Records of Glasgow Unity Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland

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Scope and Content

Records relating to the Glasgow Unity Theatre including scripts, programmes, posters, scrapbooks, production and administrative papers 1941-1951, 1966.

Includes:

Abstracts of account 1946
Press cutting book 1946-1947
Press cuttings concerning the revival of the Glasgow Unity Theatre 1966
Photographs of members and staff of the Glasgow Unity Theatre c1946-1948
Photographs of productions 1944-1947
Material relating to the production and tour of Robert McLeish's The Gorbals Story, including the original typescript, 1946-1950
Letters and other material relating to various members of the theatre c1941-c1951, includes letters to Avrom Greenbaum, 1948-1949
Scrapbooks, correspondence and press cuttings of Ena Lamont Stewart, playwright, relating to the Glasgow Unity Theatre c1941-c1951
Papers of George Munro (1901-1968), playwright, c1941-c1951
Programmes and press cuttings relating to the Paisley Unity Theatre c1947-1950
Programmes and press cuttings relating to the Western Repertory Theatre, c. 1951.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Glasgow Unity Theatre Company was instituted under the impetus of the Unity Theatre Movement in Britain and was formed from amateur clubs in Glasgow, Scotland - the Workers' Theatre Group, the Clarion Players, the Glasgow Players, the Transport Players and the Glasgow Jewish Institute players. It was committed to a socialist viewpoint and it was hoped to attract a working class audience. Its first production was in January 1941 . An attempt was made to form a professional company in 1946, the Unity Theatre Society Ltd, but financial difficulties drew this venture to a close in the late 1940s. A parallel amateur company carried on until 1951. It was revived, briefly, in 1966. Various playwrights were associated with the theatre company, including Robert McLellan (1907-1985), Ena Lamont Stewart (b. 1912), Avrom Greenbaum (1903-1963), James Barke (1905-1958), and Robert McLeish (b. 1912).