Princeton University. Theatre Intime

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Theatre Intime was founded in 1919 by a small group of Princeton undergraduates interested in writing and producing original plays. Quickly growing in popularity, in the fall of 1921 it obtained the use of Murray Theater, which had theretofore served as a chapel, on the Princeton campus. Murray has been Intime's home ever since.

Throughout its history, Theatre Intime has remained a student-run organization. With a few notable exceptions, Intime has maintained itself without financial support from the university. Intime produces all manner of performances--dramas, tragedies, comedies, and musicals, as well as monologues, magic shows, and folk sings. Historically, its members have shown an interest in lesser-known or less-often performed works, as well as in student-written plays. Over the years, several plays have enjoyed their American or world premiers with Intime: in the spring of 1921, John Milton's Samson Agonistes was the first such debut. It was followed by such plays as Tolstoy's Tsar Fyodor Ivanovitch (1929), Jules Romains' Give the Earth a Little Longer (Spring 1942), Jean Cocteau's The Typewriter (Fall 1949), John O'Hara's Searching Sun (Spring 1952), and W.H. Auden's Age of Anxiety (Spring 1960).

For its first fifty years, the group experienced alternating periods of creativity and growth and times when membership and interest in the group sagged. The period before World War II saw the company's focus shift from encouraging student playwriting to acting and directing professional plays. This new focus was most visible in the years 1929-1933, when James Stewart, Joshua Logan, Myron McCormick, Norris Houghton, Bretaigne Windust, and others were student members. Originally set up as almost a private club for its members, whose audiences were admitted by invitation only, Intime quickly grew to become a more open stage company. Intime's relationship with the Triangle Club was especially reciprocal in this era.

During World War II, Intime's activities were suspended. After the war, club veterans returned to reorganize the group. During the years 1947-1954, the group began experimenting with new playwrights and artists: works by Sartre, Cocteau, and Giradoux appeared during these years, soon to be followed by Albee, Ionesco, Pirandello, Beckett, Camus, and Brecht. The years from 1955 to 1966 proved difficult for Intime, as student apathy discouraged and often foiled the troupe's efforts.

The greatest turning point in Intime's history occurred during the 1970s. Student enthusiasm about theatre in general increased markedly in these years, reflecting cultural changes of the times, and the beginning of coeducation provided a great deal of new talent. Membership rules were loosened, and an atmosphere of creativity and openness inspired not only experimental and avant-garde performances, but also an expanded season of up to ten plays, compared to the four-or-five-play seasons of the 1950's. Since this time, Intime has enjoyed consistent popularity and organizational good health.

Throughout Intime's history, its members often sought to run summer seasons. The early 1930's, late 1940's, 1950's, and the period since 1968 all saw successful summer efforts. Theatre Intime's members were often involved in summer theatre projects. This collection contains materials for summer seasons from 1928-1931 and 1968 onward. However, Intime members also succeeded in staging shows during the summers 1928 to 1931 (with students from Harvard and other universities in Falmouth, Massachusetts), 1948 to 1950, and 1953 to 1960, under the name University Players, in the summer of 1962 as the Princeton Players, and in the 1970s as Summer Intime.

For a more detailed account of Theatre Intime's development over the years, please see John P. Kendall '74's English Department senior thesis, I Also Swept the Floor: Theatre Intime from 1920 to 1974 .

