Performance! The SAA Performing Arts Roundtable encourages the exchange of information on historical WINTER 2012 NEWSLETTER OF THE SA A PERFORMING ARTS ROUNDTABLE and contemporary documentation of music, dance, theater, motion pictures, and other performance media. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: From the Page 3 Co-Chair Developing Page 4 the Arthur Miller Photo Archive Perspectives Page 8 from the Roundabout Theatre Company Archives Ask the Page 12 Angels: Interview with Jennifer Homans Member Page 18 Spotlight: Bob Scarr, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Student Page 22 Forum: Musings on ASTR/TLA News Page 24 P A G E 2 Roundtable Leadership 2011-2012 Co-Chairs Steering Committee Newsletter Editors Sylvia Kollar Anastasia Karel Helice Koffler The Winthrop Group Rock and Roll Hall of Fame University of Washington New York, NY and Museum Libraries Cleveland, OH Seattle, WA D. Claudia Thompson Cynthia Tobar Jeni Dahmus American Heritage Center Mina Rees Library The Juilliard School University of Wyoming CUNY Graduate Center New York, NY Laramie, WY New York, NY Image Credits Cover: Arthur Miller, New York, 1947; photo by Page 17: Ron Kroof, Anefo, Nationaal Archief, Arnold Newman Fotocollectie Anefo, Bestanddeelnummer 918- 1121 Page 3: courtesy of Shakespeare Centre Library Page 18: Kim Nogi Pages 4-7: all images courtesy of the Arthur Miller photo archive Pages 19, 21: Jeff Roffman Pages 8-11: all images courtesy of the Round- Page 20: drawing by Leslie Fairchild, reprinted about Theatre Company Archives from The Baton, Vol. 4, No. 3, December 1924, The Juilliard School Archives Page 12: jacket photograph by George Platt Lynes, printed circa 1953, gelatin silver print; Pages 22-23: Jessica Green Estate George Platt Lynes (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/gift of Lincoln Page 24: Clemens Kalischer, Mount Holyoke Kirstein, 1968) College, Archives and Special Collections Page 13: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cyril W. Page 25: Special Collections in Performing Arts, Beaumont Bequest, S.2746-1986 (top); American University of Maryland Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School Archives (bottom) Page 26: Rhoda Nathans, The Juilliard School Archives (top); drawing reprinted with Page 14: Impact Photos, The Juilliard School permission from The Juilliard Journal and The Archives Juilliard Journal online (www.juilliard.edu/journal) Page 15: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Page 27: Michael Sahaida département Bibliothèque-musée de l'opéra, C- 3588 Page 28: Angela Weaver Page 16: Victoria and Albert Museum, given by Dame Marie Rambert, E.5049-1968 PERFORMANCE! WINTER 2012 P A G E 3 Message From the Co-Chair by Sylvia Kollar When a friend and colleague learned that I was co- can Literature, Literary Manuscripts, and the chairing the Performing Arts Roundtable, he passed Performing Arts Archives at the University of along Peter Brook’s book, The Empty Space. Fittingly, Minnesota Libraries Archives and Special Collections; as this issue of the newsletter is focused on theater and, Alfred Lemmon, director of the Williams archives. Brook reflects and elaborates on his work, Research Center of The Historic New Orleans his own theories and practices as a director, and Collection. how his aim to address human experience—how to connect the actor to audience—remains a constant I look forward to co-chairing with D. Claudia investigation. As archivists in the ephemeral arts, I Thompson this year, and to working with the other think we can draw many parallels in this mission to Steering Committee members, Anastasia Karel and find and share truths. Cynthia Tobar. Helice Koffler and Jeni Dahmus, co- editors of the newsletter, are introducing new One of the two session proposals endorsed by the features in this issue, including a Performing Arts Steering Committee for SAA’s 2012 conference, Roundtable member profile and student forum. Beyond Borders, was accepted. “Archivist-Artist Partnerships: Learning from Three Case Studies of And of course, please do send along your thoughts Creative Collaboration” will be chaired by Libby and requests as we continue to make plans for the Smigel, Executive Director of the Dance Heritage 2012 Business Meeting, and remember to check out Coalition, with the following speakers: Susan Brady, (and participate in) the Performing Arts Roundtable’s archivist at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript blog at: Library, Yale University; Cecily Marcus, curator of http://ephemeralarchives.wordpress.com/. the Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African Ameri- Peter Brook’s “White Box” production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged inside a chasm of blank white walls, 1970 P A G E 4 BUILDING ARCHIVES Developing the Arthur Miller Photo Archive by Emma Winter Emma Winter currently works as photo archivist for the estates of Arthur Miller and Inge Morath, and has worked as an independent archives consultant for photographer estates, the Magnum Foundation, and the Marcel Carne Archive. The plays of Arthur Miller run daily in scrapbooks, and some ephemera covering all worldwide