The pages of the Vera Marie (Kaser) Badertscher Scrapbook of Speech and Theater Activities are arranged in the order they were originally assembled by Badertscher in her scrapbook, which is also chronological. This scrapbook arrived with the cover and spine detached and loose pages. To maintain the original order of these pages, the scrapbook was disassembled and each page has been placed in its own folder. The folders have been placed in the box in the same order pages were originally bound, beginning with the scrapbook cover in box 1, folder 1.
Accession No. TRI.2020.0015: Vera Marie Badertscher, 2020 December
[identification of item], Vera Marie (Kaser) Badertscher Scrapbook of Speech and Theater Activities, SPEC.TRI.0078, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Ashleigh Minor, 2020 December; Finding aid written by: Ashleigh Minor, 2020 December
Vera Marie Badertscher, maiden name Kaser, attended Killbuck (Ohio) High School from 1952-1956, where she participated in Prince of Peace declamation contests, dramatic reading competitions, one-act plays, and junior and senior class plays. She also attended the summer High School Speech Scholarship Institute at Kent State University during this time. Badertscher went on to attend the Ohio State University in Columbus, where she graduated with dual bachelor's degrees in education, and speech and theater in 1960. During this time, she worked backstage theater jobs and participated in some acting opportunities. During the summer of 1960, Badertscher married Kenneth Badertscher and took his last name. They remained in Columbus where they participated in Player's Club together, and acted in a few plays at Ohio State University's Stadium Theater. They moved to Arizona in 1963, and she went on to help found the Scottsdale Theater for Children, taught creative drama classes for children, and obtained a master's degree in theater from Arizona State University around 1975. She was also appointed to serve a term with the Arizona Commission on the Arts. As of 2020, Badertscher is retired and does freelance travel writing.
The Vera Marie (Kaser) Badertscher Scrapbook of Speech and Theater Activities was assembled by Badertscher between 1952 and 1962. Materials in the scrapbook cover her participation in Prince of Peace declamation contests, dramatic reading competitions, one-act plays, and class plays during her time attending Killbuck High School in Ohio (1952-1956), as well as a summer at Kent State University's high school theater camp. The scrapbook also holds materials from Badertscher's speech and theater activities during her time at Ohio State University (1956-1960), and her participation in Columbus theater activities after graduating, including the Columbus Player's Club and Ohio State's Stadium Theater, until she relocated to Arizona with her husband in 1962. The pages of the scrapbook hold programs from productions and competitions, certificates, newspaper clippings, correspondence, class and workshop schedules, photographs, ticket stubs and other ephemeral materials from performances, and transcripts of poems and readings, some of which are annotated with Badertscher's notes. Her handwritten annotations can also be found on many of the scrapbook pages, adding additional context, commentary, memories, or dates. The majority of the materials in the scrapbook were assembled under her maiden name, Kaser, prior to her marriage in 1960.