The SAA Performing Arts Roundtable Encourages the Exchange of Information on Historical and Contemporary Documentation of Music
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Performance! The SAA Performing Arts Roundtable encourages the exchange of information on historical and contemporary WINTER 2016 NEWSLETTER OF THE SA A PERFORMING ARTS ROUNDTABLE documentation of music, dance, theatre, motion pictures, and other performance media. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Message Page 3 from the Co-Chairs Bringing the Page 4 Guthrie Theater Archives into the 21st Century Inside the Page 10 NT Archive OSF Page 14 Audiovisual Collections Forgotten Page 18 Film Scores of Paul Bowles News Page 22 P A G E 2 Roundtable Leadership 2015-2016 Co-Chairs Steering Committee Newsletter Editors Katherine Crowe Karla Irwin Helice Koffler University of Denver University of Nevada, Las Vegas The Shubert Archive Denver, Colorado Las Vegas, Nevada New York, New York [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Scott Schwartz Elizabeth Surles Maureen Cech University of Illinois Rutgers University University of Delaware Champaign, Illinois Newark, New Jersey Newark, Delaware [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Image Credits Pages 10-13: All images courtesy of The National Theatre Archive. Page 10, Frankenstein photo by Catherine Ashmore; p. 11, Lounge photo by Philip Vile; p.12, Herbert photo by Nobby Clark; Bacchai photo by Manuel Harlan; p. 13, Death photo by Robbie Jack. Pages 15-17: All images courtesy of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Photos: p. 14 by Gwyn Hervochon; p. 17 by Jenny Graham. Videos M0005 24 and V002 02 available on YouTube. Pages 18-21: All images courtesy of University of Delaware Special Collections, Newark, Delaware, as noted: p. 18, MSS 163 Paul Bowles papers; p. 19, Two portraits: for piano. Editions de la vipére, [1936]; p. 21 (Congo), MSS 164 Paul Bowles collection. Photos p. 20 & 21, Museum of Cover: Guthrie Theater publicity, 1965 season, Modern Art. Courtesy of Tanya Goldman. courtesy of the Guthrie Theater Records (PA003), Performing Arts Archives, University of Page 22: Courtesy of the Newberry Library, Ann Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Barzel Dance Research Collection. Dance MS Barzel Research; HSO reading room photo Page 2: Courtesy of the Guthrie Theater courtesy of Terry Brown. Records (PA003), as above. Page 23: Courtesy of Bandwidth, Jan. 22, 2014. Page 3: Courtesy of Michelle O’Bryan. Page 24: Courtesy of Old Dominion University Pages 4-9: Ralph Rapson drawing, p. 6, courtesy Libraries. of the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, Thanks to news contributors: Terry Brown, Minnesota. All other images courtesy of the Catherine Grandgeorge, Tom Hyry, Francesca Guthrie Theater Records (PA003), as above. Marini, Vin Novara, and Jessica Ritchie. PERFORMANCE! WINTER 2016 P A G E 3 Message From the Co-Chairs Greetings PAR members, in person, you can still follow the conference on Twitter (#musiclib2016), and be sure to check First, we hope you all had a relaxing holiday out the Slides and Handouts page for access to season and that everyone is starting to look presentations after the conference is over. forward to getting together in Atlanta in August for SAA 2016! The Joint Conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) and Visual Resources The two main governance issues that will have a Association (VRA) 2016 in Seattle, Washington, broad impact on SAA’s membership (member also is scheduled for March (8-12) and will offer affinity groups and dues increases) were discussed some performing arts-related programming. Kate in detail at the PAR business meeting in August will be in attendance and will tweet about the 2015 and were again discussed at subsequent conference (#arlis2016, #vra2016). Council meetings. The approved minutes are available on Council’s microsite. In summary, Finally, the Orphan Film Symposium will convene there was a great deal of concern amongst both April 6-9 in Culpepper, Virginia at the Library of sections and roundtables about the proposed Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual changes to affinity groups, and the working group Conservation and the State Theatre. This year's on this issue has been reconvened—no changes edition, Orphans X: Sound, will include an have, to date, been implemented. PAR’s Council expanded presentation on the film scoring work representative, Rachel Vagts, is on this group, and of Paul Bowles by newsletter contributor Bleakley we have asked her to provide us with any updates McDowell, along with a rare screening of one of that we can share—but the membership is also those films, Venus and Adonis. welcome to contact her individually. Until next time! Progress on implementing improvements to our microsite is happening behind the scenes. We Kate Crowe and Scott Schwartz should have more to report between now and Co-Chairs of the Performing Arts Roundtable the next newsletter. In the meantime, here are some This page: