Theodore Browne papers, 1936/1941

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the Theodore Browne papers must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Preferred citation:

Theodore Browne papers, C0225, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
1.0 linear feet (2 boxes)
Creator:
Browne, Theodore.
Abstract:
Papers from Theodore Browne, playwright, actor, and director who worked with the Federal Theatre Project in Seattle, Washington. Contents include playscripts, programs, and newspaper clippings, as well as a scrapbook with materials collected by Browne from 1936 to 1941.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Theodore Browne papers, C0225, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

Papers from Theodore Browne, playwright, actor, and director who worked with the Federal Theatre Project in Seattle, Washington. Contents include playscripts, programs, and newspaper clippings, as well as a scrapbook with materials collected by Browne from 1936 to 1941.

Scrapbook contains photographs, programs, and newspaper clippings of the Negro Repertory Co. in Seattle, Washington, as well as assorted newspaper clippings and programs for 1940-1941 New York City production of Natural Man.

Biographical / historical:

Theodore Browne was born in Suffolk, Virginia, around 1910. He was a playwright, actor, and director in the Federal Theatre Project. In Seattle, Washington, he worked with the Civic Repertory Theatre, a community theater group that would become the Seattle Negro Unit of the Works Progress Administration in 1936. The unit produced four plays written by Browne including Lysistrata of Aristophanes, A Black Woman called Moses, Swing, and Natural Man.

The adaptation of Lysistrata included changing the location of the play from Greece to Ethiopia. The play was performed to a full house, but only once. The head of the Works Progress Administration in Seattle, Don Abel, declared the play bawdy and indecent and stopped future performances. Hallie Flanagan, the national director of the Federal Theatre Project, sent her assistant Howard Miller to take care of the situation. Miller did not resurrect the play but came to a compromise with Abel that would allow the FTP in Seattle to have full control over future productions.

Browne left Seattle to join the American Negro Theatre in 1940 where he led the production of Natural Man at the 135th St. Library Theatre in Harlem. He went on to receive degrees from the City College of New York in 1941 and from Northeastern University in Boston in 1944. Browne stayed in Boston after World War II where he taught and lectured. He died in Boston at the age of 68.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Theodore Browne on October 22, 1975.
Processing information:

Processed and EAD completed by Greta Kuriger Suiter in September 2012.

Arrangement:

Papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard