Taylor Theatre Playbills
The Taylor Theatre Playbills collection features programs from Taylor’s stage productions, including Taylor Theatre, musicals, playback theatre, and Taylor’s Touring Company. Some operas are also included.
View Historical Context Statement
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J.B.
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1961 performance of J.B. by Archibald MacLeish.
J.B. is a retelling of the Biblical story of Job by two old circus performers by the name of Zuss and Nickles (Zeus and Satan), who make a wager and play out Job’s story in modern America where Job is a millionaire named J.B..
This was part of the 1961 Fine Arts Festival and performed in Maytag Auditorium.
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Ladies in Retirement
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1961 performance of Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham.
Ladies in Retirement tells the story of a retired actress living in a remote home with her housekeeper and maid, and what happens when the housekeeper invites her two rambunctious younger sisters to live with them.
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The Glass Menagerie
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1961 performance of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play narrated and led by a young man named Tom, who recounts life with his mother Amanda and sister Laura. The play has strong autobiographical elements of the playwright Tennessee and his experience growing up with his mother and sister.
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The Hasty Heart
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1961 performance of The Hasty Heart by John Patrick.
The Hasty Heart tells the story of a group of Allied soldiers in a temporary British hospital after World War II, and their efforts to befriend a rather distant soldier with a terminal illness.
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An Evening With Benet
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1960 performance of An Evening with Benet, arranged by Gladys Greathouse.
An Evening with Benet is a reader’s theater featuring the writings of Stephen Vincent Benet, including, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, A Child is Born, and The Devil and Daniel Webster.
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The Matchmaker
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1960 performance of The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder.
Before the world fell in love with Hello, Dolly!, Thornton Wilder’s uproarious play The Matchmaker introduced Ms. Dolly Gallagher Levi: a cunning, crafty, and thoroughly modern woman who knows a good catch when she sees one. When the wealthy Horace Vandergelder hires matchmaker Ms. Levi to find him a wife, Dolly doesn't need to look far to find his perfect mate. While Dolly is “arranging things” for Mr. Vandergelder, the young, hopeless romantics of Yonkers reap the rewards of Dolly’s generosity.
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The Trojan Women
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1960 performance of The Trojan Women by Euripides.
The Trojan Women tells the story of the fates of four women after the fall of the city of Troy.
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The York Nativity Plays
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1960 performance of The York Nativity Plays edited by J. S. Purvis.
The York Nativity Plays are selections taken from the larger, English mystery play cycle the York Mystery Plays. The original was comprised of 48 simple pageants telling the story of the Old and New Testaments from Creation to the Last Judgement. Each was performed by a different craft guild.
This performance featured eight of the 48 pageants, covering the events of the Nativity from the angel bringing the news to Mary to Herod’s slaughter of the children.
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You Can't Take It With You
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1959 performance of You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
You Can’t Take It with You follows the story of the only normal daughter in an eccentric family, and the chaos and mishaps which happen when she brings her fiancé home to meet her family.
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A Christmas Carol
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1958 performance of A Christmas Carol, based on the story by Charles Dickens.
A Christmas Carol tells the story of elderly miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Through the encounters Scrooge is transformed into a kinder man.
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Anastasia
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1958 performance of Anastasia by Marcelle Maurette.
Anastasia is based on the legend of the sole-surviving daughter of Russia’s last Czar. In 1926 Berlin, young Anya, suicidal and suffering amnesia, is chosen to impersonate Anastasia in a scam to collect ten million pounds promised to the missing heiress.
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The Late Christopher Bean
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1958 performance of The Late Christopher Bean by Sidney Howard.
The Late Christopher Bean is the story of a not well-off family who discovered they have inherited the paintings from an artists whose work has become very valuable, and how their greed impacts their home.
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The Robe
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1957 performance of The Robe adapted by John McGreevey from Lloyd C. Douglas’s work of the same name.
The Robe tells the story of Marcellus, a young Roman officer who wins the robe of Jesus when he is crucified, and how Marcellus’s life is changed after that encounter.
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The School for Scandal
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1957 performance of The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
The School for Scandal tells the story of a conniving gossiper Lady Sneerwell, and her plot with other unscrupulous persons to separate couples and redirect love interests through slander and gossip.
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Androcles and the Lion
The playbill for Taylor University’s 1956 performance of Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw.
Androcles and the Lion is the story of a Christian in early Rome named Androcles, who helps a Lion that later comes to his aid when Androcles is captured and brought to the Colosseum for torture and death.
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Twelve Hours by the Clock
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1946 performance of Twelve Hours by the Clock by Lindsey Barbee.
Performed by the Junior Class.
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"Rosemary--For Remembrance"
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1940 performance of “Rosemary—For Rememberance.” A Romantic Drama in Three Acts by Priscilla Wayne and Wayne Sprague.
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The Importance of Being Earnest
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1940 performance of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, is a farcical comedy about two men who each take on the personas with the name of Earnest in order to escape the burdens of social obligations.
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The Merchant of Venice
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1940 performance of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.
The Merchant of Venice is a story of a Venice merchant named Antonio who must pay off a loan to a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
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Forever True
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1939 performance of Forever True by Priscilla Wayne Sprague.
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Romeo and Juliet
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1938 performance of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy about two young lovers from feuding families and how their relationship and deaths reconcile their families.
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Tiger House
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1938 performance of “Tiger House.” A novel mystery comedy in three acts by Robert St. Clair.
All three acts take place in the library of “Mystery Manor” a lonely country estate two miles from the nearest village.
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The Lone Eagle
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1937 performance of The Lone Eagle by Charles E. Roach.
Presented by the Play-Production Class.
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Smilin' Through
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1935 performance of Smilin’ Through by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin (under the pseudonym, Allan Langdon Martin).
Smilin’ Through tells the story of a young Irish woman, Kathleen Dungannon and her romantic relationship with Kenneth Wayne, which is opposed by her adopted father, still bitter about a failed relationship with Kathleen’s aunt years before.
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The Taming of the Shrew
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1927 performance of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.
The Taming of the Shrew follows the courtship and marriage of Petruchio and Katherina, a headstrong shrew and how Petruchio "tames" her.