Dorothy Heathcote (1926-2011) Collection

The Dorothy Heathcote Collection combines material collected by Anne Thurman and Betty Jane Wagner, and fills nine boxes (of which six contain audio cassettes), spanning the years 1971 to 2005. The collection sheds light on Heathcote’s methods and her influence on other drama educators. The bulk of the materials consist of transcripts from Heathcote’s sessions and courses, and audiocassettes. All materials are arranged in rough chronological order.

Magazine and Newspaper Articles and papers and interviews by Heathcote provide biographical and background information about Heathcote’s life and work. A folder relating to a proposed appearance on a Bill Moyers interview program reflects other people’s impressions of her, via their recommendations for her to appear on the show.

The Northwestern Film Series contains two folders. The first relates directly to the creation of Dorothy Heathcote film series in 1973, with descriptions, transcripts, and order forms of the Teaching Series. The second folder contains miscellaneous order forms for films from other places, as well as programs for her lectures and appearances.

Files relating to Workshops and Conferences, spanning the years 1978 to 1996, include programs and papers from four major conferences. At the Drama as Education workshop in the University of Idaho, summer of 1981, attendees agreed that an institution be created to promote Heathcote’s ideas. The folder contains correspondence relating to the institution’s founding and additional materials relating to class. The next three folders hold articles from the Drama in Education Workshop at the National College of Education (later National-Louis University) in Evanston in 1983, the Lancaster University Conference in 1993, and the University of Central England Conference in 1996. Most of these materials were collected by Betty Jane Wagner for use in her book, Drama as a Learning Medium.

Notes and Transcriptions of Sessions and Courses document a variety of events in which Heathcote taught adults or children from 1971 to 1984. The twelfth folder, “Reports on a creative drama session” (by 10 year-olds, 1972), corresponds with a film of the actual event produced by the Northwestern Film Library.

Scholarly papers based on Heathcote’s work date from 1973 to about 1983. Betty Jane Wagner’s study of Heathcote is documented in Wagner’s handwritten notes from Heathcote’s classes, as well as correspondence relating to the writing of Drama as a Learning Medium.

Six card-file-sized boxes contain Audio Cassettes of Heathcote’s lectures and classes, dating between 1972 and 1990. Most were taped by Betty Jane Wagner. The titles and descriptions of each side of the tapes have been included in the container list. Tapes in Boxes 4-7 (numbered consecutively by tape 1-95 and by side from 1-190) record Heathcote’s July, 1983, Institute, and most likely duplicate the videotapes from the same time period. Following the Institute tapes, tapes are arranged chronologically and numbered within each box.