Theatrical Dynasty Reunited in Exhibition Opening June 25 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Ellen Terry, Edith Craig, Edward Gordon Craig and John Gielgud

New York, NY, June 7, 2004 -- The evolution of modern theatre can be traced in part through the bloodline of one exceptionally gifted English family group: Ellen Terry; her children, Edith and Edward Gordon Craig; and her great-nephew, John Gielgud. In a span of 150 years, their individual talents bore significant influence on the realms of acting, directing, dramaturgy; lighting, stage and graphic design.

Ellen Terry as Guinevere (in the play King Arthur by J. Comyns Carr) in the Lyceum Theatre production, designed by Burne-Jones. American postcard (mailed January 12, 1895) based on a rotogravure to promote the US tour. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

…to illuminate the scene: Ellen Terry, Edith Craig, Edward Gordon Craig, and John Gielgud, an exhibition based on rare artifacts, photographs, designs, correspondence and audio selections culled from the Library's archival collections of theater, music, dance, and recorded sound, is a fascinating convergence of these four lights of a brilliant legacy. It will be on view from June 25 through August 21, 2004 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free.

Ellen Terry (1848-1928) was one of the most celebrated personalities through and beyond the Victorian and Edwardian eras, both as an actress and as an iconic beauty of the time. Though best remembered for her Shakespearean interpretations and her muse-like effect on George Bernard Shaw, Terry played more than 140 different roles in a career that began at age eight under the tutelage of Charles Kean and lasted into her late 70s. The exhibition includes many images of the actress -- rotogravures, photos, a woodcut by Edward Gordon Craig -- from the child Terry playing Banquo's son to posters honoring her first half century on stage. Also on view are programs and itineraries from her tours with Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre as well as her late-career recitation engagements; memorabilia from the Ellen Terry Jubilee celebration of 1906; and other evocative ephemera.

Edith Craig (1869-1947), Terry's elder child from a liaison with theatrical designer Edward Godwin, followed her mother's example onto the stage before the age of ten. She, too, became a member of the Lyceum company of actors but later forged her own path as a costume designer, director, producer and founder of the Pioneer Players, presenting early feminist and suffragist plays. With her longtime female partner, writer/editor Christopher St. John, she also composed essays for public presentation by her mother. Photographs, programs and scripts for some of her more memorable productions, among them How the Vote Was Won (1913, by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John) are included in the exhibition.

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) was a prolific and revolutionary theorist, designer and director of theatre as well as an innovative visual artist and publisher. He is largely responsible for elevating stage lighting and design to dynamic and symbolic elements of the theatre arts. Among the items on display are specimen copies of his exquisitely decorated magazines; notes, letters and essays explicating his dramatic vision; artifacts from the 1926 American production of Macbeth with "designment by Gordon Craig" and from a collaboration with Ellen Terry on Ibsen's The Vikings; illustrations, lithographs and engravings, including a sublime monogram created for inamorata Isadora Duncan as well as lithographic studies of the dancer on handmade paper depicting the musical personae of Chopin, Beethoven, Strauss and other composers.

John Gielgud in the title role of Hamlet in the 1936 Broadway production. Photograph by Vandamm. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

Finally, the legendary stage and film actor and director John Gielgud, whose centennial celebration inspired this exhibition, is represented in photographs and posters; in his own original drawings; in annotated scripts; in letters from his long correspondence with Lillian Gish; in several echoes of his definitive Hamlet, including his own heavily hand-notated prompt script from the 1937 Broadway production; and in screenplays, images and other materials from Gielgud's vast body of film work from the 1920s through the 1990s.

Rare recordings of recitations by Ellen Terry from 1911, of Gordon Craig, and of original music from an Edith Craig pageant can be heard in the exhibition along with examples from the extensive spoken arts repertory of recordings by John Gielgud.

Public Program
There will be a screening on Saturday, June 26 at 3:00 p.m. of Irene Worth's one-woman show, A Tribute to Ellen Terry, which premiered at the Library on December 2, 1997 and was created with the assistance of Sir John Gielgud. The program is part of the Library's Public Program series and will take place in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. Admission is free.

…to illuminate the scene: Ellen Terry, Edith Craig, Edward Gordon Craig, and John Gielgud is curated by Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, The Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Curator of Exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

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. 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.

…to illuminate the scene: Ellen Terry, Edith Craig, Edward Gordon Craig, and John Gielgud will be on view from June 25 through August 21, 2004 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. Exhibition hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 12 noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 12 noon to 8 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Admission is free. For information, telephone 212.870.1630 or visit www.nypl.org.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.

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Contacts: Lindy Regan or Herb Scher at 212.704.8600.