  • 1919 - 1920 : Le Ballet Intime Ghosts Macbeth Hamlet Pippa Passes The Glittering Gate Fame and the Poet Swine A Game of Chess Samson and Delilah Interlude The Isle of Paradise
  • 1920 - 1921 : Eureka Conigsby's Conscience The Glittering Gate Nell of Gray Gulch The Queen's Enemies The Girl Who Was Different Dr. Smiley Dines Out Bombarded by Molecules The Lost Silk Hat The Young Master's Arrival The Mousetrap A Game of Chess Dark Lady of the Sonnets If Shakespeare Were Alive Today Caroline's Christmas Will o' the Wisp Spilled Milk Swan Song The Shock The Mystic and the Mouse XV Idyl In His Image Macbeth Aria de Capo Ionnie The Younger Generation A Working Model Liluli The Little Wreck Repressed Emotions The Great Idea Behind the Beyond The Eternal Serpentine The Other Caliph Bones and the Man The Photographer Politics
  • 1921 - 1922 : Atlas Her Face The Life Machine Lulu Batt Vogner The Thirteenth Floor Shades of Hamlet DuBarry The Orchid Poetic Justice The Superman Crashes Through A Night at the Inn While the Carriage Waits The D.T.'s Samson Agonistes It's a Wise Child (Euripides Notwithstanding) Will O' the Wisp My Unknown Friend After All Patelin Pays The Other Foot The Better Man Pourquoi Chantent-Ils? Oedipus Rex Hidden Treasure Putting It Across Man of Destiny The Shadow in the Dark
  • 1922 - 1923 : The Royal Breed The Genesis of Timon The Cold Country Hemlocke Oake Heresy The Monkey's Paw The Bourgeois Bohemian The Pearl and the Pistol Le French Farce Bound East for Cardiff The Suicides The Photographer A College Education Flashes of Steel
  • 1923 - 1924 : The Clod The Pot Boiler A Night at the Inn Generalissimo The Judgement of Pallas Gaffer The Shadow in the Dark The Better Man A Game of Chess The Better Angel Retainers of the Moon Odd Proposals The Way Across Felipe Spume of the Sea
  • 1924 - 1925 : The Hero of Santa Maria Nocturne The Silent Protector Magic How He Lied to Her Husband Simon's Hour Bursting the Barriers Fratricide Punished Romio and Julietta While the Carriage Waits Among the Sands St. Patrick's Day or The Scheming Lieutenant Nassau Street Follies
  • 1925 - 1926 : Where the Cross Is Made Wurzel The Proposal Two Crooks and a Lady A Good Woman Augustus Does His Bit Candida The Dover Road
  • 1926 - 1927 : Doctor Faustus Shore The Lady in the Chair Make Believe Confessional Saint Joan Outward Bound Hamlet
  • 1927 - 1928 : Caesar and Cleopatra Open Collars The Wild Duck The Truth About Blayds The Devil's Disciple
  • Summer 1928: The Dover Road Beyond the Horizon The Torchbearers The Jest In the Next Room The New Way Is Zat So The Thirteenth Chair
  • 1928 - 1929 : Much Ado About Nothing Crocodiles Are Happy Tsar Fyodor Ivanovitch The Torchbearers The Old Timer
  • Summer 1929: The Devil in the Cheese The Donovan Affair The Last of Mrs. Cheyney Outward Bound The Last Warning Merton of the Movies Crime The Bad Man The Czarina The Constant Nymph
  • 1929 - 1930 : The Barker Time Is a Dream Androcles and the Lion The Intruder Othello The Right Sort
  • Summer 1930: Murray Hill The Wooden Kimono The Watched Pot Thunder on the Left The Makropoulos Secret The Masque of Venice The Firebrand Hell Bent for Heaven The Marquise A Kiss for Cinderella
  • 1930 - 1931 : The Pigeon The Lady and the Slave Our Last Run Three Artists and a Lady Man and the Masses The Play's the Thing
  • Summer 1931: Paris Bound Interference Mr. Pim Passes By Coquette Her Cardboard Lover The Trial of Mary Dugan The Guardsman Juno and the Paycock The Silent House The Italian Straw Hat
  • 1931 - 1932 : Dr. Knock Never Mind the Scotch Tribunal The Hairy Ape The Phoenix Nest Nerissa
  • 1932 - 1933 : Under the Undercurrent Entertaining Ginny Sutherland The Thing a Man Loves Joe Time of Their Lives Outside Looking In Froth and Foam
  • 1933 - 1934 : Bird in Hand Tarneed The Young and the Miserable Twitch Twaddle
  • 1934 - 1935 : Three Cornered Moon The Lawyer The Pope's End Holiday
  • 1935 - 1936 : Spread Eagle Children of Darkness Pastorale Bitter Tulips Job Talk of the Town Peer Gynt
  • 1936 - 1937 : The Importance of Being Earnest Awhile to Work The Great God Brown The Father The Tempest
  • 1937 - 1938 : Time of Their Lives Volpone The Undiscovered Country Falstaff The Beaux Stratagem
  • 1938 - 1939 : Hamlet The Play's The Thing We Rileys Man of Destiny Bury the Dead The School for Scandal
  • 1939 - 1940 : The Front Page Macbeth There Was A Young Man Romeo and Juliet Raise You Five
  • 1940 - 1941 : Our Boys Troilus and Cressida Time of Their Lives The Lawyer Raise You Six
  • 1941 - 1942 : Jim Dandy Three White Leopards The Importance of Being Earnest Gabbatha Give the Earth a Little Longer Come What April
  • 1945 - 1946 : Break the Ice!
