Ray Lonergan Memorial Library

Valuable Resource for AEA Members in Chicago

The Ray Lonergan Memorial Library is a valuable resource for Equity members in Chicago. Established in 1986 by a generous donation by the family of the late Ray Longeran, it contains thousands of scripts, play anthologies, some theatre books, videos, cassettes, DVD's, CD's and sheet music. The Librarys' goal is to help actors find new monologues, scenes for class and the opportunity to read a play before the audition. It is not a research library, nor archives. Our purpose is to help the actor get that job!

As an actor and teacher, Ray had a wonderful library of almost 2,000 scripts and books of plays. A group of his friends formed a committee, raised money, bought bookshelves and catalogued his collection. Over the years it has doubled and tripled in size thanks to the donations of many generous people, including Sidney Eden and Leonard Weiner.

The library is volunteer-operated by the dedicated members of AEA's Lonergan Library Committee. Donations and financial support are encouraged. For further information, contact Actors' Equity Association. 125 South Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60603, 312.634.1750 or visit www.lonerganlibrary.com

Lonergan Library Year-End Report

by Iris Lieberman, Lonergan Library Committee Chair

The Committee is about halfway through a massive maintenance project, replacing book plates, dots, and tape where needed on all of the books in the collection. (After 23 years, this was long overdue!). They are taking this opportunity to "weed out" multiple copies, which will accomplish three things.

1. Make room for the acquisition of new plays currently on and off Broadway, which they hope will generate more interest in the library and make it more useful to the members;

2. Sell the "weeded out" copies to raise money to purchase the new items’ and

3. Make packing and moving to the new building much easier.

In addition to continuing the maintenance/culling project, the Committee also plans to make the library’s website more efficient and user-friendly. They are looking into acquiring a new computer as the one now in the library is quite old.

The Lonergan Library Committee is looking forward to 2010 and the challenges and excitement of moving, working out the logistics and making the library an even better resource for our members.