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NY Public Library for the Performing Arts' Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Celebrates 50 Years
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May 17, 2024
The past half-century of the documented history of theatre is on display at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' newest exhibition, Focus Center Stage: 50 Years of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. Watch as Richard Ridge gets a special tour of the exhibition from Patrick and learns more about TOFT's incredible history.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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We're at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for their latest exhibition called Focus, Center Stage
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50 Years of a Theater on Film and Tape Archive, which is currently running now through February 25, 2023
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And I am joined by Patrick Hoffman, the curator and director of Toft
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So I am so excited to be sitting with you here
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This is your domain. We're sitting in Toft, right? This is the Lucille-Lortel screening room
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So when researchers come to use the archive, this is the room that they come to
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And we have 24 beautiful Sony professional monitors for people to watch
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Shoes from over 50, now 52 years of incredible theater productions that have been preserved for theater history
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Yeah. Okay. So Toft is celebrating 50 years, but this should have been done two years ago with the pandemic hit, right
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Exactly. Our actual 50th anniversary occurred in 2020, which was a great year for bringing people together in large groups
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Global pandemic. So, yes, so it is a slightly delayed celebration, but we wanted to
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we did not want it to go by without marking our 50th anniversary
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So we have a slightly delayed exhibition, but nonetheless incredibly celebratory of what we've accomplished over the last five decades
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How excited are you with this exhibition? Well, I'm very excited. I'm really looking forward to sharing it with everybody
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I can't wait for people to come up and just start looking at some of those incredible reels
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And I really hope it's going to blow people's minds in terms of, you know
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oh my gosh, they have the, you know, this production and that production
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So I'm really excited for people to be able to see it and experience it
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So for people who may not know, what is Toft and when did it begin
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Yeah. The Toft is our acronym for the Theater on Film and Tape Archive
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And it was founded by a woman named Betty L. Corwin. And it was her idea
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She brought the idea to the library for the performing arts when it was still pretty young, pretty new
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and started the idea. She had seen the original Broadway production of the Glass Menagerie starring Lorette Taylor
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which is considered one of the great performances of the last century. She'd seen the original stage production
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of a streetcar name Desire with Jessica Tandy and Marlon Brando. And as we all know, from the film version
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Jessica Tandy did not get to repeat her role in the film. That was Vivian Lee
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Vivian Lee was a bigger box office. named, of course, at the time. And so Jessica Tandy performance exists in black and white photos So Betty had seen those incredible original productions and thought you know what a shame that there was no moving image record
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of these productions and performances. And so decades later, she brought the idea
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to the library for the performing arts, and they gave her a..
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She had to write a... She wrote a 14-page prospectus, and they gave her a desk and a telephone
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and three months to try to get it off the ground. And it took much longer than that
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and a lot of tough negotiations with all of the theatrical unions and guilds
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But now, you know, the theatrical unions and guilds and the entire theater community
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is so incredibly supportive of talk because they realize this is the one for the history books
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You know, this is the one that's going to, that people will be seeing 50 years from now
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Now, it's so anybody can come up here as long as they have a library card, right
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They can view things here. That's exactly right. The Coalition of Broadway Unison Guilds
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very generously a couple of years ago is actually before the pandemic
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changed our restrictions so that anyone who has a New York Public Library card
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can come view Toft videos. So that's all you need and our library cards are free of charge at all times
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Well, this has been thrilling, with you. Thank you for having us here for Broadway World. Well, Richie, you are welcome
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here anytime. We love having Broadway World and you here. You're welcome anytime, of course
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Let's take a look at the exhibit. Let's do it. We're going down. This is our grand proscenium
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of our main highlight reel of the entire exhibition. The Theater and Film and Tape Archive consists of
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over 8,000 titles. 4,500 that we have video recorded live, productions. So there is a lot to see and experience. So this is a fascinating wall by the
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highlights. What are some of these photos from? This is kind of the introduction to the whole
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exhibition and kind of sums up what you'll see overall. For example, this is our old
