Biographical/Historical note
Barbara Orson
Barbara Orson was born in New York on May 19th, 1929 and married Jay M. Orson on June 24th, 1956, with whom she settled in Rhode Island and raised three children: twin daughters, Beth and Diane, and a son, Theodore. A successful stage, television and film actress by profession, Orson also co-founded the Trinity Repertory Company of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1963.
Orson’s first acting experience occurred in New York’s Lower East Side on the stage of the University Settlement House when she was three years old. At the age of six, she appeared in the play
Editha’s Burglar with Louis Calhern, at the Martin Beck Theatre (renamed the Al Hirschfield Theatre). From 1948 to 1950, she attended the Dramatic Workshop of the New School. Her professional carreer began at the Masque and Lyre Light Opera Company (later renamed American Savoyards), as leading soubrette in Gilbert and Sullivan productions, first in 1950 to 1951, and then from 1953 to 1955. During this beginning period of her carreer, she also acted in various American repertory companies in Philadelphia, Washington, Toledo, and Los Angeles.
Orson appeared in more than one hundred productions at Trinity Repertory Company, including a televised broadcast for PBS of Adrian Hall's and Richard Cumming's play about Oscar Wilde,
Feasting with Panthers in 1974, and toured with the company to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in 1968. The wide-spectrum of roles she played included portrayals of: the Ghost of Christmas Present and Mrs. Fezziwig in
A Christmas Carol; Nurse Edna in
The Cider House Rules; Madame Ranyevskaya in
The Cherry Orchard; Christine Mannon in
Morning Becomes Electra; Lady Audley in
Lady Audley’s Secret; Ethel Rosenberg in
Angels in America, Part 1; and Jack’s Mother in
Into the Woods. She also produced several of Trinity Rep's productions, including
Uncle Vanya and the double bill
American Dream and
The Death of Bessie Smith. Orson's other professional credits outside of Trinity Rep include a featured role in the independent film
Mission Hill (1982) as well as appearances in productions by such renown companies as the Yale Repertory Company, the American Repertory Theatre, the Dallas Theatre Center, and the Williamstown (Mass.) Theatre Festival.
Trinity Repertory Theatre
Since its founding in 1963 by Orson and other residents from the Rhode Island area, Trinity Repertory Company has evolved into one of the most respected regional theatres in the country. From its roots in Providence's Trinity United Methodist Church, the company moved in 1973 to its present location in an historic movie theatre in downtown Providence, reconfigured to house two performance spaces. Adrian Hall became the company's first artistic director and remained in that role until 1989, where he played a pivotal role in its transformation from a small community theatre to a nationally prominent resident theatre. In 1977, the company established the Trinity Rep Conservatory to serve as a training ground for actors; and in 2001, the company and Brown University together established the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA programs for degrees in acting and directing.
In 1966,Trinty Repertory Company became the first resident professional theatre in the United States chosen to produce plays under the federally-sponsored program known as
Project Discovery, which was designed to introduce K-12 grade school students to the theatre, and has continued its participation in educational outreach to grade school students ever since. In 1968, the company performed at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, the first American theater company to do so. It also toured to major venues throughout the country, including the ANTA Theater on Broadway, and theatres in Phoenix, Cincinnati, Washington DC, and Boston. In 1981, Trinity Rep performed the works of John Steinbeck and Sam Shepard in India and Syria on a six-week United States Information Agency-sponsored tour. The company received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater Company in 1981, produced several television productions for PBS, and continues its legacy as the linchpin of Providence's arts and entertainment district and one of Rhode Island's largest arts organizations.
Sources:
Trinity Square Playhouse Presents.... Providence: Trinity Repertory Co., n.d. Print.
The Pell Awards for Excellence in the Arts. Providence: Trinity Repertory Co., 2002. Print
Trinity Square Repertory Company: a Brief History. Providence: Trinity Repertory Co., n.d. Print.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Repertory_Company
Collection information
The Barbara Orson papers includes an array of personal and professional documentation, including correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, sheet music, scrapbooks, and ephemera. It also includes remarkable collections of photographs and assorted printed materials, as well as a small number of audio and video cassettes and a few artifacts. Most of these materials are related to the theatre and mostly connected to Orson's professional engagement with it. Of note are the materials that document her stellar career as one of the co-founders and principle actresses of the Trinity Repertory Company of Providence, R.I., from 1963 until 2006.
