Special Tony Given to New York Public Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, and its founder Betty Corwin, for Excellence in Theatre

New York, May 7, 2001 -- The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ unique archive of live theatrical performances on film and videotape—and its founder, Betty Corwin—will receive a special "Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre" at the American Theatre Wing's 55th Annual Tony Awards ceremony on June 3. The honor for the Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) was announced by Reba McEntire this morning at Sardi’s during the official announcement of this year’s Tony Award nominees. This is the second Tony received by the Library’s Billy Rose Theatre Collection. The first was awarded in 1956 for "Distinguished Service to the Theatre."

Library President Paul LeClerc said, "TOFT has preserved landmark performances by such actors as Colleen Dewhurst, James Earl Jones, Zero Mostel, Al Pacino, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Kevin Spacey, and Meryl Streep that otherwise would have slipped away to memory and legend. We are thrilled that the theatrical community has chosen to recognize the archive’s importance with an honor of this magnitude."

Since 1970 the Library’s Theatre on Film and Videotape Archive, part of its Billy Rose Theatre Collection, has documented thousands of live theatrical productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theatres throughout the United States. Noteworthy productions in the archive include the 1975 production of Equus with Anthony Hopkins, the 1974 version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Elizabeth Ashley and Keir Dullea, Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel, the original production of A Chorus Line at the Public Theatre, and the original casts of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George. Most recently TOFT videotaped Proof, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Auburn. The archive also includes nearly 250 video dialogues with notable theatrical talents discussing their craft.

Betty Corwin came to the Library with her idea for a film and video archive of theatrical productions in 1969. She was told by the Chief of what was then called the Performing Arts Research Center that she could have "three months, a desk, and a telephone." From there Corwin built TOFT into the foremost archive of its kind. The collection is used each year by more than 5,000 researchers from 31 countries. In addition to historians, journalists, and scholars, the collection is used extensively by theatre professionals working on current productions. Corwin retired from the Library in September 2000 but maintains an affiliation as Director of Special Projects. TOFT’s work is now being carried forward by Patrick Hoffman who worked for the archive as Assistant Director over the last eight years prior to being named Director earlier this year.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts—whether professional or amateur—the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is currently operating from temporary quarters while its building at Lincoln Center undergoes its first full-scale renovation since opening in 1965. The Library will reopen at Lincoln Center in mid-October.

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Contact: Herb Scher or Rima Corben at 212.221.7676

(hscher@nypl.org, rcorben@nypl.org)

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