The Theatre Museum's Showboat Exhibition in Brooklyn

[Wavetree]

Posted: 6/26/07 at 11:04am

From The Theatre Museum press release:

“Showboat ‘Round the Bend!” is a one- of-a-kind exhibition about the American Showboat. The exhibition was created by The Theatre Museum and Waterfront Museum. There will be a special summer reception on July 26, 2007 with refreshments and entertainment from 5:30-7:30 p.m. aboard the historic Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The exhibition, curated by Mary Hasbritt and Virginia Willets, explores the origin and development of the American Showboat on New York and national waterways. Showboats began bringing settlers entertainment in 1831. In the 19th and into the 20th century, these riverboats and their performers were for many their only source of entertainment -- from vaudeville to drama to moving pictures.

A grand Showboat Weekend will be held on October 20 - 21, featuring a panel of experts, including scholars, former showboat operators and family members, discussing life on the showboat, music and entertainment presented there, and the reality vs. representations of showboats. Performances of vintage showboat entertainment, from vaudeville to calliope, under the artistic direction of vaudevillian Travis Stewart (a/k/a Trav S.D.), will be presented.

The exhibition will be on view through December 20 2007, and during the Waterfront Museum’s CIRCUS Sundays in June and SUNSET MUSIC SERIES in July. Public viewing hours are Thursdays from 4 - 8 p.m. Admission is free and donations are requested. Directions to the museum may be obtained from http://waterfrontmuseum.org/gallery/2007/press.html.

The exhibition is sponsored in part by NY Council for the Humanities, Abraham & Lillian Rosenberg Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Hudson Scenic Studios, Walton Hauling and Warehouse Corp., Framerunner and the MetLife Volunteer Ventures Program. Special thanks to Greg O’Connell."

For more information visit www.TTMNYC.org or www.waterfrontmuseum.org or call The Theatre Museum at 212-764-4112 ext. 203