  • 1946 - 1947 : Blithe Spirit The Critic The Scheming Lieutenant Twilight Bar Make Mine Sherry
  • 1947 - 1948 : High Tor The Imaginary Invalid Richard II One on the House
  • Summer 1948: No Exit How He Lied to Her Husband The Beautiful People Yes Is for a Very Young Man
  • 1948 - 1949 : Yes Is for a Very Young Man The Cenci A Christmas Carol Heartbreak House The Glass Roadblock Highway Interlude Renegades Boy Meets Girl
  • Summer 1949: The Vegetable Cathleen Ni Houlihan Purgatory The End of the Beginning The Streets of New York The Spring Tree Yoke Sophocles' Oedipus Rex Engaged The Respectful Prostitute Master Pierre Patelin Arms and the Man Measure for Measure
  • 1949 - 1950 : The School for Scandal The Typewriter King Lear The Crisis The Gas Chamber The Spring Tree Yoke Captain Brassbound's Conversion
  • Summer 1950: Coriolanus An Inspector Calls Too Many Thumbs The Family Reunion Major Barbara Anna Christie She Stoops to Conquer
  • 1950 - 1951 : The Importance of Being Earnest The Petrified Forest Henry IV Volpone Children of the World Up Running River The Assassins
  • 1951 - 1952 : The Trojan War Will Not Take Place Past Reason The Carnival A Modern Romance The Searching Sun Adam's Sons
  • 1952 - 1953 : Antigone Othello The White Rooster Gordium Craylor Sabbath Woman at the Inn The Drunkard/anonymous
  • Summer 1953: The Rose Tattoo The Devil's Disciple The Infernal Machine Hello Out There The Apollo of Bellac Red Peppers An Italian Straw Hat The Tempest
  • 1953 - 1954 : Arms and the Man Henry IV, Part I The Captain and the King The God Within Reflexions One Too Many Tartuffe
  • Summer 1954: Camino Real Right You Are Penny for a Song Theatre of the Soul Queens of France Village Wooing Ghosts She Loves Me Not Alice in Wonderland Geral Loves Sandra Loves Paxon Twelfth Night
  • 1954 - 55 : Murder in the Cathedral The Victors The Knight of the Burning Pestle Shark Reflections La Joconde (Smiling Lady) At the Gates Love for Love
  • 1955 - 1956 : Liliom Clash by Night No Man Is an Island The Hearing or Trial by Committee The Travelers The Braggart Warrior
  • Summer 1956: Saint Joan Charley's Aunt Blood Wedding The Grass Harp The Father Ring Round the Moon The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden Bedtime Story As You Like It
  • 1956 - 1957 : Alcestis Androcles and the Lion Measure for Measure Bound East for Cardiff Reflexions The Second Prayer The Golden Comedy of Belshazzar White Lies The Caine Mutiny
  • Summer 1957: A Streetcar Named Desire Skin of Our Teeth Heartbreak House The Enchanted The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa in the Garden The Wedding Thieves' Carnival Shadow of a Gunman Love's Labour Lost Lord Byron's Love Letter
  • 1957 - 1958 : Hello Out There Sweeney Agonistes The Rainmaker The Alchemist The Glass Menagerie Mother Loves Me: A Freudian Fable Robert November Afternoon His Brother's Company
  • Summer 1958: A View from the Bridge The Match Maker Legends of Lovers The Burnt Flower Bed Light Up the Sky Auto-Da-Fe The Case of the Crushed Petunias The Unsatisfactory Supper Misalliance Purple Dust The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • 1958 - 1959 : A Masque of Reason World Without End Beyond the Horizon The Revenger's Tragedy Ondine Mr. First The King's Birthday The Second Eclipse
  • Summer 1959: Playboy of the Western World The Play's the Thing Waiting for Godot The Philanderer Romeo and Juliet The Boyfriend
  • 1959 - 1960 : The Movie Man Hands Across the Sea All My Sons Escurial Age of Anxiety The Nose on Your Face Good Friday Wormwood and Soda
