Brooks, Laurie Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-238

Scope and Content Note

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The Laurie Brooks Papers, 1991-2005, contain correspondence, applications, contracts, letters of recommendations, thank you notes, newspaper articles and reviews, press releases, symposia and workshop materials, typescript drafts (some with revisions), final typescripts, staged readings fliers, promptbooks, dramaturg's notes, resource materials, play response forms, programs, study guides, rehearsal notes, photographs and posters. The majority of the collection consists of drafts of plays written by Laurie Brooks for young audiences and associated production materials, 1996-2005, with the remainder of the material documenting her professional life. The papers are divided into the following series: Professional History (Box 1) and Plays (Box 2-5).

Series I: Professional History (1991-2005) consists of correspondence, applications, contracts, letters of recommendation, thank you notes, newspaper articles and reviews, press releases, symposia and workshop materials, photographs and a pencil drawing of Lowell and Nancy Swortzell. The bulk of the materials document her activities at the Nashville Children's Theatre/Mockingbird Theatre Workshops and the Bonderman Playwriting for Youth National Symposium, and her National Theatre Artist Residency at the Coterie Theatre. The arrangement is chronological.

Series II: Plays (1996-2005) shows the development of her plays from first draft typescripts, through revisions, to final typescripts. Each play is also accompanied by associated production materials, such as staged reading fliers, promptbooks, dramaturg's notes, resource materials, newspaper articles and reviews, press releases, play response forms, programs, study guides, rehearsal notes, photographs and posters. The arrangement is by play.

Dates

Creation: 1991-2005

Language of Materials

Material in English

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.

Biographical Note

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Laurie Brooks, playwright for young audiences, young adult fiction author, dramaturg, periodical editor and professor, graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1970. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Hofstra University in 1977, and her Master of Arts in Educational Theatre from New York University (NYU) in 1991.

Brooks was a professor and playwright in residence in the NYU Educational Theatre program from 1997 to 2006, where she taught the following courses: Introduction to Theatre for Young Audiences I and II, Beginning Playwriting, Advanced Playwriting, and Changing Concepts of Theatre for Children. Brooks' academic career continued as a guest professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City in 2005 and at the University of Texas at Austin in 2006.

American companies that have commissioned Brooks to create new plays, include: Hartford Children's Theatre (Imaginary Friends, 1993); Nashville Children's Theatre (Match Girls Gift, 1998); Stage One (Franklins Apprentice, 2000); The Coterie Theatre (The Wrestling Season, 1999; Tangled Web American version, 2002; Atypical Boy, 2007); and The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Everyday Heroes in conjunction with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, 2002; Brave No World, 2006). She served as Playwright in Residence at the Coterie Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri, from 2004-2005. This residency was administered by TCG (Theatre Communication Group) and funded by a Pew Charitable Trusts National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant. She was an Artist in Residence at Arizona State University from 2007 to 2008, during which she worked with students on a commissioned play titled Triangle.

Brooks has also worked in Ireland with Graffiti Theatre Company of Cork since 1996. This company commissioned, produced and premiered two of Brooks plays: Deadly Weapons and The Lost Ones. The latter play received an Irish Arts Council Commissioning Grant in 2004 and was self-published by the company in 2006. The Irish version of Tangled Web was commissioned and devised with Graffiti in 2000. Imaginary Friends, produced by Graffiti under the title The Riddle Keeper, was featured at The Scottish International Children's Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland and at The Opening Doors Festival in Dysed, Wales. Several of her plays have received multiple recognitions:

The Wrestling Season:

Awarded an Aurand Harris grant from The Children's Theatre Foundation of America, 1999.
Published in the November issue of American Theatre, a publication of TCG, 2000.
Awarded The Distinguished Play Award, Category A, Plays Primarily for Middle School and Secondary School Audiences, from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education (AATE), 2001.
Listed in the ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) Outstanding Plays for Young Audiences International Bibliography, 2002.
Selected for play development at The Kennedy Centers New Visions/New Voices, 1998.

Selkie

Selected for play development at the Bonderman Playwriting for Youth National Symposium and at The Kennedy Centers New Visions/New Voices, 1995.
Awarded the Distinguished Play Award, Category A, from AATE, 1998.
Listed in the ASSITEJ Outstanding Plays for Young Audiences International Bibliography, 1999.

Brooks has been actively involved with many American theatre organizations as follows:

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TYA/USA (formerly known as ASSITEJ/USA) Board member and publication editor for TYA Today (1999-2006).
Member of The Dramatists Guild.
Site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts (2003-2007).
Adjudicator for the Ohio Arts Council Theatre Committee (2007).
Workshop/discussion leader at: the Bonderman Playwriting for Youth National Symposium; TYA/USAs One Theatre World; the iTheatrics Festival, Atlanta, GA; and New Visions/New Voices at The Kennedy Center.
Dramaturg at the Bonderman Playwriting for Youth National Symposium and at the Coterie Theatre.
Keynote speaker at the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Conference, Los Angeles, CA, 2006.
Editor of AATEs periodical, Drama/Theatre Teacher, 1991-1994.
Featured artist at TCGs National Conference at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

Her article, Put A Little Boal in Your Theatre: A New Model for Talkbacks, appeared in American Theatre magazine. In 2008, Brooks published her first young adult novel titled Selkie Girl and began writing her second novel.

Other selected awards and honors include:

AT and T Firststage grant, supported by AT and T and TCG, for The Tangled Web, 2001.
Development of seven of her plays at the New York University New Plays for Young Audiences play reading series, 1998-2004.
AATE Charlotte B. Chorpenning Playwright Award, presented for a body of work created by a national known writer of outstanding plays for children, 2003.
AATE Distinguished Play Award, Category A, Brave No World, 2008.

Full extent

5 Box(es)

Full extent

5 Linear Feet

Additional description

Abstract

The Laurie Brooks Papers, 5 linear feet, contain the papers of Laurie Brooks, playwright for young audiences, young adult fiction author, dramaturg, periodical editor and professor, from 1991 through 2005. The majority of the collection consists of drafts of plays written by Laurie Brooks for young audiences and associated production materials, 1996-2005. The remainder of the materials documents her professional life. The papers are divided into the following two series: Professional History and Plays.

Arrangement

This collection consists of five boxes divided into two series:

Series I: Professional History
Series II: Plays

Provenance

The Laurie Brooks Papers were received from Laurie Brooks in 2007 as recorded in accession number 2007-04159; ongoing.

Related Materials

Child Drama Collection, Coterie Theatre Records, MS SC CDT-3, for Laurie Brooks plays commissioned or performed by the Coterie Theatre, 1999-2009.

Child Drama Collection, Graffiti Theatre Records, MSS-205, for Laurie Brooks plays commissioned or performed by Graffiti, 1996, 1998, 2005, and 2009.

Child Drama Collection Periodicals, TYA/Today, CTS-10, Volume 16, number 2, 2002 through Volume 19, number 1, 2005 for periodicals edited by Laurie Brooks.

Child Drama Collection Periodicals, Drama/Theatre Teacher, CTS-3, Volume 4, number 1, 1991 through Volume 6, number 4, 1994 for periodicals edited by Laurie Brooks.

Processing Note

This collection was processed as part of a NHPRC Archives-Basic Projects-Basic Processing grant, which limits processing to the series and subseries level when needed and does not allow the creation of file or folder listings. The collection was processed by Anna Uremovich, NHPRC Project Archivist, Child Drama Collection, in June 2009.