Profile for cmorrow

In 1987, I saw a play by John Pielmeier called Sleight of Hand, about a depressive loser who is an aspiring magician. The playwright was hot at the time because he'd written Agnes of God, which ran for over a year, but this play was the pits. We considered leaving at intermission, but hoped Act Two might be better. It was worse. Really inept, like a sloppy rehearsal.

One of the friends with me knew the lead actor, Harry Groener. We went backstage afterwards, and h

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "As implied here and based on conversations with those who work on the Lincoln Center campus:

I gather there's a great deal of tiptoeing between Lincoln Center the landlord and its constituent organizations, as well as a general public misunderstanding of how each individual nonprofit operates as part of the larger Lincoln Center campus. (Don't ever let Andre B hear you say "Lincoln Center's production of Camelot"

BETTY22 said: "Do producers cover costs or Lincoln Center?"

Producers occasionally pay for tapings, but most often they don't.

To follow up on what I said earlier about the archive's name: TOFT is part of the New York Public Library system. Technically, our library is called The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. But that's a mouthful, so those of us who work there usually call it the LPA, or the Performing Arts Library. We are locate

I work at the Performing Arts Library, with the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT). It’s not correct to say the archive “passes” on jukebox musicals, or any other kind of stage show. All sorts of shows are considered for archival tapings (musicals, dramas, avant-garde pieces, puppet shows, etc.) However, as others have suggested, other factors are involved in what does and does not get recorded. First, there are specific criteria: if a stage work was created by a notabl

dramamama611 said: ""An Off-Broadway production has the best odds of being filmed, however, as they're not beholden to the Broadway unions, so unlike most shows I'd say that this has a statistically likelier probability of actually being filmed for posterity."
 
My understanding: Equity is not a "Broadway" union, but a professional stage union. Those actors are all Equity, so there are still ties even if the Shed isnt an Equity hous

Ensemble1686998462 said: "It really sucks they didn't do a proshot. Not only because of Lea's out of this world Fanny, but also because of the fantastic performances from Ramin, Tovah and Jared. It's amazing how it all came together to perfection after the horrible misfire at the beginning and this cast should be preserved."

The show was taped on Aug. 25, a few days before Lea went out sick, for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT). So this product

kdogg36 said: "This question comes from pure, idle curiosity!

Can individuals who were intimately involved with a production, like writers and directors, obtain their own copies of archived recordings, or do they also have to visit in person?"

I work at the Performing Arts Library, directly with the TOFT archive. No one gets a copy of a video created for the archive, no matter what his or her connection with a production may have been. When Stephen Sondhei

hearthemsing22 said: I didn't think that sounded right about what years the collection spanned. But otherwise this is very interesting and should be read by all of those people who whine about how they think it would be so easy."

The first TOFT taping took place in 1970, and the early years are sparse. For the first decade or so, most plays and musicals taped were Off-B'way, or Off-off. The first Broadway show TOFT recorded was in 1974 (Liza at the Winter

Interesting article -- thanks for posting. However, I need to point out that one comment about the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) is inaccurate. The writer says "The archive has complete videos of almost every single show that has played on Broadway since the 1990s." That's definitely not the case. I work at the library with the TOFT collection, and know that many shows are not recorded for the archive, for various reasons.

A number of years ago there was a d

BJR said: "Sorry to thread hijack but I just realized that means there were other shows there's no record of, including Ivo's West Side. Damn shame."

True -- because of the shutdown, several planned tapings had to be called off. (A Soldier's Play just barely made it under the wire, taped without an audience, because the company really wanted to get it recorded.) In some cases, TOFT was able to tape shows which resumed in 2021, like Girl from

cliffordbradshaw2 said: "I do believe that the Theatre on Film and Tape collection recorded Part One and Part Two of "The Inheritance" at the show's final two performances on Broadway, Wednesday afternoon and evening, March 11, 2020. The shutdown happened the next day, and "The Inheritance" had already been scheduled to close on Sunday, March 15, 2020.

This means that the "Inheritance" videos at TOFT feature (excellent) replacement Tony Go