  • Summer 1960: Epitaph for George Dillion The Underpants The Prodigal Major Barbara An Enemy of the People Two Gentlemen of Song The Lesson Queens of France Six Characters in Search of an Author Kiss Me Kate
  • 1960 - 1961 : Purgatory Professor Taranne Recollections The Jew of Malta Woyzeck Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton The Purification La Ronde Lullaby With Malice Towards Some Such an Ostrich
  • 1961 - 1962 : The Fisherman Passion, Poison, and Petrification Charley's Aunt Henry IV Look Back in Anger Calvary A Night of the Trojan War
  • Summer 1962: The Entertainer Pots of Money Tonight We Improvise Arms and the Man The Widow Article 330 Uncle Vanya The Exception and the Rule The Beggar's Opera
  • 1962 - 1963 : Hello Out There Bedtime Story A Streetcar Named Desire The Devil's Disciple
  • 1963 - 1964 : The Potboiler The Skin of Our Teeth Kind The Zoo Story The American Dream Billy Budd
  • 1964 - 1965 : Inherit the Wind Passion, Poison, and Petrification Mister Roberts Escurial The Dumbwaiter A Man's a Man
  • 1965 - 1966 : The White Devil Sophocles' King Oedipus The Bespoke Overcoat You Can't Take It With You The Romanticks
  • 1966 - 1967 : The Gas Heart The Private Life of the Master Race Salome Little Mary Sunshine The Caretaker The Taming of the Shrew Those That I Fight The Body of an American The Cat and the Canary Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Thurber Carnival
  • 1967 - 1968 : A Thurber Carnival Under Milkwood The Balcony Man and Daemon Incident at Vichy The Misanthrope The Dumbwaiter Hamlet Luv Once Upon a Mattress Miracle
  • Summer 1968: Night of the Iguana Amphitryon The Trial Arms and the Man
  • 1968 - 1969 : The Dumbwaiter The Lesson The Clouds The Killer The World of Carl Sandburg Long Day's Journey Into Night Slow Dance on the Killing Ground The Alchemist An Irish Faustus Moby Dick Rehearsed The Madness of Lady Bright
  • Summer 1969: Little Foxes A Shot in the Dark Anne of a Thousand Days Heartbreak House The Knave of Hearts
  • 1969 - 1970 : The Red Eye of Love A Man for All Seasons The Happy Time Marat Strike Theatre
  • Summer 1970: The Eccentricities of a Nightingale The Playboy of the Western World The Homecoming Misalliance Winnie the Pooh
  • 1970 - 1971 : Zoo Story Swan Song The Threepenny Opera The Physicists Endgame Beyond the Fringe Henry IV, Part 1
  • Summer 1971: The Rainmaker Twelfth Night Joe Egg Uncle Vanya Androcles and the Lion
  • 1971 - 1972 : Beyond the Fringe Dracula Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Frogs! Phaedra The Two Executioners The Hostage Woyzeck The Philanderer
  • Summer 1972: Billy Liar Happy Birthday A Flea in Her Ear What the Butler Saw Adventures in Prooland
  • 1972 - 1973 : The Hundred and First As You Like It Electra Ten Little Indians Squanto Hay Fever
  • Summer 1973: The Philanthropist The Birthday Party The Beaux' Stratagem Tango George Washington Crossing the Delaware The Knave of Hearts
  • 1973 - 1974 : The Lover Adaptation Next Palls The Successful Life of 3 Measure for Measure Slow Dance on the Killing Ground The American Dream The Sandbox Citizen Kong 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
  • Summer 1974: Arms and the Man Luv Baby Want a Kiss Lion in Winter
  • 1974 - 1975 : The Typists The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds The Real Inspector Hound After Magritte Lovers Ubu the Cuckold The Puppet Show The Caucasian Chalk Circle The Glass Menagerie
  • Summer 1975: Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad Charley's Aunt Voice of the Turtle Golden Goose Unhealthy to Be Unpleasant (U.T.B.U.)
