Exit stage right - Irish theater manuscripts in America

The newly acquired Leonard L. Milberg Collection of Irish Theater will open to the public in the fall of 2006. Currently, the collection includes the work of 82 Irish playwrights and 10 Irish theater companies and numbers well over 1,000 items. Several major twentieth-century Irish playwrights were not included in this collection, such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and W. B. Yeats, because the Princeton Library already has extensive holdings. Here, again, is a perfect example of American intent and Irish willing to expect America to produce the stage for Irish theatre as it sees fit. What is important here is to note that the collection will grow, if and when Ireland produces any theatre of worth, and American academics will continue to present the Irish stage as they see fit.