Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1946-1971 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
250 boxes and items
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
The New Play Society was founded by Dora Mavor Moore in Toronto in 1946. The company's first season was staged at the Royal Ontario Museum and included Synge's Playboy of the Western World, Strindberg's The Father, Maugham's The Circle and O'Neill's Ah! Wilderness. By the 1949-50 season, however, five of the company's nine productions were Canadian. In 1956, the company extended to include a school. But by 1960, the company was relying on virtually one production to assure its survival: Spring Thaw , an annual comedy revue that always did well. In 1971, a quarter-century after its foundation, the company's charter was laid to rest.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection consists primarily of business records of the New Play Society, including those for its theatre school, as well as production files, correspondence, photographs and clippings. Material on Dora Mavor Moore can be found in the collection of her papers (MS Coll 00207).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca. Please note that this material requires 2 business days to retrieve.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English