- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 2016-020", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"23868", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b21126241", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1972-2016", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1972/2016"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Elizabeth Swados papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"39.39 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"101 boxes, 2 oversized folders", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"408.3 mb (491 computer files)"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"id"=>"THE", "value"=>"Billy Rose Theatre Division"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Elizabeth Swados was a composer, musician, theatre director, writer, poet, and illustrator. Her papers date from 1972 to 2016 and consist of files related to Swados' professional life, chronicling all facets of her career and creative work. The collection comprises manuscript materials, scores, memorabilia, research materials, audio and video recordings, and notebooks of poetry, sketches, and stories."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Elizabeth Swados papers, *T-Mss 2016-020. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Swados, Elizabeth, 1951-2016", "type"=>"persname", "role"=>"creator"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Elizabeth Swados (1951-2016) was born in Buffalo, New York on February 5, 1951. She was raised by her father, Robert, who was an attorney, and her mother, Sylvia Maisel, an actress and poet. Maisel struggled with alcoholism and depression throughout her life, and committed suicide in 1974. Swados also had a brother, Lincoln, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in 1989.</p> <p>Swados attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she studied music and creative writing. While a student, she composed the score for Andrei Serban's adaptation of <span class=\"title\">Medea</span>, which was performed at Manhattan's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and earned Swados her first Obie award in 1973. She graduated from college later that year with a Bachelor of Arts degree.</p> <p>After graduating from college, Swados relocated to New York City, where she pursued work in theatre. In 1977, she composed music for Broadway revivals of both <span class=\"title\">The Cherry Orchard</span> and <span class=\"title\">Agamemnon</span>, and wrote and directed the off-Broadway revue, <span class=\"title\">Nightclub Cantata</span>, which garnered her two Drama Desk Award nominations.</p> <p>Swados' breakthrough hit came with <span class=\"title\">Runaways</span>, a musical revue that she wrote, composed, and directed. The production, which premiered at the Public Theatre in February 1978, addressed the lives of teenagers who had run away from home. Swados developed the revue's stories through a series of workshops she held with teenage runaways living in New York City, and cast some of these teenagers in the production. <span class=\"title\">Runaways</span> was met with so much acclaim that it was moved to Broadway in May of 1978, receiving an Obie Award for best direction, as well as five Tony nominations and four Drama Desk Award nominations.</p> <p>In 1979, Swados composed and directed the musical, <span class=\"title\">Dispatches</span>, based on the book by <span class=\"title\">Rolling Stone</span> reporter Michael Herr, about the Vietnam War and the music it inspired. That same year, she also composed the music for <span class=\"title\">Alice in Concert</span>, a musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's <span class=\"title\">Alice in Wonderland</span> and <span class=\"title\">Through the Looking Glass</span>. <span class=\"title\">Alice in Concert</span> premiered at the Public Theater in 1980 starring Meryl Streep, and was produced and directed by Joseph Papp.</p> <p>For her next major project, Swados collaborated with cartoonist Garry Trudeau, composing the music for two theatrical social satires, <span class=\"title\">Doonesbury</span> and <span class=\"title\">Rap Master Ronnie</span>. The former premiered on Broadway in 1983 and was based on Trudeau's comic strip, while the latter debuted in 1984, billed as a \"partisan revue\" of the Reagan administration.</p> <p>In 1985, Swados was awarded the Helen Hayes award for Best New Play for her musical, <span class=\"title\">The Beautiful Lady</span>. She continued to forge a successful theatre career, composing, writing, and directing such productions as <span class=\"title\">The Hating Pot</span>, a musical performance piece about racism and anti-Semitism that was filmed in 1995, <span class=\"title\">Groundhog</span> (1992), <span class=\"title\">Prince and the Pauper</span> (1994), <span class=\"title\">Missionaries</span> (1996), <span class=\"title\">The 49 Years</span> (1997), <span class=\"title\">Caucasian Chalk Circle</span> (1998), <span class=\"title\">Jabu</span> (2005), <span class=\"title\">Kasper Hauser</span> (2009), <span class=\"title\">Narcissus</span> (2010), <span class=\"title\">From the Fire</span> (2011), <span class=\"title\">Revolting Rhymes</span> (2011), <span class=\"title\">La Mama Cantata</span> (2011), and <span class=\"title\">Piano Bar</span> (2013). Swados also wrote a number of Jewish-themed works including, <span class=\"title\">The Haggadah: A Passover Cantata</span> (1980), <span class=\"title\">Esther, A Vaudeville Megillah</span> (1988), <span class=\"title\">Song of Songs</span> (1989), Jonah (1990), <span class=\"title\">The Story of Job</span> (1990), <span class=\"title\">Jerusalem</span> (1992), <span class=\"title\">Bible Women</span> (2001), <span class=\"title\">Jewish Girlz</span> (2003), and <span class=\"title\">Atonement</span> (2008).</p> <p>In addition to her own theatre work, Swados devoted much of her time to education and collaboration with youth and adolescents. She led numerous theatre workshops for young people, and taught in the drama departments at both New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and The New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. In partnership with her students, Swados was commissioned by the New York University Wellness Exchange to create <span class=\"title\">Reality Show</span>, a musical performance piece that addressed issues faced by new students living away from home for the first time. The piece was performed at such venues as Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Skirball Center at New York University, and on New York University's Abu Dhabi campus.