Lyric Players Theatre Collection 1944-2001 (bulk 1956-1979) MS.2002.020 http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2788
Archives and Manuscripts Department John J. Burns Library Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill 02467 library.bc.edu/burns/contact URL: http://www.bc.edu/burns Table of Contents
Summary Information ...... 3 Administrative Information ...... 4 Related Materials ...... 4 Historical Note ...... 5 Scope and Content Note ...... 5 Arrangement ...... 5 Collection Inventory ...... 6 I: Threshold magazine correspondence ...... 6 II: Printed materials ...... 6
Lyric Players Theatre Collection MS.2002.020
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Creator: Lyric Players Theatre (Belfast, Northern Ireland) Title: Lyric Players Theatre collection ID: MS.2002.020 Date [inclusive]: 1944-2001, undated Date [bulk]: 1956-1979 Physical Description 0.25 Linear Feet (1 box) Language of the English Material: Abstract: Collection of programs and playbills from the Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Preferred Citation
Identification of item, Box number, Folder number, Lyric Players Theatre collection, MS.2002.020, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Lyric Players Theatre Collection MS.2002.020
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Publication Information Processed by Jennifer McGill-Walker, Summer 2002; revised by Annalisa Moretti in February 2019. This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace.
Restrictions on access Collection is open for research.
Restrictions on use These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.
Provenance Purchased from Emerald Isle Books (2002).
Related Materials
Related Materials Abbey Theatre collection, MS.1986.135, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Boston College collection of Belfast and Ulster theater and arts, MS.2004.027, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Boston College collection of Sean O'Casey, MS.1986.037, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Robert G. Lowery papers and collection of Sean O'Casey, MS.1996.025, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Lyric Players Theatre Collection MS.2002.020
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The Lyric Players Theatre was founded in in 1951 by Mary and P. Pearse O'Malley. The group originally had no permanent home. Instead plays were performed in private residences or other theaters, such as the Abbey Theatre. In 1952 the Lyric Players had a theater built on Derryvolgie Avenue in Belfast. They focused primarily on poetic drama, especially the works of Irish playwrights such as W. B. Yeats and Sean O'Casey. In the late 1950s the theater was expanded to include first a drama school and later a children's theater. The theater moved locations in 1965 to Ridgeway Street, where it still operates today, and poet Austin Clarke placed the cornerstone for the new building.
An in-house quarterly literary journal, Threshold, was established in 1957, edited by Mary O'Malley, with John Hewitt as poetry editor.
Sources
Hartnoll, Phyllis and Peter Found. "Lyric Players Theatre." In The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Oxford University Press,, 1996. http://www.oxfordreference.com.proxy.bc.edu/view/10.1093/ acref/9780192825742.001.0001/acref-9780192825742-e-1898.
Rosenfield, Ray. "It all started like this ..." In Lyric Theatre: 1951-1968, Belfast: Lyric Theatre, 1968.
Welch, Robert. "Threshold." In The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Oxford University Press,, 2000. http://www.oxfordreference.com.proxy.bc.edu/view/10.1093/ acref/9780192800800.001.0001/acref-9780192800800-e-2315.
Scope and Content Note
This collection documents the activities of the Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast. It includes correspondence relating to the operation of the in-house literary magazine, Threshold. Of note is correspondence between editor Mary O'Malley and author John Montague. The collection also contains Ray Rosenfield's collection of the theater's playbills, programs, and publications. Rosenfield was a writer who was a literary correspondent for the Irish Independent and Irish Times and an early mentor of Seamus Heaney.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into two series: I. Threshold magazine correspondence and II. Printed materials.
Lyric Players Theatre Collection MS.2002.020
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Series I: Threshold magazine correspondence, box 1 folder 1 1957-1958, undated
Series II: Printed materials, 1944-2001, undated Arrangement
Alphabetical.
50th anniversary season brochure, 2001 box 1 folder 2
Ervine, St. John. Boyd's Shop, playbill, 1981 October box 1 folder 3
The Lyric Players, Belfast, brochure, circa 1956 box 1 folder 4
Lyric Players Theatre: The First Five Years, October 1968- box 1 folder 5 October 1973, circa 1973
Lyric Theatre, 1951-1968, brochure, circa 1968 box 1 folder 6
The Lyric Theatre, Belfast: £130,000 Development Programme, box 1 folder 7 brochure, circa 1966
A Needle's Eye: The Lyric Players Theater, Belfast, 1979, box 1 folder 8 brochure, undated
O'Brien, Edna. The Gathering, playbill, 1977 February/March box 1 folder 9
Thompson, Sam. The Evangelist, playbill, 1978 October box 1 folder 10
Tomelty, Joseph. All Souls Night, playbill, 1991 October box 1 folder 11
Yeats, W. B. The Countess Cathleen, playbill, 1944 June box 1 folder 12 General
This production was performed at the Abbey Theatre by the Lyric Theatre Company, which would go on to form the Lyric Players Theatre in 1951.
Lyric Players Theatre Collection MS.2002.020
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