GREAT NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY THEATRE:

The Great North American History Theatre was formed in September 1978 as the St. Paul History Theatre. It was organized under the auspices of the Community Programs in the Arts & Sciences (COMPAS.) From the start, productions were supported by federal and local grants, including funds from the Minnesota Humanities Commission. The theater specialized in dramatizing the history of St. Paul and its neighborhoods, although many plays document other events and topics in Minnesota history.

Among the productions of the first few years were stories about St. Paul's prohibition gangster era, Swedish and Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century St. Paul, a 1922 railroad strike on the city's north side, railroad magnate James J. Hill, relations between whites and Indians at Fort Snelling in 1824, St. Paul madam Nina Clifford, Minnesota football great Bronko Nagurski, and a Victorian Christmas on Summit Avenue. Most the scripts for the Theatre's original productions were researched and written by Lance S. Belville. At times, he conducted oral history interviews to use as background for his stories. Belville served as playwright-in-residence and co-artistic director along with his wife and theater founder, Lynn Lohr. In 1993 Lohr left the theatre and Belville continued as artistic director until 1995 when he also left the theater.

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Included are scripts, posters, and production files with reviews, programs, and promotional photos for most of the productions, as well as occasional files on grants and funding. There is also a set of Belville's research files used in writing the original scripts. Also included are various audio and video recordings of productions, sound effect tracks, promotional interviews, and oral history interviews conducted by Belville as background research.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Great North American History Theatre Production Files. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Accession Information:

Accession number: 16,035

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lora Bloom, October 2004

Catalog ID number: 990029576010104294

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The files include reviews and other news notices, programs and flyers, promotional photographs, and research materials. For some years there are files on grants and other funding sources.

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Files containing research materials and notes for various productions written by Lance Belville.

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The sound and visual materials relate to various productions and include recordings of productions, sound effect tracks, and interviews and other promotional recordings, as well as some advertising posters. Some of the recordings may be interviews and other research materials used by Lance Belville to write scripts.

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Related materials: audio and video recordings of a few plays are in the Minnesota Historical Society sound and visual collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Community theater -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Historical drama, American.

Theater -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Reviews.

Theater -- Production and direction -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Theater -- Public relations -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Persons:

Belville, Lance S.

Lohr, Lynn.

Organizations:

St. Paul History Theatre.

Places:

Minnesota -- History -- Drama.

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- History -- Drama.

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Intellectual life.

Document Types:

Audiocassettes.

Fliers.

Photographs.

Scripts (Documents).

Theater programs.

Videocassettes.

Occupations:

Dramatists.

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