Author: Eric Colleary

ATAP is sponsoring a working session at the American Society for Theatre Research/Theatre Library Association conference at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel this coming November 7-10: Expanding Scholarship Through the American Theatre Archive Project (3 Hour Session) Conveners: Susan Brady, Yale University (susan.brady@yale.edu) and Ken Cerniglia, Disney Theatrical Group (ken.cerniglia@gmail.com) An initiative of the American Society for Theatre Research born at the 2009 Puerto Rico conference, the American Theatre Archive Project (ATAP) supports theatre makers in archiving records of their work for the benefit of artists, scholars, patrons, and the public. ATAP seeks: ·         To preserve records of current theatrical process and product for future generations. ·         To employ theatre legacy to develop theatres’ fiscal health and support new work. ·         To promote a better understanding of theatre as a vital element of cultural history. ·         To encourage scholarly research in contemporary American theatre. ·         To increase funding for establishing and maintaining theatre archives. ·         To support collaborations among theatre archivists, practitioners, and scholars. ATAP is a grassroots network of professional...

ATAP is seeking volunteers interested in helping theatres across the country establish and preserve their archives. Theatre scholars, archivists, librarians, students, historians, dramaturgs, and anybody with an interest in preserving theatre materials are welcome. A free ATAP training session will take place on Saturday, May 4th, 2013 from 9am-1pm at the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116. It will take place in the Mezzanine Conference Room, located on the mezzanine level of the Johnson Building. This training session will cover: The Pitch: a 20-minute lecture and Q&A session that any trained ATAP member can present at a conference, at a community meeting, or to a theatre’s board and is intended for theatre professionals who are interested in establishing an archives but have not yet committed to doing so. The ATAP Initiation Program: a collaboration between an archivist/documentarian team and a theatre company. It consists of three steps: the orientation, the assessment, and the workshop. The orientation and the workshop act as book-ends to the assessment,...

AMERICAN THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT www.americantheatrearchiveproject.org Fall 2012 Progress Report 29 October 2012 This progress report includes information on ATAP team activity, funding pursuits, and training development from the past quarter as well as fall objectives. Please send fall updates to ken.cerniglia@gmail.com by January 15 for inclusion in the Winter 2013 Progress Report. Teams Northwest – Helice Koffler, chair Implemented a monthly meeting schedule and continued to build capacity and identify local funding sources in Washington and Oregon. Added new members in Eugene and Salem as well as one who splits his time between Portland and Seattle and another who is based in Seattle and New York. Second year iSchool student from the University of Washington, Lydia Vernon, was hired to compile a comprehensive inventory of theatre holdings in the UW Special Collections with funding from the University of Washington Friends of the Libraries. Lydia officially began work on the project in October. Helice made initial contact with West Coast respondents to the Minneapolis survey (representing Alaska, California, and...

Check out the ATAP Member Handbook under RESOURCES -- the all-in-one place for theatre scholars, archivists, dramaturgs, and students to get oriented to the work we're doing....

by Martha Wade Steketee The American Theatre Archive Project New York City (ATAP NYC) team members have been meeting for a year at the New Amsterdam Theatre scheming ways to instill archival instincts in the American theatre world.  Team members are dramaturgs and archivists (and some are both) with a range of job situations.  Some work full time at area theatres as literary staff or archivists, some are freelance dramaturgs or other theatre professionals, and some are archivists who have a personal interest in the theatre arts while being employed at non-theatre organizations.  Speaking from our different professional perspectives at each monthly meeting, we revitalize our focus on our jointly-held goal: to develop the local, regional, national, professional imperative to archive the ephemeral evidence of theatrical productions.  Our contributions through this project, we feel, will develop tools and refine processes that can be adapted and used by theatres and communities of any sizes and types.  We will develop a cadre of trained archivists.  We also...

As an intern in the Media Library and Archives of Boston's WGBH, watching the Elliot Norton Reviews and writing summaries of them for the FileMaker database every Friday afternoon never gets boring. Just last week, I came across a massive ¾ inch tape with a title that caught my attention immediately: Al Pacino [!]. In this episode, which aired on February 16, 1973, Elliot Norton interviewed a young Al Pacino about his role as King Richard III at the Church of the Covenant on Newbury St by the Theater Company of Boston. Alongside actor Paul Benedict (Duke of Buckingham), and director David Wheeler, Pacino talks about his love of language. In response to Norton’s question about why he chose to play Richard III, Pacino explains that he used to do soliloquies from Hamlet and Macbeth alone in his room and chose to perform Shakespeare scenes for acting classes. He is inspired by the language and feels that as an actor, “language serves you,” as opposed to the other way around. Pacino believes...

As I watch and catalog the Elliot Norton Reviews as part of my internship in the WGBH Archives, I am constantly reminded of the ephemeral nature of theater. One of the distinguishing aspects of theater, and of the performing arts in general, is its willingness to change and grow every night, as each new audience fills the room. A performance is in a state of continual flux from the first day of rehearsal through the last curtain call, even if attempts are made to reproduce the exact same show every night. The temperature is different, the lead actor has a cold, the lead actress ad-libs a few lines, the audience is bored, the audience cheers loudly, the country’s president was assassinated the day before… Any number of things can affect the mood in the theater and the experience of the performance for the actors and audience. Some of these changes are intentional and some are beyond our control, but every run of...

Last Monday night, the Boston theater community gathered at the Paramount Theatre to celebrate an impressive season of groundbreaking theater and honor the designers, playwrights, choreographers, actors, and directors that made it such a success. The 29th annual Elliot Norton Awards, originally known as the Norton Medal, were founded in honor of respected Boston theater critic, Elliot Norton, upon his retirement in 1982, after 48 years in the biz. From 1958–1982, WGBH, one of the sponsors for the awards, was home to Norton’s television show, the Elliot Norton Reviews. Think Inside the Actors Studio with Elliot Norton as James Lipton, no studio audience, and all Boston theater people. Each 30-minute episode features one to three actors, directors, playwrights, or other theater personalities speaking with Norton about their recent or upcoming production, season, or career as a whole. They discuss the writing, rehearsal, and production processes and touch on topics including script analysis, production changes, design choices, acting styles, and casting decisions. As an intern at WGBH and co-chair...

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