Note to researchers: This collection is currently closed in preparation for the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project.

The collection includes handwritten manuscripts, playbills, posters, correspondence, clippings and photographs relating to Jewish theater in Poland and other countries before World War II. The following materials are included:      Original manuscripts and handwritten copies of plays in Yiddish by S. An-Ski, Leon Kobrin, Joseph Latteiner, N. Rakow, Isidore Zolatarevsky and others. Playbills of theater productions, concerts, recitals, shows, films, amateur performances.  Posters of theater performances. Photographs of individual actors arranged alphabetically. Materials on amateur drama circles in Poland.  Clippings of critical reviews.  Biographical materials about actors, directors, producers, musicians, composers.      The following theater groups are among those represented in the collection:  Vilna Troupe; Ararat, Lodz; VIKT (Varshever Yidisher Kunst Teater - Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater); Yung-Teater, Warsaw; GOSET (Gossudarstvenny Evreiskii Teatr - State Jewish Theater), Moscow; Yiddish Art Theater, New York; Habimah, Moscow-Tel-Aviv.      Materials on theater personalities are comprised of fragments of individual collections which were in the possession of YIVO in Vilna. There are extensive files on Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Ida Kaminska, Esther-Rachel Kaminska, Nahum Lipovski, Zygmunt Turkow, Yosef Vinogradov, Rudolf Zaslavsky.