Series 1,
Correspondence, includes letters, postcards, and greeting cards from family and friends, as well from professional associates, including such well-known figures as Adrian Hall, co-founder and former director of Trinity Rep, and Robert Brustein, founder, and former director of both Yale Repertory and the American Repertory Theatre. It also includes letters and note cards from fans. Small in scope, this series nevertheless offers a glimpse into both her private and professional life.
Series 2,
Personal materials, contains a variety of documents, including various awards, a junior high school diploma, and a spectrum of resumes that were revised and updated over the years. Other items in this series include a composition notebook, an autograph book, and an early diary, as well as a small assortment of memorabilia associated with individual family members. Audition records, acting contracts, and clippings of reviews of theatrical productions from newspapers and magazines round out this series.
Series 3,
Trinity Repertory Company, represents the heart of this collection due to its substantive collection of documents associated with Trinity Rep, dating from its founding in 1963 to 2006, and corresponding to Orson's professional tenure there. It includes a few scattered administrative records in the form of memoranda, performance schedules, company stationary, and inventories, as well as files referencing various Trinity Rep colleagues, including the directors Adrian Hall, Anne Bogart, and Oskar Eustis, composer Richard Cumming, and actors Richard Jenkins and Barbara Meek. It also contains files on various Trinity Rep productions including assorted research materials, clippings of press releases and reviews, and some study guides issued by Project Discovery, a program Trinity Rep participated in that was co-sponsored by the National Education Association and designed to introduce grade-school students to the theater arts. A substantive collection of scripts from Trinity Rep productions, many with marginalia in the form of annotations about stage directions and other mnemonic acting references, are also an integral part of this series. Of special note is its strong collection of printed materials issued by the theatre, including booklets, brochures, flyers, and a substantive library of theatre programs.
Series 4,
Theatre (non-Trinity Rep), comprises an assortment of theatre-related materials mainly associated with Orson's acting career outside of Trinity Rep. Like Series 3, it includes production files from various film and stage projects, as well as an assortment of scripts, some of which also include marginalia. It also incorporates documents about colleagues and theatres, and an interesting assortment of theatre programs from non-Trinity Rep productions.
Series 5,
Photographs, includes a significant and informative assortment of photographs, most of which are connected to the personal and professional life of Orson. It includes portraits of the Orson family, as well as snapshots from their vacations and holiday celebrations. It also contains a large collection of stage shots of productions from various theatres spanning Orson's entire career, beginning in the early 1950s when she was leading soubrette in Gilbert and Sullivan plays produced by The Masque and Lyre Light Opera Company until her retirement decades later. Of special note is the collection of professional stage shots from Trinity Rep.
Series 6,
Printed materials, is comprised of an eclectic assortment of monographs and serial publications connected to the theatre, including a number of published plays, as well as a few scattered issues from various periodicals, the majority of which include articles about the theatre in general or about Trinity Rep in particular.
Series 7,
Sheet music, is a small collection of sheet music from a few theatrical productions.
Series 8,
Ephemera, also small in scope, includes a small assortment of invitations, flyers, and a collection of clippings from newspapers and magazines predominantly about Trinity Rep.
Series 9,
Audio cassettes includes a National Public Radio piece with Adrian Hall, and an interview with Oskar Eustas.
Series 10,
, Video cassettes, includes coverage of the Pell Awards ceremony in which Orson was an honoree, a documentary on Trinity Rep, and the movie, Mission Hill, in which Orson had a principle role.
Series 11,
Artifacts, also small in scope, includes drawings of costume designs by William Lane of Trinity Rep, handmade greeting cards, two small Trinity Rep posters, and a few prints, including a portrait of the celebrated Anglo-American stage actress, Fanny Davenport. Two costume pieces, mementos collected by Orson, are also a part of this series: a feathered headdress from the play Uncle Tom's Cabin; and a nurse's photo identification card from the play Underground.
Series 12,
Scrapbooks, contains two oversized scrapbooks focused on Orson's career, both of which include a rich variety of textual and visual documentation.
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Barbara Orson Papers, Ms.2011.036, Brown University Library.
This collection is divided into 12 series. Several of the series include subseries. All the files within each series or subseries are arranged by topic.
- Series 1. Correspondence
- Series 2. Personal Materials
- Series 3. Trinity Repertory Theatre
- Series 4. Theatre (non-Trinity)
- Series 5. Photographs
- Series 6. Printed materials
- Series 7. Sheet music
- Series 8. Ephemera
- Series 9. Audio cassettes
- Series 10. Video cassettes
- Series 11. Artifacts
- Series 12. Scrapbooks