Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from Theater of the First Amendment records must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Theater of the First Amendment records, #R0147, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts in August 2015. Set designs donated by Jason Rubin in August 2016.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Michael Hogan in May 2016. Set design processing completed by Cassie Vay in late Summer 2016. EAD markup completed by Michael Hogan in May 2016, revised by Elizabeth Beckman in October 2016.

Historical Information

The Theater of the First Amendment (TFA) was founded in 1990 by current George Mason University Professor Paul D'Andrea and operated until 2012. The TFA was a professional theater company that operated in Fairfax, Virginia and was in residence at George Mason University's Center for the Arts. Since its inception, the TFA produced nearly 44 full productions and a vast quantity of staged readings for new and aspiring playwrights to present their works. The productions created by the TFA have accumulated twelve Helen Hayes Awards and have been nominated thirty-seven times. Additionally, a number of the plays that originated at the TFA have been published, produced, broadcasted, and televised. The mission of the TFA was to discover, develop, and launch new thought-provoking plays. The TFA served as an artistic home to the next generation of playwrights and an incubator for new play development. The ultimate goal of Dr. D'Andrea and his colleagues was to turn the TFA into a nationally-recognized theater company that could launch local playwrights into the national spotlight. The Theater of the First Amendment's founder Dr. Paul D'Andrea currently resides as a Robinson Professor of Literature at George Mason University. Dr. D'Andrea earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in physics and later returned to Harvard to complete a doctorate degree in literature. Dr. D'Andrea experienced great success as a playwright and created many award winning plays including "The Trouble with Europe," "A Full Length Portrait of America" and "The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay." He has taught at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota. Currently, Dr. D'Andrea teaches courses on topics such as Renaissance art, philosophy and literature; views of gender from Aristophanes through "Much Ado about Nothing" to "Sex and the City"; the moral vision of contemporary drama; and Shakespeare. He has written screenplays and is interested in linking the humanities and the arts through contemporary media.

Scope and Content

The Theater of the First Amendment collection consists of twenty-six boxes that primarily contain play scripts created between 1990 and 2012.The plays included in this collection were created by playwrights associated with the Theater of the First Amendment and were, in many cases, performed at the George Mason University Center for the Arts. In addition to the play scripts, some folders contain various production materials and media items. These production materials include costume descriptions, stage directions and setup instructions, photographs, photographic negatives, VHS videotapes of productions, compact disks containing soundtracks for plays, proposed and accepted grants, and schedules for upcoming seasons. The collection also contains set designs by Jason Rubin for seven plays dating between 1992 and 2000.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in two series:

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds many other theatre collections.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Theater of the First Amendment