Houghton Library Fellowship (Weeks 1 & 2)

Hi from Boston/Cambridge--

I'm on Fellowship this month at the Harvard Theatre Collection at the Houghton Library--a large and incredibly rich archive where I could probably spend a year, not just four weeks. With me is the ever-delightful Emily Friedman (or, as her ID says, "Friendman," which is also appropriate).

I've looked at contracts and letters from Dorothy Jordan that reveal the sometimes blunt and sometimes intricate dances she did with managers around her relationship with the Duke of Clarence; I've read beautiful letters from Sarah Siddons that show the deep worth and value she placed on female friendships.

I've seen fascinating theatrical contracts from the mid-19th century that specify the lines of business an actor was hired to play (the importation of a more rigid French system than was used in the 18th century British theatre). Fun fact: they either ran out of or didn't bother to print specific contracts for husbands and wives (women couldn't sign a contract on their own behalf if married), so the theatre used printed contracts designed for "Parent & Child" arrangements instead.

SO THAT'S INFURIATING. But also a powerful way of understanding theatre history.

This week, I started a dive into extra-illustrated biographies (think scrapbooks made by fans collecting letters, engravings, watercolors, drawings, playbills, tickets---whatever they could find to bring the text to life--or, if you're one of my Dramaturgy students, think the most epic annotated script/glossary you can think of).

WOW.

They have a lot, and each one is a treasure trove. At the moment, the only way to know what's in them is a literal card catalogue in the physical reading room (shout out to the many cataloguer/librarians it took to create this). I spent an entire morning combing through the material connected to Dorothy Jordan (nearly half a drawer), and then trying to find the corresponding entry in the online catalogue. Thanks to the expertise of those working the reading room (all of the cataloguers and curators take turns, so the font of knowledge is incredible), we were able to figure out how I could get my grubby little hands* on some truly remarkable volumes.

In fact, I've been so wrapped up in reading, writing, and archiving, that I totally forgot to post an update last week! This is the revised schedule I made myself...it's slightly out of date, but I'm working on it.

This week, I'm digging into the Introduction, for which the overhaul is both minimal and fairly intricate. Structurally, it's fine, but there's some necessary context I'm going to need to lay out there that was initially going into the broad, thematic chapters in the first half of the book.

And I've got some good eyes on my book proposal draft, so hopefully I'll wrap that up this week as well and can put together a packet by the end of the month.

This weekend, in keeping with the value I found earlier this year in Seeing the Big Picture, I took a pass through the first chapter as well, just to remind myself of the revisions it will need. I hoped to do the second as well, but, honestly, I needed a mental health half day, so I took it.

On the writing front, I've finished a revision of my Dorothy Jordan chapter for an iteration of the book that takes a series of case studies as its structure and celebrity studies as its primary frame. I also cut about 3500 words out of it, which makes me really pleased.

*not grubby at all, always freshly washed.