Ben W. Brown papers (MS.1UF.B5)

These papers consist of notebooks, manuscripts, speeches and addresses, and correspondence documenting the teaching career of Ben W. Brown. Eight notebooks are lecture notes used by Brown to teach courses at Brown University. Subjects documented in the notebooks (ca. 1930s-1940s) include Shakespeare, English and American drama of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russian drama and Soviet theater, Le Théatre Français, play synopses, and general overviews of theater and public speaking. Another notebook includes critical comments on specific plays viewed by Brown between 1928 and 1929. Manuscripts of six plays by Brown, some without title or date, and three drafts of Brown's book, Upstage-Downstage: Directing the Play, containing handwritten notes, are also included in the collection. Most of the speeches and lectures are about the various eras, genres and characters in theatre history, and are handwritten on index cards or lined paper. Correspondence primarily contains letters to Brown from friends, including one from actor, Will Geer, regarding a trip to the Soviet Union, and some letters from former Brown University President, Clarence Barbour.