Barbara Orson papers (MS.2011.036)

The Barbara Orson papers includes an array of personal and professional documentation, including correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, sheet music, scrapbooks, and ephemera. It also includes remarkable collections of photographs and assorted printed materials, as well as a small number of audio and video cassettes and a few artifacts. Most of these materials are related to the theatre and mostly connected to Orson's professional engagement with it. Of note are the materials that document her stellar career as one of the co-founders and principle actresses of the Trinity Repertory Company of Providence, R.I., from 1963 until 2006.

Series 1, Correspondence, includes letters, postcards, and greeting cards from family and friends, as well from professional associates, including such well-known figures as Adrian Hall, co-founder and former director of Trinity Rep, and Robert Brustein, founder, and former director of both Yale Repertory and the American Repertory Theatre. It also includes letters and note cards from fans. Small in scope, this series nevertheless offers a glimpse into both her private and professional life.

Series 2, Personal materials, contains a variety of documents, including various awards, a junior high school diploma, and a spectrum of resumes that were revised and updated over the years. Other items in this series include a composition notebook, an autograph book, and an early diary, as well as a small assortment of memorabilia associated with individual family members. Audition records, acting contracts, and clippings of reviews of theatrical productions from newspapers and magazines round out this series.

Series 3, Trinity Repertory Company, represents the heart of this collection due to its substantive collection of documents associated with Trinity Rep, dating from its founding in 1963 to 2006, and corresponding to Orson's professional tenure there. It includes a few scattered administrative records in the form of memoranda, performance schedules, company stationary, and inventories, as well as files referencing various Trinity Rep colleagues, including the directors Adrian Hall, Anne Bogart, and Oskar Eustis, composer Richard Cumming, and actors Richard Jenkins and Barbara Meek. It also contains files on various Trinity Rep productions including assorted research materials, clippings of press releases and reviews, and some study guides issued by Project Discovery, a program Trinity Rep participated in that was co-sponsored by the National Education Association and designed to introduce grade-school students to the theater arts. A substantive collection of scripts from Trinity Rep productions, many with marginalia in the form of annotations about stage directions and other mnemonic acting references, are also an integral part of this series. Of special note is its strong collection of printed materials issued by the theatre, including booklets, brochures, flyers, and a substantive library of theatre programs.

Series 4, Theatre (non-Trinity Rep), comprises an assortment of theatre-related materials mainly associated with Orson's acting career outside of Trinity Rep. Like Series 3, it includes production files from various film and stage projects, as well as an assortment of scripts, some of which also include marginalia. It also incorporates documents about colleagues and theatres, and an interesting assortment of theatre programs from non-Trinity Rep productions.

Series 5, Photographs, includes a significant and informative assortment of photographs, most of which are connected to the personal and professional life of Orson. It includes portraits of the Orson family, as well as snapshots from their vacations and holiday celebrations. It also contains a large collection of stage shots of productions from various theatres spanning Orson's entire career, beginning in the early 1950s when she was leading soubrette in Gilbert and Sullivan plays produced by The Masque and Lyre Light Opera Company until her retirement decades later. Of special note is the collection of professional stage shots from Trinity Rep.

Series 6, Printed materials, is comprised of an eclectic assortment of monographs and serial publications connected to the theatre, including a number of published plays, as well as a few scattered issues from various periodicals, the majority of which include articles about the theatre in general or about Trinity Rep in particular.

Series 7, Sheet music, is a small collection of sheet music from a few theatrical productions.

Series 8, Ephemera, also small in scope, includes a small assortment of invitations, flyers, and a collection of clippings from newspapers and magazines predominantly about Trinity Rep.

Series 9, Audio cassettes includes a National Public Radio piece with Adrian Hall, and an interview with Oskar Eustas.

Series 10, , Video cassettes, includes coverage of the Pell Awards ceremony in which Orson was an honoree, a documentary on Trinity Rep, and the movie, Mission Hill, in which Orson had a principle role.

Series 11, Artifacts, also small in scope, includes drawings of costume designs by William Lane of Trinity Rep, handmade greeting cards, two small Trinity Rep posters, and a few prints, including a portrait of the celebrated Anglo-American stage actress, Fanny Davenport. Two costume pieces, mementos collected by Orson, are also a part of this series: a feathered headdress from the play Uncle Tom's Cabin; and a nurse's photo identification card from the play Underground.

Series 12, Scrapbooks, contains two oversized scrapbooks focused on Orson's career, both of which include a rich variety of textual and visual documentation.