Donate your theater programs to the L.A. Public Library

Program from 19th century, Shirley says

When he was the Los Angeles Times theater writer, Don Shirley took over from Dan Sullivan the chore of delivering old programs to the Central Library. Since he left the Times in 2006, Shirley's theater-going has increased, and so has his accumulation of programs at home. So he took them all down to the library the other day and had a look around.

David Kelly, the senior librarian in the literature and fiction department on the third floor of the Central Library, was glad to show me some of the highlights. But in retrospect, I realize that I didn’t allow nearly enough time to get more than a cursory glimpse of the library’s holdings.

The library has more than 30,000 programs, mostly from Southern California productions, dating back to the 1880s, as well as some programs from other parts of the world. And it has a lot more items, beyond programs, that should attract attention from the LA theatrical community.

The Audrey Skirball-Kenis Unpublished Play Collection contains more than 800 bound scripts of unpublished plays that have been produced in the LA area, with reviews and bios of the playwrights. Scrapbooks, maintained over decades, include reviews and less opinionated articles about LA theater dating back to 1937.

There's a history book on Los Angeles theater waiting to be written, Shirley says.

Fun on the LAPL website: Old menus of Los Angeles restaurants