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video truck outside the Lyceum Theater, the oldest continuously operating theater in New York
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when we were taping Nathan Lane and the Nance. This is our founding
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Bette Corwin, who created the theater on film on tape archive in our video trucks
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And we were taping my one and only with Tommy Tune and Twigie. And then this is one of our great Martha Swope photographs that the Billy Rose Theater Division has in its possession
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And this is behind the scenes. This is Michael Bennett getting ready for the Broadway premiere of Cors Line
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So we at the first stop which is play So how did you decide what you wanted to put in this or who included in this It was daunting believe me Because we have over 8 titles in the collection
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4,500 are live theater productions. So it was really daunting. So ultimately, you know, we were thinking about directors, designers, actors
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and ultimately we came back to our old friend, rule Shakespeare and said, well, the play is the thing. We're going to build the exhibition around
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the plays and make sure that these various playwrights are represented and included
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So here we are at the musical reel. What can fans expect? Oh gosh. You know, for musicals
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it runs the gamut. Everything from, you know, classics by Roger and Hammerstein, through, you know
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contemporary writers like Michael Corey and Scott Frankl, Greg Gardens, Hello Dolly, Kiss
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Me Kate, so just incredible Patty, of course, and a little bit of gypsy, just incredible
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incredible performances and productions that are documented and preserved here. Now we're at the Interviews and Dialogues Reel, which we have a phenomenal, that is another
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aspect of the archive that not everybody knows about. They know us for documenting live
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theater productions, but from our very beginning, so again, for over 50 years now, we have
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done interviews and dialogues with notable theatrical figures. So this reel is just, again
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a sampling of the incredible interviews and dialogues that we have here. For example, right here
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is Jerry Bach and Sheldon Harnick talking about when they very first were working together
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that we have Lise Manelli, John Cander, and Fred Ebb, lighting designer Ken Billington, set designer Ming Choliet, La Delaney
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Richard Rogers, Ava Gallejan, just incredible theater history that they can see little excerpts of here
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This reel is devoted to social movements, which every reel in the exhibition really demonstrates the
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the diversity and inclusivity of the entire collection. So you'll see things like that on every reel in the show
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But this reel specifically is devoted to social movements and all of the great writers who write about those topics
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So, for example, we have Phyllis Freelich and her starring role in Children of a Lesser God
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Entazaki Shange, Paula Vogel, Joe Papp, Miguel Piniero Terence McNally Joe Mantello on the set of Love Valor Compassion David Henry Huang Lynn Notting Larry Kramer Wendy Wasserstein just an incredible collection of artists
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So this is the classics reel
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Yeah, absolutely. We have incredible classics on this reel. And one of the things that we featured in this photo is Richard Burton and Hamlet
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which we rescued that film from a warehouse in Sycoccas, New Jersey
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Alex Cohen, the producer, who created that production and filmed it. called us one day and said
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I'm getting rid of my storage unit. I have this film of Richard Burton and Hamlet
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Do you want it? Otherwise, I'm going to throw it out. All right, so here it is now at top
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I love this. I'm going to come and watch this. Now, down here, this is what
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avant-garde and experimental. Experimental. We have always documented a lot of experimental work through the years
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so just incredible collections here, including the Robert Wilson. We are the repository for the Robert Wilson Audiovisual Collection
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That's amazing. That's a beautiful. Oh, and down here. So rarities, I just love the pictures that are here, too
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This is amazing here. Rarities. There's some incredible things in rarities. And also, if you're very interested in musical theater
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you'll find some incredible things here. So if you never got to see Smile with Jody Benson
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or how about maybe Donna Murphy in anyone, which was on course for just five days
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So just some incredible, incredible rarities in the collection. Side Show, the original side show
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which you mentioned earlier. This is your history wall of Tom. So what are some of the goodies on here
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Just a wide variety of things of our history. For example, this is our longtime engineer in charge
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Chris Balamadas, who is posing with Ricky Martin after our taping of the Revival of Evita
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the fan performance of Book of Mormon, that we were invited to tape. Here's our very first cameraman, very first videographer
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Bob Brady, who arrived for our very first taping, a show called Golden Bat
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off-Broadway, avant-garde, all-Asian cast. He arrived completely stoned, taped our first taping in a haze of smoke, cheapest cameraman in town, $200
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but we got our first taping. That's how you do it. That's how we did it
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