The William Harris Papers
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The William Harris Papers Marymount Manhattan College 221 East 71st Street New York, New York 10021 Archives Collection #001 Processed October 2, 2001 Mary Elizabeth Brown William Balber (Billy) Harris was born April 9, 1951, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was an alumnus of the Lawrenceville School and of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Upon graduation, he moved to New York. At one time, he lived on Reade Street in Tribeca, and at the time of his death, he lived in #7C at 160 Front Street near the Fulton Fish Market.1 He divided his time between two kinds of writing, one being business writing. He was a staff writer for Forbes Magazine and Institutional Investor and managing editor of Treasury and Risk Management and The Daily Deal. He was also a drama and dance critic. He became interested in the theater in Pittsburgh, where he worked designing props under Peter Chandler of Periwig Productions, and at the Kirby Arts Center. He recalled coming to New York from Pittsburgh at the age of 17 to pay $9 to see a performance of Hair.2 He was the theater editor for the SoHo Weekly News and managing editor of Theatre Crafts Magazine. He also wrote articles, criticism and reviews for Art Forum, Brooklyn Bridge, The New York Times, The Newark Star Ledger, and The Village Voice. It was in the course of this work that he amassed his collection of papers. Mr. Harris died of a massive coronary July 27, 2000, in New York City at the age of 49. He was survived by his mother Vivienne, of Pittsburgh; his sister, Ellen, who lived in Denver, and his brother John, a physician in the San Francisco area. John wanted his brother‟s papers to continue to be used. Thus they came to be deposited at Marymount Manhattan College, which had a dance and a theater program training the next generation of performing artists. 1 For Reade Street address, see page 10 of the memorial booklet distributed at Mr. Harris‟s memorial service. For Front Street, see Folder #1818 Heyward, Julia. 2 William Harris, “Hair Transplant,” SoHo Arts, undated clipping in Art Clips, by William Harris, a collection of Mr. Harris‟s writings distributed at his memorial service. 2 Mr. Harris‟s papers are divided into eight genres. Three of them are not preserved in these archives. His collection of 43 long-playing recordings of Broadway musicals was integrated into Marymount Manhattan‟s long-playing album collection, where they would be best preserved. Mr. Harris had 228 periodicals representing seventeen different titles; as these are available in libraries, they were inventoried and offered to Marymount‟s faculty and students. Finally, Mr. Harris had 1,926 books of scripts. As the scripts can be located in libraries, the collection was inventoried and distributed among Marymount‟s faculty and students. Five genres of material have been preserved. Mr. Harris had 96 unpublished scripts and 4,450 folders of clippings. Mr. Harris kept the most of his unpublished scripts on his shelves next to the published ones. These have been preserved in archival folders in alphabetical order as Series 1. The largest category of preserved material is Series 2, Clippings. At the time of his death, Mr. Harris had six four-drawer file cabinets and one five-drawer file cabinet, a total of thirty-one drawers, all of which were full of letter-size Manila folders. The folders almost always contained clippings, primarily advertisements of performances and reviews. They also contained advertisements that Mr. Harris received in the mail, photographs that seem to have accompanied his articles on the subjects, posters, and the occasional letter.3 Mr. Harris filed most of the material under the name of the principal person involved. Most of the names are those of playwrights, but there are also choreographers, costume designers, dance companies, individual theaters, lyricists, solo artists and theater companies. Mr. Harris also maintained a few files that were not under 3 See, for example, Box 78, Folder 2667, which has a letter written and signed by the comedienne and playwright Anne Meara. 3 proper names. He had alphabetical files of playwrights (rather than giving each playwright an individual file), playbills, profiles of various individuals, and articles on theater in particular countries. These have been integrated into the overall alphabetical scheme. Instead of having their own series, Playbills A-Z, Playwrights A-Z, Profiles A-Z and Theater in countries from A-Z are filed under P and T, respectively. The only other changes to Mr. Harris‟s system were to label the folders with the last name first and to number the folders. Mr. Harris had a collection of ephemera, mostly theater posters. These apparently had been displayed, either as advertisements or as works of art in his home, and most were too fragile to be preserved. The inventory is in Series 7, with asterisks