The Richard Myers Papers are primarily concerned with the production aspects of twenty-eight of the plays with which Mr. Myers was associated. They offer the researcher a complete picture of financing and other problems relating to the production of a play for Broadway and for road tours. The collection lends itself to classification by play, and thus all the papers associated with each play are filed together. The plays are filed alphabetically. Included in the sequence are materials on the Dublin Gate Theater repertory season of 1947-48.
Under each play, correspondence appears first and is arranged chronologically by year and month. It includes correspondence with the financial backers of the plays, as well as with the playwright, the director, and the actors and actresses. Following the correspondence is a small assortment of papers concerning the play's cast, costumes, lights, props, and scenery. These are not arranged chronologically, since many do not bear dates. Clippings and contracts arranged chronologically by year and month, and ephemera follow.
Following ephemera are the financial papers. Since these generally comprise the bulk of the papers for each play, they have been arranged by category, and the categories arranged alphabetically. In cases where a category includes only a few papers, several categories have been filed in one folder, and the categories noted on the folder. The papers in these categories, which include bank statements, cancelled checks, bills, box office reports, financial reports, lists of investors, royalty statements, salary lists, and tax forms, have not been arranged chronologically. In a few cases, photographs and play scripts follow the financial papers.
Not all the papers for the twenty-eight plays are complete. Papers for the following plays are the most complete, and hence present the most thorough study of producing a play: Four Twelves Are 48, The Gainsborough Girls, A Girl Can Tell, The Guardsman, The Gypsies Wore High Hats, Hotel Paradiso, Interlock, Little Glass Clock, The Moon Is Blue, Sailor's Delight, and Wooden Dish.
The Moon Is Blue file includes papers for the Broadway production company as well as for the Chicago company and several road companies. The papers for all the productions are filed together, since some of the papers concern more than one production.
Following the plays are papers concerning the Cape Cod Playhouse, operated by one of Mr. Myer's associates. A small assortment of office records, photographs, and unidentified papers follows.
