Hanger Collection
Key items in the collection
The collection comprises photocopies of typescripts of 18 plays. The authors include:
- David Ireland
- JP McKinney
- HA Lindsay
- Dymphna Cusack.
Some items in the collection include:
About Eunice Hanger
Eunice Hanger (1911–1972) was educated at Gympie High School and the University of Queensland. She spent the first half of her career as a schoolteacher.
Theatre involvement
Hanger had a lifelong interest in theatre as a playwright, actress and producer. In 1955 she joined the English Department at the University of Queensland, and in 1958 was appointed lecturer in drama. She became a senior lecturer in 1965.
Playwright script collection
Concerned that many contemporary playwrights were overlooked by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, Hanger began collecting their scripts. Familiar with the Campbell Howard Collection at the National Library and the University of New England, she focused on plays written after 1950 to avoid duplication. The plays she collected were deposited in the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland. By 1964, the collection included over 200 plays, including radio plays.
Background to the collection
The Library sought copies of selected plays that would complement the Campbell Howard Collection and strengthen its holdings generally. In 1964, the Fryer Library provided copies of 18 plays. Later attempts to augment the collection were unsuccessful on account of copyright restrictions.
The Manuscripts collection holds the Hanger collection. Use the finding aid.
The Hanger Collection in the Fryer Library is described in Australian Playscripts: A Checklist of Unpublished Scripts in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library, St Lucia, 1987.
This guide was prepared using these references:
- Richard Fotheringham, Hanger, Eunice (1911–1972), Australian Dictionary of Biography online
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