Bud Beyer (1940-) Papers

The Bud Beyer Papers fill 28 boxes and span the years 1956-2012; the bulk of the papers date between 1970 and 2000. The papers are organized into the following subseries: biographical files, mime, teaching materials, Northwestern University Theatre Department, wind conducting, professional activities, and shows. Some oversized items complete the Beyer Papers. The greatest volume of material in the series consists largely of notes, scripts and clippings from Beyer's work as a mime instructor and from theatrical productions he directed.

The biographical files include resumes and letters of recommendation for Beyer (Box 1, Folder 1). They also hold a small volume of personal correspondence, including a file on former Northwestern acting professor Alvina Krause (Box 1, Folder 3), faculty activity or personnel reports, and clippings and other personal items removed from the door of Beyer's Northwestern office prior to his retirement (Box 1, Folder 5).

The mime subseries contains articles, scripts, set designs and other information about the Loyola and Northwestern mime companies and the art in general. It also includes correspondence, booking and publicity information for Beyer's collegiate mime companies, and a file of materials about the celebrated Marcel Marceau, including a program from a 1956 performance Marceau made at Chicago's Harris Theatre (Box 2, Folder 1).

The teaching materials subseries contains class notes and assignments from the courses Beyer taught at Northwestern, including B-43, C-41 and C-49. It also contains materials from Alumnae of Northwestern University Continuing Education Program courses that Beyer taught on Anton Chekov (Box 8, Folder 1), Henrik Ibsen (Box 8, Folder 2) and playwrights from the post-World War II era (Box 8, Folder 3). Teaching files also contain photographic head shots and resumes from his acting students and copies of monologues the students prepared for Beyer's classes (Boxes 9-11; Box 12, Folders 1-2). The files reflect broadly on theatre pedagogy at Northwestern and specifically on Beyer's own teaching methods.

The Northwestern University Theatre Department subseries contains mostly intradepartmental administrative correspondence, especially from the many years Beyer was chairman of the department. Of particular significance are merit raise reports for faculty members (Box 12, Folder 8), correspondence pertaining to the department's 1995-1996 self review (Box 12, Folder 7) and records pertaining to department alumni meetings Beyer attended in Los Angeles on behalf of the department (Box 13, Folder 4).

The wind conducting subseries includes for the most part materials from conducting symposia Beyer attended or at which he worked as a guest clinician (Box 13, Folders 6-7; Box 14, Folder 1). It also contains articles and notes on conducting and copies of three of Beyer's body movement presentations: “The Conducted Moment” (Box 14, Folder 2), “The Breath of the Gesture” (Box 14, Folder 3) and “The Body Speaks” (Box 14, Folder 4).

The professional activities subseries features materials from summer acting courses Beyer held for professionals and other projects he undertook outside of Northwestern, including his service as a consultant for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival (Box 14, Folder 8).

The shows subseries contains files from the productions Beyer directed for Northwestern, Loyola, St. Alban's Repertory Theater and Theater 40 in Los Angeles. Materials are arranged in alphabetical order by title of production. Thereafter they are foldered by format or category with most productions represented by notes, personnel and scheduling records, and scripts. Sometimes the files include programs, clippings, and materials relating to set design. Correspondence found here commonly includes letters of congratulation from Beyer's colleagues, from audience members and from performers in his productions.

Oversize materials include scrapbooks relating to Beyer's teaching career, dramatic productions and mime.