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Theater

Collection Policy Statement Index

I. Introduction

This Collection Policy Statement addresses the subject of theater in all formats. It affects the concerns of virtually all divisions with custodial responsibilities. When a potential acquisition in theater affects more than one division with custodial responsibilities, the appropriate staff of those divisions are to consult with one another to determine the best course of procedure for the Library.

More than one division is said to be affected when:

materials from a potential acquisition would be assigned to more than one custodial division, and/or
the appropriate recommending officer is not a staff member of the division(s) which would receive the material.

II. Scope

For purposes of this statement, theater is defined as performance on stage or analogous performing space. It encompasses theatrical traditions from all cultures and periods worldwide, and includes legitimate theater, music theater, puppetry, vaudeville, minstrelsy, revue, burlesque, circus, and chautauqua. This statement addresses primary and secondary documentation in all formats on theatrical history, criticism, theory, bibliography, biography, law, and production.

Formats include paper, sound and moving images, machine-readable material, book material, and serials.

Primary materials include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, personal and business papers, organizational records, iconography, sound and moving images, and set, costume, and theater building design.

Secondary materials include, but are not limited to, monographs, serials, exhibition catalogs, and dissertations.

The Library's core collections of published books and periodicals in theater are in various segments of the P classification area. Dramatic literature and relevant biography, criticism and history are covered in the national and area literature segments of P, e.g., PS for United States literature including drama. Stage production materials are largely in PN.

Other classification schemes which include material on theater are GV, which includes dance in the theater, K, for theatrical law and legislation, M, covering music theater, N which includes design materials and theatrical architecutre, and T which includes treatment of applied technology as used in the theater.

Theater as it relates to dance and music is addressed also in the respective Collection Policy Statements on these subjects. Collection Policy Statements related to theater include:

Music
Dance
Fine and Applied Arts-Books and Periodicals
Fine and Applied Arts-Non-Book Materials
Folklore
Literature
Moving Images
Sound recordings

III. Research strengths

Specific areas of distinction in Library theater materials include: 1) unpublished dramas deposited for United States copyright since 1870, including scripts from American musical comedy, burlesque, the legitimate stage, and vaudeville; 2) special collections of published dramatic literature including the Francis Longe Collection of theater works in English published between 1607 and 1812; the Toinet Collection of French literature, containing numerous plays of the 17th and 18th centuries; dramatic incunabula and early editions from the Elizabethan period, including Shakespearean quarto editions; Yiddish theater; Chinese plays and Japanese No, Kyogen and Kabuki drama; 3) special collections of primary materials including the Federal Theatre Project Archives; personal papers of individuals (particularly, women) prominent in the American theater; and resources for the study of the American musical theater, such as the collections related to George and Ira Gershwin Collection, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin and others; 4) iconographic theatrical documentation including a very large poster collection, lithographs, chromolithographs and woodcuts; theater photographs including original daguerreotypes and portraits of theater personalities from the mid-19th century onward; and documentation on theater buildings, including drawings, historical prints, and various types of photographs, and materials from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER).

IV. Comparison with other research centers

Due in part to its role as copyright depositary library, the Library has strength without equal in published material on United States theater. The Library's strength in primary theatrical materials continues to develop, moving it toward comparability with institutions most eminent in this area: Harvard University, the New York Public Library, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

V. General Policy

The Library recognizes the importance of theater to national and international cultural life; and of theater documentation to scholars, the theatrical community, and the general public. Therefore, the Library endeavors to maintain broad strength in theater materials, placing special emphasis on theater in the United States, but also collecting foreign published materials comprehensively. With regard to primary source material, special emphasis shall be on theater and theater personalities of the United States, with foreign material to be considered only when of the most exceptional importance to study of theater. The Library collects documentation on the history of theatrical production; on the history of folkloric theater; on theory and analysis of theater and drama; and on social, intellectual, business, and broad cultural history as it relates to theater.

