Collection of scripts, posters, flyers relating to Edinburgh University Student Dramatic Society and productions with the involvement of Derek Pugh

The collection is composed of:
1 x folder - Collection of programmes and promotional material of the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group, Scottish Community Drama Association, and EU Dramatic Society - 'Beauty and the beast', a preliminary festival, 'The empty chair', 'The daughter of the dawn', 'Much ado about nothing', and 'King Lear', 1950-1958.
1 x folder - Printed copy of Venus Observed. A comedy [1957] by Christopher Fry (1854), with inserted sketches of stage direction, and annotations. D.S.Pugh noted in ms on front paper.
1 x folder - 2 x sketches of stage positions, 'Venus Observed' [1957].
1 x folder - Coloured illustrations of scenery, 'Venus Observed' [1957].
1 x folder - Several undated newspaper reviews of 'Venus Observed', and copies of programmes and promotional pamphlets [1957].
1 x folder - Copy of 'The Student' (Vol.LIII No.9) dated 25 April 1957, with review article p.204 on 'Venus Observed'.
1 x folder - Review articles, newspaper cuttings, on Ustinov's 'The Empty chair', July-August 1957.
1 x folder - 'Varsity Vanities, programmes and promotional material relating to, 1955-1957.
1 x folder - Album of cuttings about and programmes for 'The Male animal', also letter to Pugh, 5 February 1954.
1 x folder - Material relating to 'Maria Marten', being programme and undated cuttings stuck down into 'album', and loose programmes and cutting, and letters to and from Rod Slaughter, June 1954.
3 x folders - Scripts for Act I, Act II, and Act III of 'Maria Marten'
1 x folder - 8 x copies of circular about EUDS Festival Production 1954,and copy of song, 'Murder of Maria Marten in the red barn'.

1 x folder - Material relating to a production of Ibsen's 'Wild Duck' 1952, being photographs, cuttings, sketch of staging, and programme.
1 x folder - Miscellaneous material, being: newspaper cuttings, poster 'boast' stickers, photograph, congratulatory telegram, and Annual Dinner menu, 16 February 1954.
1 x outsize folder - Posters - EU Dramatic Society, 'The Male animal' by James Thurber, February 1954.

and...
1 x Poster - Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group, 'Venus Observed', in the University Theatre, Chambers Street, 2-6 April [no year]
1 x Poster - EU Dramatic Society, 'The Male animal' by James Thurber, Little Theatre, Pleasance, 2-6 February 1954.
1 x Poster - Edinburgh University Dramatic Society, 'Maria Marten, or Murder in the Old Red Barn', 23 August - 11 September [no year]
1 x Poster - Edinburgh University Dramatic Society, 'The Taming of the Shrew', by William Shakespeare, Little Theatre, Pleasance, 9-13 November [no year]

Derek Salman Pugh was a psychologist, business theorist and Emeritus Professor of International Management at the Open University. He was born in Tottenham, London, on 31 August 1930. Pugh was an Edinburgh University alumnus - M.A. (Psychology) 1953, M.Sc.(Industrial sociology) 1956 - and he earned his DSc in 1973 from the University of Aston. In the 1960s he had moved to the London Business School, where he became Britain's first professor of organisational behaviour. In 2009 the Aston University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate (DLitt). He is known for his work in the field of organisational development (OD), and particularly for the 'Pugh Matrix', a tool within OD.

Pugh had collected this material relating to the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society of which he had been a part while at Edinburgh University in the 1950s. The EU Dramatic Society had been founded in 1896, and lives on today in the Edinburgh University Theatre Company (EUTC).

In 1957, Pugh directed the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group production of Venus Observed staged at the University Theatre Adam House, as well as producing The Wild Duck by Ibsen earlier in 1952 with the EU Dramatic Society. His 'Company' also put on a production of Maria Marten, or Murder in the old red barn, 1954. He also directed The Male animal in 1954. Derek Salman Pugh died on 29 January 2015.

Access should be unrestricted but please check in advance of any consultation.

Catalogued and updated by Graeme D. Eddie, 15 December 2016.

Edinburgh University Library also holds the 'Archive of productions of Varsity Vanities and various dramatic groups 1946-1951', at Coll-1581... a collection around various dramatic groups including Edinburgh University Dramatic Society, SRC Charities Week Office, Attic Theatre Co., Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group, and others.