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The John A. Degen Resource Room

The Degen Resource Room was established through a gift from the late Dr. John A. Degen, a theatre scholar and professor at the FSU School of Theatre.  In addition to his private collection of books, manuscripts, personal works, music, and teaching materials, Professor Degen also provided the funds for creating a resource room to house this burgeoning collection.

Mission

The Degen Resource Room aids in the School of Theatre’s mission by providing media and library resources to help theatre students develop into artists and scholars who have a lifelong passion for the arts.  The Degen Resource Room collects items that relate to all aspects of theatre, including but not limited to: musical theatre, dramatic theatre, play scripts, musical scores, theatre history, acting, directing, stage production and management, stage setting, scenery and lighting, costume design, and critical analysis.

The Media Room

The Degen Media Room is equipped with a large flat screen television, universal VHS, DVD, CD, cassette tape and laser disk players all hooked up to surround sound.  The room has leather recliners, side tables and laptop tables.  This room is an inviting space where students can relax comfortably and watch or listen to any of the 600 items from the Degen’s AV collection, or materials can be brought in from home.

The Media Room is reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.  School of Theatre students may use the Media Room without a reservation as long as it is not in use.  Reservations can be made by filling out the Media Room Reservation Request and emailing it to kwickham@fsu.edu.

Media Reservation Request (PDF) 87.47 kB

Online Catalog

The Degen has an online catalog available where you can search by word, title, author, or subject.  Click here to access our online catalog.

Formats

Our collection is comprised of a wide variety of formats including: texts, original manuscripts, librettos, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, monographs, periodicals and journals, playbills, blueprints and posters.

Playbills

The Degen Resource Room has an extensive historic playbill collection.  The collection consists of playbills of productions from all over the world beginning in 1873.  The Degen Resource Room is continuing to catalog this massive collection, so the entire scope of this collection cannot yet be assessed.  However, it is estimated that we hold one of the premiere playbill collections in the nation.  As cataloging continues to take place, we will be able to ascertain the extent of this very special and unique collection.

https://archives.lib.fsu.edu/repositories/8/resources/106

Set Designs

We have a large collection of blueprints of shop construction drawings and stage designs.  This collection encompasses stage designs for Broadway and off-Broadway productions, touring theatrical productions, prestigious awards shows and television set designs.  Currently over 750 set designs have been cataloged with an estimated 500-750 more to be assessed.

https://archives.lib.fsu.edu/repositories/8/resources/165

E-Resources

The University Libraries has an extensive Theatre subject guide available online.  To access this guide, click the link below.  You may be asked to login using your FSU login and password.

https://guides.lib.fsu.edu/sb.php?subject_id=71192

Location

Room 204
540 W. Call Street
239 Fine Arts Building
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1160

Hours

Monday- Friday, 8 am – 5 pm, closed for lunch 12 – 1 pm and during all university holidays and certain days during the summer.

 

Contact

Kathy Wickham, kwickham@fsu.edu

(850) 645-7247