The Library recognizes that theater of the highest quality often is produced through theater organizations located in communities or areas not generally categorized as significant cultural centers. Especially in recent decades, a number of professional regional theater companies in the United States (e.g., Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Center Stage in Baltimore) have become the source for theater of quality, with broad ramifications for United States theater and its history. Therefore, the Library will endeavor to collect documentation on major professional theatrical production and theater companies wherever located. However, the Library will not collect primary documentation on nonprofessional theater or theater which is of purely local interest.

The Library places particular stress on collection of material on theater in the United States. Documentation will be collected on a comprehensive level on all aspects of United States theatrical history, literature, bibliography, biography, theory and criticism; and on significant stage production. For purposes of this CPS, significant stage production will be understood to mean stage production in major performance centers, defined as: 1) communities recognized as cultural centers; and 2) institutions recognized for superior quality in theatrical activity.

With respect to theater outside the United States, the Library will endeavor to collect documentation on a research level on major trends and aspects of the history of theater and theatrical production in all cultural areas worldwide in recognition of the increasing globalization of the Library's interests.

The following sections cover policy for acquisition of specific types of materials for the Library's theater collections:

Published textual material
The Library endeavors to acquire for its classified collections works of serious scholarship in all aspects of theater on a world-wide basis. These include, but are not limited to, dramatic literature, monographs, periodicals, exhibition catalogs, and dissertations. Works to be collected include play texts; theatrical theory, analysis and criticism, history, and biography; and intellectual, social, economic history as these relate to the theater. The collection is maintained at the levels specified in Section VI below.
Primary source material
The Library collects the personal and business papers of persons who have made major contributions in work related to the theater. This will include, but not be limited to, dramatists, directors, producers, actors and actresses, costume and set designers, agents, critics, and others in theater deemed to have made major contributions to the history of the theater.

The Library collects artistic and administrative documentation on significant theatrical production, comprehending evolution of production from initial concept to final form.

Primary material to be collected includes, but is not limited to, play scripts, playbills, scripts, personal and business papers, promptbooks, photographs, posters, heralds, billboards, sound recordings and moving image, set and costume designs, technical drawings, lighting plots, stage diagrams and blueprints. Archives of theater organizations are considered for acquisition only when of the most critical importance to the history of theater in the United States.

Special emphasis shall be on theater and theater personalities of the United States, with foreign material to be considered only when of the most exceptional importance to study of theater.
Moving image and sound recordings
The Library collects moving image and sound recording materials, primary and secondary, documenting significant theatrical production in all production phases, from initial concept to final form.
Electronic Sources
The Library collects Electronic Information Sources of special value to research in study of theater.

VI. Collecting levels for Theater

The following list is arranged according to subclasses or facets of the Library of Congress Classification which pertain to the subject of theater. The collecting intensity levels are numbered to conform with the Conspectus of the Research Libraries Group. For a complete definition of these levels see the General Introduction to the Collection Policy Statements.

Note: Whenever two intensity levels are listed, the first number refers to material having to do with the United States, the second, to material having to do with all other areas.

