Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the Adams T. Rice papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

The Adams T. Rice papers, #C0238, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Adams T. Rice's daughter Olivia Hudson on October 11, 1979.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Greta Kuriger Suiter in September 2013. EAD markup completed by Greta Kuriger Suiter in September 2013.

Biographical note

Adams T. Rice was born in 1892 in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Newton Technical High School and received his PhD from Brown University in 1915. He also attended classes at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Boston Museum School of Design and completed a certificate in Engineering at Pratt Institute.

In the early 1920s Rice married the actress Helen Elizabeth Morrow. Rice and Morrow worked together at the Bonstelle Stock Company in Detroit, Michigan. In total Rice worked for 18 years with the Bonstelle Stock Companies (Detroit Civic Theatre) as a Stage Manager, Technical Director, and Stage Director. Throughout his career in the theatre he held jobs as Stage Manager for the Northampton Players, The Copley Players in Boston, and Director for the Clair Tree Major Players. He was both owner and director of "The Detroit Players" a traveling dramatic tent show, and spent five summers with various circuses as Lot Superintendent and Transportation Manager. He created the traveling lecture "The Magic of Science" and performed it on the east coast from New York to Boston. Later in his career he was the Director of Video Effects for the Bunin Motion Picture Studio, and created video effects for the Lucky Pup TV program. He also spent time teaching, working as an electrical engineer, designing exhibits for the N.Y. Worlds Fair, and wrote several children's plays.

Scope and Content

The Adams T. Rice papers consists of newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, and programs relating to theatre in Detroit, Michigan, the Federal Theatre Project, and Rice's lecture "The Magic of Science." Material was collected by Rice and dates from the 1920s to 1960, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1920s to the 1930s.

Material related to the Federal Theatre Project includes newspaper clippings and programs for the productions: American Holiday, Class of '29, Ethiopia, A Hero is Born, It Can't Happen Here, Murder in the Cathedral, and the Sun and I. Also related to the Federal Theatre Project is the publication Red Spotlight, the WPA Federal Theatre Unit Communist Party newsletter. The scrapbooks document the Rice's work with the Bonstelle Company, the Detroit Players, and the Federal Theatre Project.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

Related Material

The Works Progress Administration oral histories collection, the Federal Theatre Project collection, the Federal Theatre Project photograph collection, as well as numerous other personal papers.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Actors -- United States
• Bonstelle, Jessie
• Children's theater
• Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)
• New Deal, 1933-1939
• Performing arts
• Rice, Adams T., 1892-
• Scrapbooks
• Theater -- United States