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Guide to the Magic Theatre Scripts, 1966-1990
BANC MSS 81/14 c
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Magic Theatre Scripts,
Date (inclusive): 1966-1990
Collection Number: BANC MSS 81/14 c
Creator:
Magic Theatre
Extent:
Number of containers: 50 cartons, 2 oversize folders
Linear feet: 62.5
Repository: The
Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Languages Represented:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Magic Theatre Scripts, BANC MSS 81/14 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Title: Magic Theatre Records,
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 81/184 c
- Photographs have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
- Videotapes/sound recordings have been transferred to the Microforms Collection of The Bancroft Library.
The Magic Theatre Scripts were received as part of the Magic Theatre Archives, purchased by The Bancroft Library, via Serendipity
Books, in three installments, in 1980, 1988, and 1990.
Funding for the 1980 acquisition provided by a gift from The Friends of The Bancroft Library, and with donations made in memory
of Theodore R. Meyer. Funding for the 1988 and 1990 additions were provided by the Richard Henry Chabot Dieckmann Fund.
The Magic Theatre was founded in 1967 in Berkeley, Calif., with a production of Eugene Ionesco's,
The Lesson, by a group of University of California, Berkeley graduate students, headed by John Lion, who had an interest in the newly
emerging, avant-garde European playwrights, including Ionesco, Genet, and Beckett. They had no intention of starting a theatre,
but with the success of
The Lesson, the company moved into the Steppenwolf Bar on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, and began producing plays as the Magic Theatre,
a name adopted from Hesse's novel,
Steppenwolf.
European playwrights dominated the Magic Theatre's early productions, but these were soon augmented by American authors emerging
from the political, social, and artistic ferment of the 1960s, including Leroi Jones, Michael McClure, and Sam Shepard. The
work of the Magic Theatre reflected the social upheaval of the time, with the intention of presenting different aspects of
a chaotic world without becoming polarized to one point of view. Magic Theatre's goal was to concentrate its efforts on newly
scripted works, with the purpose of developing new playwrights and giving an alternative, experimental forum to established
writers. They drew not only from the theatrical community but from the talents of people in many areas of the arts --painters,
sculptors, film makers, poets, musicians, and dancers, and deliberately represented no particular political point of view
except that of free expression.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Magic Theatre was housed in some ten locations, not including touring bookings. There
were several stints each at Steppenwolf and Mandrake's Bars in Berkeley. They also performed at the University Art Museum,
and in a theatre the staff built in an old building at the corner of University and Shattuck Avenues until 1972, when the
company moved permanently to San Francisco. It was located briefly in the Firehouse Theatre (now the Lumier Cinema), the Museum
of Erotic Art (now defunct), the Intersection Theatre, and the Rose and Thistle Pub on California and Polk Streets. In 1977,
the Magic Theatre finally moved to a permanent home at Fort Mason, and eventually built two playhouses of its own.
From the very beginning, John Lion assumed the role of general and artistic director, and brought the theatre from a group
of college students with no base and no funding to become the Bay Area's leading producer of new plays. In 1976, Lion recruited
the British theatre critic and essayist, Martin Esslin, as dramaturg. His early books on Brecht, the theatre of the absurd,
and avant-garde European plays had been the strongest guidelines to the originators of the Magic Theatre.
Not every production at the Magic Theatre has been a smashing success. But the experimental theatre has witnessed an increasing
number of subscribers and plays each year, and both local and national critics have been following their progress with much
interest and acclaim.
The Magic Theatre Scripts, 1964-1990, consists of over 1200 works collected during John Lion's tenure as General and Artistic
Director with the company. The scripts are written about a wide range of subjects, from sports to racial politics, by an equally
diverse range of ethnic groups, including Chicanos, Indians, and Australians. Playwrights include such well known authors
as Michael McClure, Sam Shepard, and David Mamet, as well as a vast number of unknown playwrights. The scripts were separated
from the company's archives; the operational files are collected as Magic Theatre Records, 1967-1990 (BANC MSS 81/184 c).
The collection was received in three installments, each of which had been organized into several series as identified and
described by the Magic Theatre's Literary Manager. The seven series are: Scripts for Unproduced Plays; Scripts for Produced
Plays; Works by the General Director and Visiting/Resident Playwrights; Requested Scripts; Unrequested Scripts; Scripts in
John Lion's Possession; and Submissions to The Rockefeller Foundation. No attempts have been made to change this original
organization. For this reason, Unproduced Scripts may contain some plays that have, in fact, been produced, but were not refiled
by Magic Theatre staff. Also due to the Magic Theatre's method of organization, some playwrights may have works in several
series, while scripts by the General Director and Visiting/Resident Playwright often have several drafts and even multiple
versions. Finally, John Lion acted as a judge for the Rockefeller Foundation and collected those plays and applications submitted
by individual playwrights, and applications submitted by theater companies.