Playwrights' Company and the reasons for his eventual withdrawal. William Field's correspondence is quite different than the members files, and it primarily concerns the details of his work as advance publicity agent.
Elmer Rice's correspondence includes a large quantity of incoming mail, a large portion of which relates not to the Playwrights' Company but to his presidency of the Dramatists' Guild, 1940-1941. This correspondence consists of reactions to plays sent to him for review, general literary matters, an effort to bring more drama to the radio, and child actors in the theatre. Some correspondence here relates to Rice's political interests. For example, letters to and from John Haynes Holmes (March 13, 1940) and George S. Kaufman relate to his leadership of the ACLU. His response to a form letter appeal from Helen Keller requesting aid for French refugees is also interesting. Other prominent correspondents in this file include Marc Blitzstein (March 31, 1940), Clifton Fadiman (July 23, 1940), Edward G. Robinson (October 29 and November 27, 1940), Joseph Schildkraut (October 25 and November 7, 1940), Upton Sinclair (June 24, 1940), and Margaret Webster (May 1941).
Robert E. Sherwood's prominent correspondents include Ilka Chase (August 8, 1950), Jo Davidson (July 25, 1944, form letter), and
Margaret Webster (October 1939).
Roger Stevens' correspondence begins in 1950, the year in which he first became involved with Broadway and the year before he became associated with the Playwrights' Company. Unfortunately, it virtually ends in 1956, several years before the dissolution of the company. These files relate to his theatrical interests in Michigan as well as to some of his non-Playwrights' Company theatrical involvement in New York. (A separate series of production records for non-Playwrights' Company plays is described below.)
Stevens' correspondence is divided into a general chronological file and an alphabetical file. It embraces his involvement with organizations such as the American Shakespeare Festival and Academy and the establishment of Producers' Theatre. British and American theatrical agents and producers such as Hugh Beaumont, Aubrey Blackburn, Cheryl Crawford, George Middleton, Michael Myerberg, Henry Sherek, and Stanley Young are frequent Stevens correspondents. Less frequent correspondents include Edward Chodorov (May 31, 1956), Harold Clurman (November 3, 1954), Langston Hughes (September 26, 1956), Herman Levin (February 6, August 26, 1953), Howard Lindsay (February 4, 1955), Jo Mielziner (April 12, 26, 1956), Sir Laurence Olivier (February 28, 1953), Tyrone Power (August 22, 1956), Sir Michael Redgrave (May 21, 1956), Upton Sinclair (December 8, 28, 1954; February 4, 1955), Hardy Smith (September 1954), and Margaret Webster (March 2, 1955).
There is little in Stevens' general correspondence relating to his involvement in the 1956 Presidential campaign for Adlai Stevenson or to his real estate investments, although an incomplete manuscript dated August 1955 concerns the urban real estate market.
The general portion of the CORRESPONDENCE series consists primarily of letters to and from Victor Samrock, as well as memoranda he received from John Wharton, who has no separate files in this collection. The early material here includes numerous lengthy items that relate to the legal and financial origins of the company. Notable correspondents include Jose Ferrer (June 1, 6, 12, 1939) and Raymond Massey (July 28, 1940).
The SUBJECT FILES are an artificial series created in the archives for miscellaneous material not appropriate elsewhere in the collection. Included are a few mimeographed press releases issued by the company; information relating to rental of offices in Rockefeller Center; to the Sidney Howard Memorial Award, which the company created to honor Howard's memory and to the selection of plays by Stevens; and several plays apparently submitted for production about which little is known. (This section includes two scripts by Robert Anderson.)
The FINANCIAL RECORDS consist of information about the company as a whole, while documentation about individual productions is arranged by title within the PRODUCTION FILES. The sole exception to this filing pattern concerns the weekly and/or monthly financial statements. For the period from late 1939 through the mid-1940's these reports (which generally contained data such as box office receipts, salary summaries for cast and crew, royalties, publicity, and departmental bills) were included as part of the general company financial statement; later this information was recorded in the financial statements for individual productions. Other records in this series are published annual reports to stockholders; tax forms and related correspondence; and expense, disbursement, and general ledgers.
The PRODUCTION FILES are arranged alphabetically by title. This series documents productions which the Playwrights' Company produced both alone or in association with other organizations and individuals, as well as a few plays which never reached rehearsal. However, not all productions with which the Playwrights' Company was associated are represented here. (Most missing documentation dates from the years 1958-1960.) Among the undocumented titles are Look After Lulu by Noel Coward, Five Finger Exercise by Peter Shaffer and The Best Man by Gore Vidal. Some documentation in the collection refers to productions produced by other organizations with which Stevens, Samrock, or other company members were independently involved during the 1950's; these are arranged in the series INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION FILES.
Documentation for each production is arranged alphabetically by record type. The extent and quality of the documentation for each production varies, ranging from a single mimeographed script for plays owned by the company to extensive files for hits that enjoyed long New York runs and post-Broadway tours.
It may be helpful for researchers to know that the collection contains no variant drafts of scripts (even for productions written by the playwright members), although there are numerous stage manager's prompt scripts which are sometimes annotated to indicate dialogue revisions that took place during rehearsal. The collection also contains only limited stage or costume designs, although information about the designs is often included within the correspondence and the production miscellany. Few photographs were received with the collection; these have been incorporated into the WCFTR Title File.
In general the nature of the PRODUCTION FILES are shaped by the responsibilities exercised by Samrock as general manager. The most useful documentation in the collection is the correspondence, the production miscellany, the summary financial statements, and the aforementioned stage manager's prompt
scripts.
In 1992 this section of the collection was reappraised and bills, receipts, and other detailed financial records were discarded when adequate summary information existed. However, bills which contained information about costume and set purchases were retained.
The INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION FILES relate to plays in which members of the Playwrights' Company were independently involved. These are arranged by member name, with Stevens' files being most extensive, Unfortunately, the files include only a small quantity of information about Peter Pan, and none about West Side Story, two of the best known plays with which he was associated during the period. Samrock's files include incomplete files on several productions with which he was associated as producer or general manager. Most interesting of these is the documentation on Miss Liberty, which is represented by a complete set of scores by Irving Berlin.