marking the nine posters that have been cleaned and wrapped for future possible display. The smallest category of preserved material is Series 3, Videotape, and this is not, properly speaking, Mr. Harris‟s own material. When Mr. Harris died, his friends organized a memorial service for him, which they videotaped. Ms Suellen Epstein kindly sent a copy July 18, 2001. It was incorporated into Mr. Harris‟s archive. As other items have arrived, they, too, have been filed here. Photographs were placed in Series 4 to allow for expansion. Mr. Harris kept a folder labeled “Photographs”; he also filed photographs under the names of the playwrights or choreographers whose works were depicted. Hence, this section is under construction. As photographs are identified, each is given a label, a folder, and an entry in the finding guide. The finding guide is available in two formats. A paper copy is available in the archives. An electronic copy is available on Marymount Manhattan‟s website. 4 Series 1. Unpublished Scripts Box 1 (folders 1-9) 0001 Albee, Edward. “Counting the Ways Fa Vaudeville).” The National Theatre, Upper Ground South Bank, London, SE1 9PX. July 1976. 0002 Albee, Edward. “Three Tall Women: A Play in Two Acts.” No place. 1991. 0003 Ayckbourn, Alan. “Bedroom Farce.” Whitehead-Stevens, George W. George, Frank Milton, 1501 Broadway, Suite 2210, New York, New York, 10036, (212) 354-4774. No date. 0004 Babe, Thomas. “Salt Lake City Skyline.” New York Shakespeare Festival, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, New York 10003. (212) 598-7100. July 5, 1979. 0005 Babe, Thomas. “Taken in Marriage.” New York Shakespeare Festival, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, New York 10003. (212) 677-1750. January 16, 1979. 0006 Bernard, Kenneth. “The Panel.” 788 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10032. (212) WA6-6579. No date. 0007 Bernhard, Thomas. “The Force of Habit: A Comedy,” translated by Neville and Stephen Plaice. The National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. No date. 0008 Bolt, Robert. “State of Revolution: A Play in Two Acts.” The National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. February 4, 1977. 0009 Bond, Edward. “Lear.” The English Stage Co., Ltd., Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London S.W. 1. No date. Box 2 (folders 10-17) 0010 Bond, Edward. “The Sea: A Comedy.” Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London, S.W. 1. No date. 0011 Bond, Edward. “The Woman: Scenes of Freedom.” National Theatre, South Bank, London S.E. 1. Fagent: Margaret Ramsay, 14A Goodwins Court, St. Martin‟s Lane, London WC2N 4LL.) No date. 0012 Brantley, Stephen. “Distortion: Analog Hunger in a Digital World.” 331 Henry Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201. (718) 624-0345. 1995. 0013 Brecht, Bertolt. “The Life of Galileo,” translated by Howard Brenton. The National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. Fagent: Margaret Ramsay Ltd., 14A Goodwin‟s Court, St. Martin‟s Lane, London WC2N 4LL.) No date. 0014 Brenton, Howard. “Weapons of Happiness.” The National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. April 23, 1976. 0015 Breuer, Lee. “The Shaggy Dog Animation.” New York Shakespeare Festival, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, New York 10003. (212) 677-1750. 1978. 0016 Collins, Barry. “Judgment.” The National Theatre, 10A Aquinas Street, London SE1 8AE. No date. 0017 Collins, Barry. “The Strongest Man in the World: A Tragi-comedy, in Three Acts.” No place. No date. Box 3 (folders 18-27) 5 0018 Cristofer, Michael. “Black Angel.” Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90012. (213) 972-7353. March 1, 1978. 0019 Cruz, Nilo. “Dancing on Her Knees.” 424 West 44th Street, New York, New York 10036. (212) 757-6960. Fagent: Peregrine Whittlesey, 245 East 80th Street, #31F, New York, New York 10021. (212) 737-0153.) May 1994. 0020 Cruz, Nilo. “A Park in Our House.” This play was commissioned and developed by the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. Fagent: Peregrine Whittlesey, 345 East 80th Street, #31F, New York, New York 10021. (212) 737- 0153.) March 1995. 0021 Daniels, Jeff. “Shoe Man.” The Purple Rose Theatre Company, 137 Park Street, Chelsea, Michigan 48118. Fagent: International Creative Management, Inc., 40 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10018. (212) 556-5600.) 1991. 0022 Daniels, Jeff. “Thy Kingdom‟s Coming.” No place. Fagent: International Creative Management, 40West 56th Street, New York, New York 10019. (212) 556-5636.) 1994. 0023 Daniels, Jeff. “The Vast Difference.” Circle Repertory Company, 632 Broadway, 6th Floor, New York, New York 10012. January 11, 1994. 0024 Durang, Christopher. “Mrs. Sorken.” No place. No date. 0025 Filippo, Eduardo de. “Grand Magic,” translated by Carlo Ardito. The Manhattan Theatre Club, 321 East 73rd Street, New York, New York 10021. October 5, 1978. 0026 Filippo, Eduardo de.