recommendations for a few Michelle O'Bryan upcoming events that may be and Enrique of interest to PAR members: Martinez (also company artistic The Music Library Association director and choreographer) annual meeting, which takes in his ballet, place in Cincinnati, Ohio from Electra (1962) March 2-5 this year, has a with other number of presentations on members of the archives-related topics, Denver Civic including: oral history prac- Ballet tice, digital repositories for music recordings, description Opposite: of rare and archival music Guthrie records (a panel that features Theater wig PAR Steering Committee designer Billy Jo member Elizabeth Surles!), Siefert attends to and more. If you can’t make it her charges, circa 1963 P A G E 4 FROM THE FIELD Mission Min-Possible: Bringing the Guthrie Theater Archives into the 21st Century by Hannah O’Neill and Kathryn Hujda Kathryn “Kate” Hudja is the Assistant Curator for the Performing Arts at the University of Minnesota, where she processes collections, works with donors and researchers, and routinely engages the public. She serves as the team lead for the Minnesota chapter of the American Theatre Archive Project and remains an active member of the arts community in the Twin Cities, having worked with a variety of arts organizations as a writer, musician, administrator, board member, and archivist. Hannah O’Neill is the Project Archivist for the NEH-funded Guthrie Theater Archive grant. She graduated from Loyola University with a major in History and a minor in Spanish and received her Master of Arts in Library Studies from the University of Wisconsin with a focus in Archives Administration. Hannah first joined the staff of the University of Minnesota Performing Arts Archives as the Project Archivist for the Minnesota Orchestra Archives after spending several years working with the Bank Street Bookstore in New York City. Today Minneapolis is home to a thriving Minnesota’s Performing Arts Archives theatre community, boasting over 200 (PAA), which works to ensure the companies in the Twin Cities metro area preservation of and access to Minnesota’s alone. The spark that unquestionably cultural legacy in music, theatre, and started this fire is the Guthrie Theater, dance. Since 1967, the Guthrie’s collection Minnesota’s flagship theatrical institution has grown to over 500 linear feet of and one of the premier regional theatres archival material that documents over 50 in the country. Early in its history, just four seasons. years after its 1963 debut season, the Guthrie Theater established its archive at In the spring of 2015, the University of the University of Minnesota Libraries. This Minnesota Performing Arts Archives was deposit was the third collection of what awarded a $100,000 grant from the has now become the University of National Endowment of the Humanities to PERFORMANCE! WINTER 2016 P A G E 5 bring the Guthrie Theater archive—one of our best-used collections—into the 21st century: to address preservation issues and bring processed and unprocessed materials up to current archival standards; to create a more usable EAD finding aid from three binders of type- and handwritten inventories; and to work in collaboration with Guthrie staff and leadership to create sustainable records management and born-digital preserva- tion/access plans. Here we share some of the Guthrie Theater’s own dramatic history, our process, progress, and findings from the field. This page: Guthrie Act I: “Min definite” Theater brochure, In the late 1950s, it was impossible to separate the 1990 concept of American theatre from New York City. Writers, actors, and designers flocked to Manhat- tan hoping to make their careers on Broadway. Opposite: Guthrie Ultimately, this led to an overabundance of Theater professionals in one place, and a dearth every- sticker, 1966 where else in the country. New York was chock- season full of jaded critics and blasé audiences, while the average American was deprived of the great dramatic masterpieces and the emotional and intellectual enrichment they could provide. Producer Oliver Rea and stage manager Peter Zeisler were of one mind in their response to the stagnation and oversaturation they saw in New York. They wanted to do something about it, but they knew they needed a big name to lend credibility to their idea. Enter Tyrone Guthrie, one of the most acclaimed theatrical directors of his time. English-born but of Irish heritage, Guthrie got his start in broadcasting. He dabbled in acting and was producing and directing by the late 1920s. He directed plays and operas for the Edinburgh International Festival, the Shakespeare Repertory Company, and on Broadway. He was most famous for having played an integral part in creating the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario, which launched in 1953. rebellious intrigue. The trio knew that in order to Guthrie established a highly loyal team while in create an institution that not only could be Canada, many of whom would follow him to his nationally relevant, but also could alter the next influential venture.