Anne V. McGravie Papers

Processing Information

Please note that current Chicago Public Library staff has only minimally processed the material. Many of the donated materials were loose and intermixed upon arrival. When possible, identifying information was used to reunite loose materials by title or topic. However, portions of typescript drafts may not be sequential in folders and folders may contain portions of different drafts. This is especially the case with undated documents.

Abstract

Anne V. McGravie (1926-2022) was a Scottish-born playwright and author who lived and worked in Chicago. Her plays include the Jeff Award-winning WRENS, The Cairn Stones, The Poppy Garden, Bags, Alice and Margo and The Radiance of a Thousand Suns: The Hiroshima Project, a collaboration with Nicholas Patricca at Bailiwick Repertory. The collection is composed primarily of scripts and other writings along with notes, research and production materials for plays that were staged. Additional materials include contracts, correspondence, diaries, photographs and other biographical materials.

Biographical/Historical

Anne V. McGravie (1926-2022) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1943, McGravie enlisted in the British Women’s Royal Naval Service, or the WRNS and spent most of World War II in Great Britain’s Orkney Islands. This experience inspired her Jeff Jefferson award-winning play, WRENS, that explores women’s roles in the armed forces. Following the war, McGravie came to the U.S. where she worked in educational publishing. By the mid-1960s, she shifted her writing to the theater and emerged as an award-winning playwright whose work was produced in Chicago and elsewhere.

In the 1980s, Commons Theatre produced The Life and Death of Anna May Wong, about the pioneering Chinese American movie star and Oona and the Oyster Girl. In 1992, Organic Theater produced A Few Simple Truths. WRENS was staged several times in Chicago, first at the Footsteps Theatre and later at the Organic Theater and the Rivendell Theatre and won three Jeff Jefferson Awards. After being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 60, McGravie wrote The Poppy Garden, a dark comedy about women with breast cancer that was produced by Footsteps Theatre in 1993. In 1995, McGravie collaborated on writing The Radiance of a Thousand Suns: The Hiroshima Project for Bailiwick Repertory. The production won a Jeff Jefferson Committee Citation in 1996. In 2013, at age 87, McGravie published her first novel, Dancing on Ashes. Two more of her plays, The Clown Next Door and A Stone-cold Case, were staged in the early 2010s. Her other notable plays include The Cairn Stones, Bags and Alice and Margo.

Scope and Contents

Anne V. McGravie (1926-2022) was a Scottish-born playwright and author who lived and worked in Chicago. Her plays include the Jeff Award-winning WRENS, The Cairn Stones, The Poppy Garden, Bags, Alice and Margo and The Radiance of a Thousand Suns: The Hiroshima Project, a collaboration with Nicholas Patricca at Bailiwick Repertory.

The collection is composed primarily of scripts and other writings along with notes, research and production materials for plays that were staged. Additional materials include contracts, correspondence, diaries, photographs and other biographical materials.

Arrangement

The Anne V. McGravie Papers are arranged into three Series:

• Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1949-2019
• Series 2: Plays and Theatrical Works, 1975-2014
• Series 3: Other Writings, 1965-2016

Separations

Approximately 3 linear feet of duplicated materials and unrelated materials were discarded.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Access to some audiovisual material and computer files may not be possible due to available replay equipment or to state of physical media. Tapes have not been checked to ensure content or playability. Titles and other descriptive information are as written on packages. Based on the information written on the floppy disks, it is probable that the contents were printed and researchers should consult those files.

Subject Headings

• McGravie, Anne
• Plays
• Playwriting
• Theater -- Photographs
• Theater -- 20th century -- Sources
• Theater -- History -- Sources

Related Collections

• Bailiwick Repertory Records
• Commons Theatre Records
• Organic Theater Records
• Nicholas A. Patricca Papers
• Steppenwolf Theatre Company Records
• Victory Gardens Theater Records

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1949-2019

Scope and Contents

Series 1 contains biographical materials related to McGravie’s work as an author, playwright and educator. The materials include awards, contracts, correspondence, diaries, photographs and theatrical instruction materials.

Arrangement

Series 1 is arranged alphabetically by topic.

Series 2: Theatrical Works, 1975-2014, undated

Scope and Contents

Series 2 contains scripts and other writings related to theatrical performances along with notes, research and production materials for plays that were staged. Unless otherwise noted, the scripts and drafts are typescript.

Arrangement

Series 2 is arranged alphabetically by title or topic.

Series 3: Other Writings, 1965-2016, undated

Scope and Contents

Series 3 contains typescripts, drafts and publications of McGravie’s stories, articles and her novel, Dancing on Ashes. Research files for some of these publications are also included.

Arrangement

Series 3 is arranged alphabetically by title or topic.