Theatre Research Institute

Projects include, but are not limited to, these ideas:

  • Politics and the Arts: Blacklisting
  • Exploring the way in which blacklisting and the hearings held by Joseph McCarthy’s House UnAmerican Activities Committee affected film artists and their families, using the Jeff Corey Collection as a basis. Corey was a film actor (True Grit, Little Big Man) who was blacklisted in the 1950s. In order to support his family, he gave acting lessons at his home. He was a skilled teacher and ended up having many big-name stars as his students including Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand, Carol Burnett, James Dean, Robin Williams and Leonard Nimoy.
  • Tent Shows and Vaudeville in the Early 1900’s 
Learning what it was like to tour in the days when performers travelled by train playing one-night-stands by mapping the career of Frederick and Pearl Olsen Zint, two vaudeville performers who toured with various shows throughout the Midwest in the 1920s and 30s. The Zint Collection contains diaries, photos, correspondence and postcards that provide insight into the theatre of the early twentieth century. Of special note are an extensive series of postcards that the Zint’s sent home from the towns where they were playing and the diaries of daily happenings on the road.
  • Film Advertising
  • Exploring the way in which pressbooks, press kits and/or posters were used to promote film during the mid-20th century. The Richard E. Teichert Collection, Philip Sills Collection and Rico Long Collection contain numerous examples of film advertising from this era and have holdings related to a wide array of film genres including Westerns, Horror, Science Fiction, Comedies, Thrillers, Film Noir and Epics.
  • 1960s & 70s LGBTQ Theatre
Using the Tom Eyen Collection as a basis, explore LGBTQ theatre in the 1960s and 70s. Eyen was a New York City playwright who was a pioneer in the Off Off Broadway Theatre movement. He wrote Dreamgirls, Women Behind Bars, The White Whore and the Bit Player and worked extensively with the drag queen Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead) and with Bette Midler.

For all projects: In consultation with me, each student will decide the medium in which they would like to present their information, depending upon their desired outcome. Their presentation could take the form of an online digital exhibit, a Pecha Kucha, a blog post, an interactive map, a formal paper, or something else proposed by the student.

Location: Thompson Library, Columbus campus

Faculty Librarian:

Dr. Beth Kattelman, Associate Professor / Curator of Theatre, is interested in the history of stage technologies and popular entertainments, particularly horror entertainments, ghost shows, magic, puppetry, sideshows and vaudeville.

Contact info:

kattelman.1@osu.edu

(614) 292-6614