  • 1975 - 1976 : The Golden Fleece The Public Eye The Private Ear All's Well that Ends Well Lysistrata We're on the One Road The Marriage of Bette and Boo
  • Summer 1976: Fallen Angels The Imaginary Invalid Two for the Seesaw Picnic
  • 1976 - 1977 : How He Lied to Her Husband Old Times The Tempest Don Juan A Sea Fantasy Tonight at 8:30 The Vise Birdbath Ring Round the Moon Endgame
  • Summer 1977: Cox and Box Candida The Creation of the World and Other Business Alice Through the Looking-Glass 110 in the Shade Moonchildren
  • 1977 - 1978 : Anyone Can Whistle When You Comin' Back, Red Rider? House of Blue Leaves An Evening of Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams (One Acts) Loot
  • Summer 1978: Tartuffe Holiday Match Play The Mousetrap
  • 1978 - 1979 : Romeo and Juliet The Typists 27 Wagons Full of Cotton Patience Aeneas in Flames The Children's Hour Troilus and Cressida
  • Summer 1979: The Last of the Red Hot Lovers Towards Zero The Matchmaker After the Fall
  • 1979 - 1980 : Welcome to Andromeda Home Free The Birthday Party The Norman Conquests Hedda Gabler A Day in the Death of Joe Egg Antigone Have Trouble, Will Call
  • Summer 1980: The Devil's Disciple The Sorcerer The Mound Builders Night Watch
  • 1980 - 1981 : No Exit The Lesson The Importance of Being Earnest The Fifth Column Harvey Man Is Man The Impressario Lovers Zoo Story How We Got to Be So Great
  • 1981 - 1982 : The Lovliest Afternoon of the Year The Dumbwaiter Camino Real The Misanthrope Godspell Black Comedy Lysistrata Stage Directions Aria da Capo Scenes from American Life
  • Summer 1982: Scapino The Belle of Amherst Happy End The Freedom of the City
  • 1982 - 1983 : Jack, or The Submission An Evening of Chekhov As You Like It They Are Dying Out Adaptation Plants and Waiters Brussels! The Rimers of Eldritch Born Yesterday A Soldier's Tale The Odd Couple
  • Summer 1983: Bus Stop Talking With March of the Falsettos The Betrayal
  • 1983 - 1984 : The American Dream Miss Julie Silence The House of Blue Leaves Curculio the Weevil Pippin The Cocktail Party Nuts Dead Give-Away
  • Summer 1984: Sly Fox Angels Fall Say Goodnight, Gracie Side by Side by Sondheim
  • 1984 - 1985 : Lone Star A Nite Out Performing The Diviners The Lion in Winter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sexual Perversity in Chicago Suddenly Last Summer Julius Caesar
  • Summer 1985: Beyond Therapy The Skin of Our Teeth A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking Starting Here, Starting Now
  • 1985 - 1986 : Home Free The Maids Shivaree Blue Window Twelfth Night The Vampyre Agnes of God Sagittarius Of Mice and Men
  • 1986 - 1987 : Condemned The Dutchman Sound of a Voice Deathtrap Happy Birthday, Wanda June The Real Thing Crimes of the Heart Extremities
  • Summer 1987: Noises Off Don Juan Arms and the Man A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • 1987 - 1988 : Private Scenes Play Come & Go What Where Equus The Promise The Prisoner of Second Avenue The Serpent Aunt Dan and Lemon America, Five A.M. She Was Asking for It The Redemption of Steven Allbright The Mousetrap
