An English-language handbill for Civic Theatre, Inc.'s production of Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, dramatized by Sidney Kingsley, at the Little Theatre of the Catholic Pavilion, Manila, 24 to 29 March 1953. Filed with U.S. Information Agency posters for Asia (NAID 5729935).
What the handbill prints
Black and white. Two cast portraits sit on the left. On the right is a silhouette of a person holding prison bars, with light from a high window falling across the floor. A boxed panel at the bottom gives the hall, the nights, the prices and three places to buy a seat.
CIVIC THEATRE, INC. presents
DARKNESS AT NOON by ARTHUR KOESTLER dramatized by SIDNEY KINGSLEY
with ERLINDA CORTES * F. (KOKO) TRINIDAD / VIC SILAYAN / WILLIAM YVANOVICH
Produced by FIDEL SICAM
LITTLE THEATRE, CATHOLIC PAVILION - INTERNATIONAL FAIR
MARCH 24 thru 29, 1953 - 8:00 p.m. * P.60 - P1.60 - P2.60
Tickets on sale at: Rm. 500 Samanillo Bldg., Botica Boie, Manila Hotel
Who issued it
The sheet is the theatre company's. It names Civic Theatre, Inc., a producer, a cast, an author and an adapter. It does not name any government. The National Archives holds it in Record Group 306 with the U.S. Information Agency's propaganda posters distributed in Asia, catalog date 4 March 1953, about three weeks before opening night. The record does not say what part, if any, the American post played in the production.
How to read it
On its face this is a theatre bill. FRAME tags it transfer: the title and the prison image carry associations that the bill does not have to spell out. Its presence in a government poster file is the only reason it is in this archive at all.
That raises the useful question. When an information agency keeps a local company's handbill in its files, the play may have been chosen by the company, helped by the agency, or simply noticed. Each is a different relationship, and only the middle one puts the agency inside the production. The answer is not on the sheet. What is on the sheet is a local company putting on a serious play for paying audiences at a fair, which is a good thing in any reading. For a later American artist abroad, see the 1959 Louis Armstrong poster from Beirut.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Darkness at Noon handbill, Civic Theatre, Inc. (English-language handbill distributed in Manila). Catalog date March 4, 1953.
- U.S. National Archives, Record Group 306, item NAID 5729935, 306-PPA-35, catalog.archives.gov. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