productions—from high school of Miller’s plays and films. The theater portion versions of The Crucible to Broadway and the of the Miller archive primarily documents major stages of London. To research and early plays and productions, while the collect photos of this monumental play- separate Morath archive contains many wright’s work is no small task. photos of Miller’s theatrical works from the 1960s onwards. The Arthur Miller photo archive originally started as a project to process Miller’s private In the early stages of processing the on-site collection of personal and theater photos. archive, I began to conduct research on Miller was married to Magnum photographer images of Miller that existed outside of the Inge Morath for over forty years; the Arthur collection, as additional portraits were Miller photo archive was situated alongside needed for publishing, book covers, and other Above: The Crucible, origi- nal production, New York, both the family photos and Morath’s estate purposes. This search expanded into 1953 (photo by Gjon Mili) individual archive. Within the estate, his Below: set design by Boris photos―separate Aronson, Act 2, Scene 1 from his writing archives―were kept with Morath’s photography and their family and personal photos. The Miller photo archive initially consisted of around 1,000 personal and production photos. The personal photo collection includes early photos of Miller's childhood and family, portraits, photos of him at work, photos of him with others, as well as those taken at special events. The theater collection includes prints, Arthur Miller at his typewriter around the time of writing Focus, 1940 (photo by Esther Handler) PERFORMANCE! WINTER 2012 P A G E 5 research for a centennial photogra- phy book project of Miller’s plays and productions. In addition to the contents of the physical archive, I broadened the research to include related archives, which would allow the estate to create a Arthur Miller recording speech digital reference patterns of talc database for both the miners’ wives in on-site Miller archive North Carolina as well as other for the Library of repositories. Congress, 1941 (Library of Con- gress photo) With the guidance of core literature on Miller’s theater and history, I conducted extensive research into major productions, significant Miller’s work. Striking photos representing Miller’s theater archives, and prominent theater photographer plays could be found from different sources, yet collections. While focusing on the more well-known inevitably the standout images proved to be those that stagings in New York and London, I also encountered brought together an outstanding cast and production numerous national and international productions of team with a great photographer. As the research database grew to represent both Miller’s archive and digital references to outside collections, I switched from using FilemakerPro to Archon, which I preferred for its archival structure, support of digital images, and flexibility in relating disparate ‘collections’. I obtained low-resolution digital images from the different archives and cataloged them into the database to facilitate research and image reference. The catalog includes key access points such as play title, main actors, photographer, venue, premiere date, and other pertinent details, and information on the location of the related repository. The database currently holds approximately 2,000 images and will continue to grow. Among the archives consulted and researched were the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Division, including the Jo Mielziner Archive with set designs; the Museum of the City of New York; the University of Michigan; the Library of Congress; the Arthur Miller archive and the Fred Fehl photo collection at the Harry Ransom Center; and the Harvard University Theatre Collection, including the Angus McBean Theatre Photography Archive. In Death of a Salesman, New York City, 1949 England, archives included the National Theatre (photo by Eileen Darby) Archives, London; the Theatre Archive of the University of Bristol; and the Victoria and Albert P A G E 6 inquire if they had related images of Miller from his participation in a 1941 project as a field worker (recording speech patterns of talc miners in North Carolina), it turned out that they had no record or holdings of photos. I was able to provide scans of fourteen original images. Similarly, a search for Angus McBean's photos of the 1965 Old Vic production of The Crucible, directed by Laurence Olivier, began at the National Theatre archives. This investigation then led me to the Angus McBean archive at the Harvard Theatre Collection, which, in turn, had the original glass plate negatives but no prints, and then finally on to discover the original prints at the Victoria and The Crucible directed Theatre and Performance collections, London. Albert Theatre and Performance collections. by Laurence Olivier Among the individual photographers’ archives Throughout the research process, fellow at the Old Vic/ were estates of Eileen Darby, Fred Fehl, archivists were exceedingly helpful at National Theatre in Alfredo Valente, Paul Berg, Dan Weiner, Sam recommending further sources.