  • 1988 - 1989 : Brilliant Traces Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You Benefactors In the Jungle of the Cities Hair Blood Relations Old Times Imperfect Affairs Deckbuilding Antigone The Day Room
  • 1989 - 1990 : Luv No Exit Uncommon Women A Lesson from Aloes Burn This Orphans Fool for Love Divorsosaurus A Roommate's Story Dusa, Fish, Stas, and Vi
  • 1990 - 1991 : White Stones Laundry and Bourbon Lone Star Talk Radio Hurlyburly Rhinoceros Amadeus Waiting for Godot Biloxi Blues
  • 1991 - 1992 : Here Lies Jeremy Troy Drinking in America The Foreigner Deathtrap As You Like It The Gospel of Luke Bodyhype The Rehearsal Find Me Cyrano de Bergerac The Cherry Orchard Helter Shelter Cain Bodyhype The Foreigner
  • 1992 - 1993 : Little Footsteps “Master Harold”...and the Boys The Importance of Being Earnest The House of Blue Leaves Bodyhype Noises Off Another Antigone Suddenly, Last Summer Bodyhype Solitary Confinement “Master Harold”...and the Boys
  • 1993 - 1994 : Vampire Lesbians of Sodom The Shadow Box What the Butler Saw Quipfire! Hamlet (an improvised version) Bodyhype Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune Buried Child The Tempest Steel Magnolias Quipfire! Bodyhype In a Sense Nighthawks at the Diner The Doppler Effect Greater Tuna
  • 1994 - 1995 : Quipfire! Lips Together, Teeth Apart Sexual Perversity in Chicago The Duck Variations Across the Jordan Les Liasons Dangereuses Bodyhype The Marriage of Bette and Boo Grotesque Lovesongs B.A.C. at Ya! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Our Country's Good Dime Store Zen The Maids Quipfire! Bodyhype Winfrey and the Four Dimensional Vegetarians David and Julie Last Train to Alpha Centauri Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Quipfire!
  • 1995 - 1996 : Quipfire! Six Degrees of Separation Gatsby Burn This The Bacchae Dime Store Zen Bent Daughters of Survival True West Quipfire! Bodyhype Wasted Even Nightengales Eugenica Six Degrees of Separation Quipfire!

From the guide to the Theatre Intime Records, 1919-2011, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Theatre Intime Records, 1919-2011 Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections.Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. Princeton University Archives.
referencedIn Laflin, Louis E. (Louis Ellsworth), 1898-1976. Kernodle collection of Louis E. Laflin, 1940-1973. Princeton University Library
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Ayers, Lemuel DeLos, Jr. person
associatedWith Davis, James E. person
associatedWith Houghton, Norris person
associatedWith Laflin, Louis E. (Louis Ellsworth), 1898-1976. person
associatedWith Logan, Joshua person
associatedWith McCormick, Myron person
associatedWith Princeton University Princeton Dramatic Association corporateBody
associatedWith Princeton University. Triangle Club. corporateBody
associatedWith Stewart, James, 1908-1997 person
associatedWith University Players, Inc. corporateBody
associatedWith Windust, Bretaigne, 1906-1960 person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Subject
Actors
Actresses
Princeton University
Theater/Film
Occupation
Activity

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