The University of Delaware Library is home for the archives of Theresa Rebeck, the acclaimed American playwright, TV and film writer, director, and novelist who is making her third appearance at the University’s Resident Ensemble Players (REP) with The Bells (January 19 – February 5, 2017). Ms. Rebeck was Playwright-in-Residence, 2010-2011, when she was commissioned to write O Beautiful for the REP and she returned in 2013 for the premier of Fever, written expressly for the REP.
This important collection was a gift of the playwright in 2014, arranged with the assistance of Professor Sanford L. Robbins, chair of the Theatre Department, and former Vice Provost for Libraries Susan Brynteson, now May Morris Librarian Emerita. Housed in Special Collections, the archive is a comprehensive record of Ms. Rebeck’s prolific work as a playwright, screenwriter, producer, essayist, novelist, and generous participant in theatrical workshops for writers and actors. The archive is in good company, joining other notable collections related to the performing arts, such as the archives of the Delaware Theatre Company and Proscenium Press (publisher of Irish dramatic arts and literature founded by former UD professor Robert Hogan). The Library also holds manuscripts of dramatists Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, Barrie Stavis, Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Beth Henley, David Mamet, Lorraine Hansberry, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Edward Albee, and many others.
Credits
Selection and description curated by L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin.
