International Play Catalogue – Theatre Without Borders

TWB Archives

University of Iowa Library Special Collections

As of June 2023, TWB is thrilled to announce that the University of Iowa Special Collections, as part of the University of Iowa Libraries, has accepted and now maintains the Theatre Without Borders (TWB) Archives. This donation was made with abundant thanks to University of Iowa faculty member and TWB core-member Lisa Schlesinger, along with TWB co-founder and co-director Catherine Filloux. The University of Iowa Theatre Department is pleased to partner with TWB in receiving the donation, as the university has created a new theatre arts & social change certificate program. The University of Iowa Special Collections “advances direct engagement in learning, research, and creative work through providing staff expertise and exceptional collections on our campus and worldwide. We acquire, preserve, and make available primary sources in many areas and across many disciplines and historical periods. We nourish creative research, learning, and teaching for a broad audience. We emphasize the artefactual nature of our materials, but encourage additional interaction with them by providing digitized versions.”

The records of Theatre Without Borders (TWB), donated to the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Archives in 2021, are now open for research. The collection contains 7 linear feet of administrative files, conference materials, subject files on theatre arts activities around the world, scripts, and more dating from 1983 to 2020. Theatre Without Borders is a global, all-volunteer, grassroots, virtual community that shares information and builds connections between individuals and institutions interested in international theatre and performance exchange. The University of Iowa’s Department of Theatre Arts is pleased to have the collection available to students enrolled in the Social Justice and Performing Arts Certificate that launched in fall 2022. The department regularly hosts artists from TWB, including on several occasions in recent years, enriching student experience with the opportunity to discuss international artistic collaboration with active practitioners. Department Chair Mary Beth Easley notes that, “to have access to the work of Theatre Without Borders and to build relationships with their affiliated artists expands the world view of our students and will empower members of our university body and our broader community to imagine new possibilities, to believe that their own stories are worth living and re-telling.”

The New York Library for the Performing Arts Theatre Without Borders Special Collections

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, one of the Library’s renowned research libraries, houses one of the world’s most extensive combinations of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field.

From 2005-2006, TWB organized a major solicitation of exciting new plays from around the world. We did this by contacting over 60 colleagues in countries worldwide. We received almost 60 plays both already in English translation and also in original languages such as Persian, Spanish, German, French, Arabic and others. This solicitation was inspired by a connection instigated by Samantha Schnee of Words Without Borders (www.wordswithoutborders.com) a wonderful e-magazine that shares international literature in translation. The Translation Project culminated in the e-publication of the March 2006 e-issue of Words Without Borders, in which a selection of the plays in our collection were featured.

It remains the goal of TWB to support the exchange of dramatic literature in translation and to that end, we contacted The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis (www.pwcenter.org) and they agreed to post a selection of the plays on their Playwrights Gallery. In addition, many of the produced, unpublished plays are now available in manuscript form in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City (www.nypl.org/research/lpa), donated by Theatre Without Borders.

To learn about the Theatre Without Borders Collection at the New York Library for the Performing Arts:

Go to http://catnyp.nypl.org/ search under title for Theatre Without Borders and you should get 2 listings. Click on Theatre Without Borders collection, you should get the catalog record. Then click on “collection guide” (in brown) and you should get the finding aid. Or read more.

You can visit the manuscripts in person by going to:

Billy Rose Theatre Collection
Third Floor, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, NY, NY 10023-7498 Tel: 212-870-1639