</p> <p>Swados was also a prolific writer and published four books of fiction, a book of poetry, two memoirs, three works of nonfiction, and seven books for children. Her writing also appeared in an array of magazines and literary journals. Her adult fiction includes <span class=\"title\">Leah and Lazar</span> (1982), <span class=\"title\">Flamboyát</span> (1988), <span class=\"title\">The Myth Man</span> (1984), and <span class=\"title\">Walking the Dog</span> (2016); and her children's books are, <span class=\"title\">Girl with the Incredible Feeling</span> (1976), <span class=\"title\">Lullaby</span> (1980), <span class=\"title\">Skydance</span> (1981), <span class=\"title\">Inside Out</span> (1990), <span class=\"title\">Dreamtective</span> (1999), <span class=\"title\">Hey you! C'mere: A Poetry Slam</span>(2002), and <span class=\"title\">The Animal Rescue Store</span> (2005). In 2009, she released her book of poetry, <span class=\"title\">The One and Only Human Galaxy</span>.</p> <p>In 1991, Swados published <span class=\"title\">The Four of Us: A Family Memoir</span>, about her experiences growing up among family members struggling with mental illness. Her second memoir, <span class=\"title\">My Depression: A Picture Book</span> (2005), addressed Swados' own struggle with depression and featured her illustrations. She adapted the memoir into an animated television film, <span class=\"title\">My Depression (The Up and Down and Up of It)</span>, which starred Sigourney Weaver as Swados. The film aired on HBO in July of 2015.</p> <p>Swados died in New York City on January 5, 2016 due to complications from surgery for esophageal cancer. She is survived by her wife, Roz Lichter.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Elizabeth Swados papers date from 1972 to 2016, and chronicle Swados' theatrical career, along with her work as a writer, poet, illustrator, and educator. The collection consists primarily of handwritten manuscripts and subsequent typed drafts and revisions, which reveal Swados' writing process and the manner in which her productions and publications were conceived.</p> <p>The bulk of the collection details Swados' work writing, directing, and composing music for theatre productions. The Theatre and Music files contain sheet music, song lyrics, background research, and scripts, as well as a small amount of memorabilia, which includes posters and programs. These files document productions which were performed, as well as works in progress. Swados did much of her composition work by hand, writing out full music scores and lyrics, or annotating typed scores and scripts. Most files hold multiple iterations of a single production, and contain Swados' edits and notes on her work.</p> <p>The Writing files consist of manuscripts and notebooks that hold drafts of Swados' novels, non-fiction, short stories, and children's books, as well as many incomplete and unpublished works. These files contain the manuscripts for three of her published works, <span class=\"title\">Dreamtective</span>, <span class=\"title\">Hey You! C'mere: A Poetry Slam</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Walking the Dog</span>. There are also drafts of an unpublished memoir called, <span class=\"title\">Secrets: A Memoir</span> and a work of fiction titled <span class=\"title\">The Legal Age for Grieving</span>. There are thirty notebooks present which contain various untitled drafts, notes, and stories. Files related to Swados' novel, <span class=\"title\">Flamboyánt</span>, are found with the Theatre and Music materials, and contains draft scores and scripts of an early version of the novel which was devised as a theatrical production titled, <span class=\"title\">Flamboyánt: A Play in Two Acts</span>.</p> <p>The Poetry files include the manuscript and proofs for Swados' single published book of poetry, <span class=\"title\">The One and Only Human Galaxy</span>, individual poems that were published in anthologies and poetry journals, and numerous drafts of unpublished poems. Swados created an alphabetical list of her poetry, and arranged some of her printed poems alphabetically by title. Additionally, there is a computer file called, \"Poetry A-Z,\" in which poems are listed alphabetically, color coded, and annotated to indicate if and where they were published. There are also sixty-six notebooks and journals present, which are often partially full and contain many untitled and incomplete drafts.</p> <p>The Illustrations files consist of Swados' drawings and sketches, some of which appear in her published books. The original drawings for <span class=\"title\">My Depression</span>, which include Swados' annotations and an art log, are held in Box 76. There are also some unpublished children's books, which were hand drawn and bound by Swados, as well as fifteen notebooks of sketches.</p> <p>Research and Instruction files contain an assortment of background research, materials from the courses Swados taught at New York University, and items from workshops she led at the Rowe Center in Western Massachusetts. The research files found here were not filed with a particular work or production, and it is unclear if the materials informed Swados' future work, or were utilized in conjunction with the courses she taught. Included is annotated printed matter related to research on Janis Joplin, as well as items pertaining to grant applications with the Covenant Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. There is also a small selection of letters written to Swados from elementary school children regarding her play, <span class=\"title\">Revolting Rhymes</span>.</p> <p>Swados composed music and occasionally sought to adapt her work for film and television. The collection holds a small selection of these materials, most notable being the proposal for the film treatment of <span class=\"title\">My Depression</span>.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>Files are arranged alphabetically by title. Untitled materials are arranged chronologically. Swados' file titles were preserved when present.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Rosalind Lichter, 2016.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Compiled by <span class=\"name\">Heather Lember</span>, <span class=\"date\">2016</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Audio and video recordings are unavailable pending digitization.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatre@nypl.org.</p>"}
- dsc_type
-
combined
- date_start
-
1972
- keydate
-
1972
- date_end
-
2016
- date_inclusive_start
-
1972
- date_inclusive_end
-
2016
- extent_statement
-
39.39 linear feet (101 boxes, 2 oversized folders); 408.3 mb (491 computer files)