Box 6

Scope and Contents

Unordered and mostly undated notes about scenes and dialogue in Cohen's the play, The Complaint Department Closes at Five. Each note was folded and collected in a box labeled "Complaint Dept. Work Notes."

Scope and Contents This series contains the majority of Cohen’s papers and reflect a prolific and creative writing life, including copious notes, manuscript drafts, and revisions that trace the outlines of his creative process. This series also includes print publications of Cohen’s work, including his award-winning collection, Before Stonewall. Cohen wrote across genres and, as a true working writer, he often adapted his work into different formats and genres—novels into...

Scope and Contents Materials in this subseries reflect Cohen's work writing plays and musicals. Several of these works were produced for the stage, as documented in Cohen's Scrapbook, including City Boy, The Complaint Department Closes at Five, and Cakes with the Wine. The papers related to The Complaint Department Closes at Five illuminate Cohen's creative process, from the many notes he used...

Scope and Contents

The papers related to The Complaint Department Closes at Five illuminate Cohen's creative process, from the many notes he used during early drafts of the script in 1969 to critique notes through revisions to a version of the script from August 1971, just after the show's July 1971 production at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Barn Theater.

Additional materials related to this play are in the Scrapbook series.

Abstract

The Edward M. Cohen Papers collects the publications, manuscripts, drafts, notes, journals, and other ephemera of Edward M. Cohen (b. 1936 - d. 2023), a gay author, playwright, director, former Queens College student and Jewish New Yorker.