Classification	Subject	Intensity
Circuses, Spectacles, etc.
GV1800-1828	Circuses.	5/4
GV1833	Wild West shows.	5/4
GV1834	Rodeos.	5/4
GV1835	Carnivals. Side shows. Freaks, wonders, etc.	5/4
GV1836	Waxworks.	5/4
GV1838	Amateur circuses, etc.	5/4
GV1841, 1843	Spectacles, "Son et Lumiere" etc.	5/4
GV1851-1860	Amusement parks, resorts, gardens, etc.	5/4
Law of the United States
KF2992.L5	Lindey on Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts.	5
KF3987	Control of Social Activities - Amusements.	5
KF4296	Theater and theaters.	5
KF5702.T4	Building Laws - Theaters.	5
Fine Arts
NA278.T5	Theaters, Greek (Architecture).	4
NA325.T5	Theaters, Roman (Architecture).	4
NA6602.T5	Theaters (Architecture), Colleges and Universities.	4
NA6820-6845	Theaters (Architecture).	5/4
NC1800-1850	Posters, as these relate to theater.	5/4
ND2880-2888	Panoramas, Dioramas, Cosmoramas, Scene Painting.	5/4
Arts in General
NX1-210	General.	5/4
NX280-410	Study and Teaching.	5/4
NX420-430	Exhibitions.	5/4
NX440-600	History of the Arts.	5/4
NX620	General Works.	5/4
NX650-694	Special Subjects.	5/4
NX700-750	Patronage of the Arts.	5/4
NX800-820	Special Arts Centers.	5/4
The Performing Arts. Show Business.
PN1560	Periodicals.	5/4
PN1569	Yearbooks.	5/4
PN1570-1573	Societies.	5/4
PN1574	Congresses, Conferences, Etc.	5/4
PN1575	Expositions.	5/4
PN1576-1578	Study and Teaching.	5/4
PN1579	Dictionaries.	5/4
PN1580	Performing Arts as a Profession.	5/4
PN1581	History.	5/4
PN1583	Biography.	5/4
PN1584	General Works.	5/4
PN1586-1589	Centers for the Performing Arts.	5/4
PN1590	Special Topics.	5/4
Drama
PN1600-1609	Periodicals.	5/4
PN1610	Yearbooks.	5/4
PN1611-1620	Societies, Museums Libraries.	5/4
PN1621-1623	Collections.	5/4
PN1625	Dictionaries.	5/4
PN1627	Indexes to Children's Plays.	5/4
PN1631-1633	Philosophy, esthetics, Scope, relations, etc.	5/4
PN1654-1655	General Works on the Drama and the Stage.	5/4
PN1660-1669	Techniques of Dramatic Composition.	5/4
PN1701	Study and Teaching.	5/4
PN1707	Criticism.	5/4
PN1708	Biography of Critics.	5/4
PN1711	Characters, Heroes, Heroines, etc.	4
PN1720-1861	History.	5/4
PN1865-1988	Special types of drama.	5/4
Dramatic Representation. The Theater.
PN2000-2009	Periodicals.	5/4
PN2012	General yearbooks.	5/4
PN2015	Societies.	5/4
PN2018	Congresses.	5/4
PN2019	Expositions.	5/4
PN2020-2021	Collections.	5/4
PN2035	Dictionaries.	5/4
PN2036-PN2037	General Works on the Theater.	5/4
PN2038	Addresses, essays, lectures.	5/4
PN2039	Philosophy. Esthetics, etc. Relations to other Arts.	5/4
PN2052	Directories. Guidebooks, etc. (International)	4
PN2053	Management, Organization, Administration.	5/4
PN2054	Guides to the Selections of Plays.	4
PN2055	Acting as a Profession.	5/4
PN2056	Professional Ethics for Actors.	4
PN2058	Psychology of the Actor.	4
PN2058-2071	Art of Acting.	5/4
PN2073	Contracts, Blanks, Forms, Diaries, etc.	5/4
PN2074	Theater as a Profession.	5/4
PN2075-2080	Study and Teaching.	5/4
PN2081	Special Methods of Presentation.	5/4
PN2085-2096	The Stage and Accessories.	5/4
PN2100-2193	History.	5/4
PN2205-2217	Biography.	5/4
PN2219	Special Topics.	5/4
PN2220-3035	Special Regions or Countries.	5/4
PN3151-3171	Amateur Theatricals.	3
PN3175-3191	College and School Theatricals.	3
PN3195	Minstrel Shows.	5
PN3203-3282	Tableaux, Pageants, "Happenings,"etc.	5
PN6110.5-6120	Collections of General Literature. Drama.	5/4
Technology in the Theater.
TK4399.T6	Special uses of electric lighting. Theaters.	5/4
TK7881.9	Applications of electronics. Sound systems. Theaters, auditoriums, etc.	5/4
Bibliography. Library Science
Z286.T5	Theatrical Publishing.	5/4
Z675.T36	Theatrical libraries.	5/4
Z695.1.T27	Theater, cataloging. of literature on.	5
Z5781	Theater. Bibliography.	5/4

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