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.
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Tales from Rogues' Hollow
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1993 performance of Tales from Rogues’ Hollow by J. Gregory Sager.
Tales from Rogues’ Hollow is the story of travelers Leslie and Norman who get lost and visit an old tavern to ask directions. They discover the tavern full of the locals from Rogues’ Hollow eager to share their stories.
Rogues’ Hollow was a coal mining town in Ohio near where the playwright grew up. It was notorious for large the number of outlaws, and is associated with several ghost stories and bits of folklore today.
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Charley’s Aunt
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1993 performance of Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas.
Charley’s Aunt is the story of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate persuaded by two of his friends, Jack and Charley, to impersonate Charley’s aunt so they can spend time with they beaus. Their plan is complicated when an elderly fortune hunter tries to woo the fake aunt and Charley’s real aunt appears.
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Death Trap
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1993 performance of Deathtrap by Ira Levin.
Deathtrap is a one set, five character play with two acts. It follows the story of a struggling playwright and his student and their development of a one set, five character play called Deathtrap which mirrors the events happening in the play being performed.
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To Kill A Mockingbird
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1992 performance of To Kill a Mockingbird, adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee’s novel of the same name.
To Kill a Mockingbird follows the story of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and her personal growth as she observes various instances of injustice, racism, and prejudice in her hometown in the Deep South.
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Quilters
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1992 performance of Quilters by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, with music and lyrics by Barbara Damashek.
Quilters is a musical of a mother and her six daughters on the American frontier. Through music and quilts they explore the life of a woman from childhood to death.
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Cosmographicum
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1992 performance of Cosmographicum by Thom Verratti.
Cosmographicum is the story of a frustrated playwright trying to make sense of the life of 17th-century mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. It is an original play written by former Taylor student Thom Verratti ’90. He graduated from Taylor’s computer science program.
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“…Of Things Unseen”
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1991 Advanced Oral Interpretation Class’s performance of …Of Things Unseen adapted by Oliver Hubbard.
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Sarcophagus
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1991 performance of Sarcophagus by Vladimir Gubaryev.
Sarcophagus is an exploration of the Chernobyl Disaster, a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine. The play takes place in the Institute of Radiation Safety, near Moscow, immediately following the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
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The Matchmaker
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1991 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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Whose Life Is It Anyway?
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1991 performance of Whose Life is it Anyway? by Brian Clark.
Whose Life is it Anyway? tells the story of Claire Harrison, a woman who is left paralyzed from the head down after a car accident and battles with the doctors to be taken off life support.
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The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1990 performance of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail focuses on the life of Henry David Thoreau as he recounts his life during a night spent in prison for refusing to pay a Poll Tax.
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The Little Foxes
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1990 performance of The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman.
The Little Foxes tells the story of Regina Giddens, a woman from a small Alabama townwith a desire for wealth and success but unable to take from the family business because only her brothers are considered legal heirs. The play follows her efforts to acquire control of the business and all that it costs her.
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I Remember Mama
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1990 performance of I Remember Mama by John van Druten.
I Remember Mama is the story of an immigrated Norwegian family living in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century as told by one of the family’s daughters, Katrin.
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The Victorians
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1989 performance of The Victorians adapted and arranged by Oliver Hubbard.
The Victorians highlights the work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Henry Mayhew, Benjamin Disraeli, Gilbert and Sullivan, Lewis Carrol, J. M. Barrie, and Oscar Wilde.
The play was presented by the Advanced Oral Interpretation Class.
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The Barretts
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1989 performance of The Barretts by Marjorie Carleton.
The Barretts is based on the romance between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, and her father’s overbearing control over his family and refusal to allow them to marry.
A later production by Taylor Theatre, The Victorians, was produced later that year as a reader’s theatre featuring various Victorian poets and writers including Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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The Crucible
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1989 performance of The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
The Crucible is a fictional story of the Salem Witch trials, telling the deterioration of a Massachusetts town when a group of women are accused of practicing witchcraft. Millar wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism.
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The Foreigner
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1989 performance of The Foreigner by Larry Shue.
The Foreigner is the story of two Englishmen Charlie Baker and Staff Sergeant Froggy who come to stay at a fishing lodge for a weekend. When Froggy makes up a story about Charlie being a foreigner who cannot understand English to help explain his shyness, Charlie is suddenly exposed to a variety of secrets held by the lodge visitors and becomes the focus of some racist members of the community.
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The King and I
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1988 performance of The King and I by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
The King and I is the story of a British schoolteacher named Anna, who is hired by the King of Siam to help modernize his country and the relationship between between them.
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Amadeus
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1988 performance of Amadeus by Peter Shaffer.
Amadeus is a fictionalized account of the lives of the composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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Busman’s Honeymoon
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1988 performance of Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers.
Busman’s Honeymoon is the story of Dorothy Sayer’s famous detective, Lord Peter Whimsey, and his new wife, Harriette Vane, who have just arrived at an old farmhouse in Hertfordshire where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they discover the owner of the house murdered, their honeymoon is disrupted and they work together to discover the murderer.
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The Fifties: White Bucks and Blue Suede Shoes
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1987 performance of The Fifties: White Bucks and Blue Suede Shoes by Oliver Hubbard.
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Up the Down Staircase
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1987 performance of Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman.
Up the Down Staircase tells the story of an idealistic English teacher in an inner-city high school who hopes to develop a love for classic literature in her students. The play follows her struggles with students, fellow teachers, and the bureaucracy and how she touches the lives of her students.
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Agnes of God
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1987 performance of Agnes of God by John Pielmeier.
Agnes of God is the story of a nun who gives birth but insists it is a result of a virgin conception. A psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent clash over the investigation.
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Cotton Patch Gospel
The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1987 performance of Cotton Patch Gospel book by Tom Key and Russel Treyz, music and lyrics by Harry Chapin.
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The Good Doctor
The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1986- performance of The Good Doctor by Neil Simon.
The Good Doctor is a series of short plays based on various works by Anton Chekhov.