Theatre-by-the-Sea (Mss. Gr. 191)

Series 1. Summer Theatre Companies
Box 1-23, Folder 1-136
The Summer Theatre Companies series contains the papers of Tommy Brent in his role as producer and manager of Theater-By-The-Sea from 1967-88. Several folders contain material relating to Brent's productions at the Garde Theatre in New London, CT, in the fall of 1981, which ran the same shows produced at the Theatre-By-The-Sea that summer.

The majority of the records in the series consist of information about the cast and crew for each summer's company, including records detailing the application, auditioning, and hiring process. Also contained in the series are records relating to the assistantship program for junior company members. Members of the Junior Company would work at the theatre for a small stipend, helping to build sets or playing small parts in the productions in order to gain experience in a theatre.

The series contains applications, contracts, correspondence, resumes, publicity photographs, news clippings, payroll data, memoranda, notes (some inserted into the papers by Tommy Brent when he reviewed the papers in 2004 and 2005), travel arrangements, and staff and cast lists.

The records are arranged chronologically by year, with the folders for each year arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series 2. Playbills
Box 24-26, Folder 1-34
The series consists of playbills for Theatre-By-The-Sea productions from 1951-1957 (productions of Donald Wolin and Harold Schiff), 1958 (productions of J. Thornton Hall and Joseph R. Wishy), 1960-1962 (productions of John Holmes), and 1967-1988 (productions of Tommy Brent). Several playbills in the Wolin and Schiff and John Holmes folders are autographed by the stars of the productions. The folder for the 1981 season contains a playbill for a production by Brent at the Garde Theatre in New London, Connecticut. Several folders also contain handwritten notes by Brent indicating playbills missing from that season's productions, and a single folder at the end of the series contains Brent's notes on the organization of the playbills.

The playbills are arranged chronologically.

Series 3. Theatre Posters
Box Oversize Box
The Theatre Posters series consists of advertising posters for the Theatre's productions. Several posters in the series are for Tommy Brent productions staged at locations other than Theatre-By-The-Sea.

The posters are stored in a single oversized box (Ov. Box), and are numbered (Post. #) and arranged chronologically by the date of the production. An alphabetical list of the productions with references to the poster number and year of the production is given below.

Series 4. Theatre Histories
Box 27, Folder 1-13
This series contains historical information on the theatre, and includes written histories, biographical information on people involved in the Theatre's early days, records and architectural drawings relating to construction projects, and a plat map of the Browning family property that the Theatre was built on. Also included in the series is a copy of the nomination form for the Theatre's inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, and information submitted for a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Folders in the series are arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series 5. Correspondence
Box 28, Folder 1-7
This series contains correspondence relating to the Theatre, as well as a folder of notes and letters sent to Tommy Brent. The Theatre correspondence contains letters regarding the business operations of the Theatre and correspondence with audience members.

Folders in the series are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within folders.

Series 6. Photographs
Box 29-30, Folder 1-31
This series consists of photographs of productions, cast members, and the Theatre buildings and grounds. The photographs include: a series of six photographs from 1979 by Warren Jagger used in the application for the Theatre's inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places; promotional photographs of cast members and productions taken by William Brophy in the 1970s; fourteen pictures of the early days of the Theatre and Beach Club (circa 1930s) that had been mounted on a piece of board. Several folders in the series consist of photographs of productions that had been stored in photo albums. Photocopies of the albums were made to preserve the original layout of the photographs, and the photographs were then removed from the albums and stored in folders for preservation purposes. The photocopies of the original album layout are included in the series.

The photographs are arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series 7. Recordings
Box 31-35, Folder 1-66
This series consists of recordings of Theatre productions that have been converted to WAV audio files and stored on CD-ROM. One folder at the beginning of the series contains photocopies of notes written by Tommy Brent describing the contents of each cassette tape. The notes consist of information on recording quality, the performances, and the dates that the tapes were reviewed by Brent.

The original recordings were made using both reel-to-reel and cassette recorders, and the reel-to-reel tapes were re-recorded on to cassette. The cassette tapes were then converted to 32-bit WAV files between June 2006 and May 2007, using Audacity audio-recording software. Tapes 32 and 103 were not converted to WAV format because problems with the tapes prevented them from working in the playback equipment. The original cassettes were returned to Brent after the conversion process.

The series is arranged by tape number. The tapes had been ordered alphabetically by Brent, and were assigned tape numbers during the conversion process corresponding to the alphabetical order.

Series 8. News Clippings
Box 36-37, Folder 1-71
The News Clippings series consists of clippings from local newspapers and magazines covering both the Theatre generally, as well as reviews of individual productions. Some of the clippings were glued to paper or cardboard backings that damaged the original articles. Clippings that had been mounted were photocopied to preserve the information, and the photocopies are included in the series.

The news clippings are arranged chronologically by year, then by the dates of the individual productions within each year.

Series 9. Production Designs
Box 38, Folder 1-5
This series consists of lighting instructions, drawings of set designs, and notes on stage and set plans for the individual Theatre productions. Several of the set design drawings are stored with the oversized material.

Folders in the series are arranged chronologically by the date of the production.