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Finding aid to the James Carroll Pickett papers, 1976-1994
Coll2013.058
Coll2013.058
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Table of contents
Title: James Carroll Pickett Papers
Identifier/Call Number: Coll2013.058
Contributing Institution:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
4.8 linear feet.
2 archive boxes + 2 archive cartons + 1 flat archive box.
Date (inclusive): 1976-1994
Abstract: Scripts, theater production records, promotional material, bylaws and incorporation records, tax and financial records, correspondence,
medical records, photographs, an audiocassette and other material, 1976-1994, from writer and AIDS activist James Carroll
Pickett. Best known for his plays
Bathhouse Benediction,
Dream Man and
Queen of Angels, Pickett also co-founded Artists Confronting AIDS (ACA) and was instrumental in a number of theater productions promoting
AIDS awareness. The collection includes Pickett's writings and personal papers, as well as administrative records from ACA.
creator:
Pickett, James Carroll, d. 1994
Playwright and AIDS activist, James Carroll Pickett, was the co-founder and Executive Director of Artists Confronting AIDS
(ACA). He is best known for his plays
Bathhouse Benediction,
Dream Man and
Queen of Angels, which have been produced in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Portland, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Washington,
D.C., Dusseldorf, Edinburgh and London. Pickett received an
LA Weekly Humanitarian Theatre Award for his work with Artists Confronting AIDS, as well as for his work as a founder and producer
of the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE) Benefits for AIDS Project Los Angeles.
Pickett was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1949, and raised on the family farm in Shelby County. After briefly living in
New York and San Francisco, Pickett settled in Los Angeles in 1973. He began writing plays and acting and getting involved
in the Los Angeles theater scene. His most active period in playwriting began in 1984 with
Bathhouse Benediction, for which he received a Drama-Logue Award for Playwriting. In addition, he wrote and co-produced the docudrama
AIDS/US and
AIDS/US II, for which he received a Media Award from the Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Artists.
In the early 1990s, Pickett was a Writer in Residence at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, and taught theater classes and headed
the Thursday Night Playwrights Workshop. From 1987 to 1990, Pickett produced the monthly Gay Writers Series for A Different
Light Bookstore in Los Angeles. He curated "3 Gay Sons Read on Father's Day" at Highways Performance Space; "(This is Not)
An AIDS Reading" for Words Project for AIDS at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre; and "3 Gay Writers for Life" for the Otis-Parsons
Art & AIDS Exhibition.
Pickett died of complications from AIDS on July 4, 1994.
Source: Box 1, Folder 1, James Carroll Pickett Papers, Coll2013-058, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California.
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries 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.
Received by ONE board member Bill Kaiser following Pickett's death in 1994. Donor and exact date of acquisition unknown.
[Box/folder #, or item name] James Carroll Pickett Papers, Coll2013-058, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries,
University of Southern California.
Collection processed by Loni Shibuyama with the assistance of Sana Shuja and Simbree Touchstone, June 2013.
The collection comprises scripts, theater production records, promotional materials, bylaws and incorporation papers, tax
and financial records, correspondence, medical records, photographs, an audiocassette and other material, 1976-1994, from
writer and AIDS activist James Carroll Pickett. As a playwriter in Los Angeles theater, Pickett also co-founded Artists Confronting
AIDS (ACA) and was instrumental in a number of theater productions and benefits promoting AIDS awareness.
The Writing Career Series includes Pickett's manuscripts, production files, press photographs and press materials documenting
Pickett's award-winning plays (
Bathhouse Benediction,
Dream Man and
Queen of Angels) and lesser known works; as well as his work teaching playwriting and producing the Gay Writers Series. The Artists Confronting
AIDS (ACA) Series includes administrative records from ACA, such as incorporation papers and production files for events that
Pickett wrote and produced, such as
AIDS/US and the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE) Benefits. The Personal Papers Series includes Pickett's resume,
will, correspondence, an audio interview with Pickett, as well as financial and medical records documenting Pickett's personal
life.
This collection is arranged in the following series:
Series 1. Writing career
Series 2. Artists Confronting AIDS
Series 3. Personal papers
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Artists Confronting AIDS (Organization).
Kearns, Michael, 1950-
Advertising fliers
AIDS (Disease)--Dramas
AIDS activists--California--Los Angeles
Authors and theater
Gay men's writings
Gay theater
Gays in the performing arts
Homosexuality in the theater
Plays
Scripts (documents)