Theatre Library Association
SYMPOSIUM II
New York University
Kimmel Center for University Life
Shorin Music Performance Center
(directions)
Friday, February 16, 2007
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Performance Reclamation:
Research, Discovery, and Interpretation
Program
8:30 – 9:00 Registration and coffee
9:10 – 9:30 Welcome – Marvin Taylor, Director
Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University
Introduction – Martha S. LoMonaco, President
Theatre Library Association
Symposium overview – Kenneth Schlesinger, Co-Chair
Keynote speaker introduction – Nancy Friedland, Columbia University
9:30 – 10:15 KEYNOTE – James Leverett
10:15 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:00 Saving Face: Reconstructing Berlin and Hart's Face the Music at Encores!
Moderator – Kevin Winkler, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Rob Fisher, former Musical Director, Encores!
David Ives, book adapter, Encores!
Bruce Pomahac, Director of Music, Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
Jack Viertel, Artistic Director, Encores!
When Face the Music opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theater, it boasted an impeccable pedigree: a tuneful score by Irving Berlin, a libretto by Moss Hart, musical staging and design by Hassard Short, choreography by Albertina Rasch, and direction by George S. Kaufman. Its topical story involved a Broadway producer's attempts to mount a Ziegfeldian revue in the depths of the Depression and in the midst of the political corruption of Mayor Jimmy Walker's administration. In a twist out of The Producers, the revue becomes a bona fide hit only when the production "goes dirty," with scanty chorus girls and enough nudity that even Mae West walks out on it.
Despite a successful run, Face the Music has never been revived, and the reconstruction of both its libretto and score is the centerpiece of the 2007 season of Encores! which will celebrate the great American Broadway revue on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel; former Encores! Musical Director Rob Fisher, who will return as guest conductor for this production; and other artists will discuss the challenging process of reclaiming this lost musical comedy on the eve of the 75th anniversary of its Broadway debut.
12:00 – 1:20 Lunch on your own
Afternoon Panels
1:30 – 3:00 Mint Condition: Resurrecting Rachel Crothers' Susan and God
Heather J. Violanti, dramaturg
Jennifer Blood, Timothy Deenihan, Leslie Hendrix - performers
Mint will examine this rediscovered work, with an interactive discussion from the production team, including director, dramaturg and actors from their acclaimed production, specifically focusing on how library resources supported their efforts. Actors will present variant drafts of several scenes, and the production team will discuss how minor changes make for major differences.
SUSAN AND GOD, Mint Theater Company, 2006.
Timothy Deenihan, Jennifer Blood and Leslie Hendrix.
(photo by Richard Termine)
3:00 – 3:15 Break
3:15 – 4:45 Pillow Talk: Reconstructing Limón at Jacob's Pillow
Moderator – Pamela Bloom, New York University
Paul Dennis – dancer
Sarah Stackhouse, Limón scholar
The great modern dance pioneer José Limón created a 1961 solo, Sonata for Two Cellos, which he performed only twice before abandoning it for unknown reasons. Fortunately, one of its two performances was filmed and that silent 16mm film was maintained through the years in the New York Public Library's Dance Collection.
When Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival was seeking a Limón-related "occasion piece" to open its 2001 season, Norton Owen (who was at the time both Director of Preservation for Jacob's Pillow and Institute Director for the Limón Foundation) remembered Sonata for Two Cellos, which he had only seen on silent film at the library. He put together a project to bring the work back to life as a vehicle for modern dance star Desmond Richardson, engaging Limón specialist Sarah Stackhouse to tackle the difficult assignment of piecing together the surviving elements. There was a printed score and an audiotape of the music by Meyer Kupferman, the silent film, and very little else. How the dance was reborn from these scraps of documentation will be discussed, as well as the multiple artists and institutions involved in this project. The importance of the fragmentary documentation that allowed a new production of Sonata for Two Cellos to be envisioned will be illustrated with excerpts from both the original silent film and Richardson's 2001 performance to illuminate the kinds of choices that needed to be made and the results of those decisions.
4:45 – 5:00 Closing Remarks – Don B. Wilmeth, theater scholar
5:00 – 6:00 Reception – Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, 3rd floor
New York University
TLA thanks NYU's Fales Library and Special Collections for hosting this Symposium.
This Theatre Library Association Symposium was made possible through the generous support of the Gladys Krieble Delmas and Shubert Foundations.
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