- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 2004-004", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"18880", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b20281685", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1930-1990", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1930/1990"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1930
- date_inclusive_end
-
1990
- keydate
-
1930
- date_start
-
1930
- date_end
-
1990
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Robert Gerringer and Patricia Falkenhain papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"8.87 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"27 boxes, 1 oversized folder, 1 tube", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"id"=>"THE", "value"=>"Billy Rose Theatre Division"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Robert Gerringer (1926-1989) and his wife Patricia Falkenhain (1927-2004) were American stage, television, and film actors. They performed together in regional, Broadway, and Off-Broadway theater. The collection (1930-1990) documents their stage acting careers through scripts, scrapbooks, photographs, and writings. Gerringer's drawings and watercolors are also present."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Robert Gerringer and Patricia Falkenhain papers, *T-Mss 2004-004. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Falkenhain, Patricia", "type"=>"persname", "role"=>"creator"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Robert Gerringer (1926-1989) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He attended Fordham University where he studied stage design before beginning his acting career. Patricia Falkenhain (1927-2004) was an American stage actress. She made her theater debut in a 1946 performance of Juno and the Paycock as a member of The Spur, an acting group that performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. Gerringer and Falkenhain were both members of the Off-Broadway theater group The Thirteen Players during the 1940s. The couple was married in 1950 and performed together in over 150 regional, Broadway, and Off-Broadway theater productions between 1948 and 1988. They worked extensively with the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Phoenix Theatre in New York, and the Virginia Museum Theatre in Richmond. On Broadway the couple performed in The Waltz of the Toreadors (1958), The Power and the Glory (1958), and The Beaux' Stratagem (1959).</p> <p>Gerringer's other Broadway credits include Sean O'Casey's Pictures in the Hallway (1956), The Andersonville Trial (1959), Hedda Gabler (1971), and St. Joan (1977). On television he was best-known for his role as Dr. Woodward in the series Dark Shadows (1967). Gerringer was also an active visual artist, working primarily in watercolor and ink. He showed works at the Pemaquid Gallery in Maine, the Cary-Windsor Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and in small group shows in New York and Chicago. Falkenhain's other Broadway credits include Lysistrata (1959), Peer Gynt (1960), Hamlet (1961), Once a Catholic (1961), and The House of Blue Leaves (1986). She won the 1960 Obie for Distinguished Performance for her roles in Peer Gynt and Henry IV.</p> <p>Robert Gerringer died in 1989. Patricia Falkenhain died in 2004.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection dates from 1930 to 1990 and documents the stage acting careers of Robert Gerringer and Patricia Falkenhain through scripts, scrapbooks, photographs, and writings. Gerringer's drawings and watercolors are also present.</p> <p>The bulk of the collection consists of scripts and scrapbooks. Scripts are chiefly for plays that Gerringer and Falkenhain acted in together and separately. Film and television scripts are also present. Some of the scripts are heavily annotated with acting notes or short analyses of scenes. Play titles include Hedda Gabler, The American Bell, Volpone, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Inherit the Wind, Lady Windermere's Fan, and Anything Goes. Scripts for television include The Hemingway Play by Frederic Hunter and Mel Brook's Inside Danny Baker. The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight, The Exorcist, and The Wrong Damn Film are among the film scripts. A prompt book containing Gerringer's detailed set sketches and notes on lighting, sound, and movement for a Fordham University production of Eugene O'Neil's Ile is present. The collection also contains a script for Alan Alda's unpublished screenplay, The Senator, dated 1978, and sheet music for Utter Glory.</p> <p>Scrapbooks date from 1935 to 1988 and hold programs, newspaper articles, and photographs for shows Gerringer and Falkenhain acted in together and separately. Each scrapbook may contain material relating to Gerringer and Falkenhain's respective or combined performances. The amount of productions and the degree to which they are represented varies per scrapbook. Programs and photographs for Gerringer's high school and college stage productions are among the earliest materials in the scrapbooks. Gerringer and Falkenhain's work with the Thirteen Players from 1948 to 1949 is documented through programs and clippings for In a Garden, Obsession, and Hedda Gabler. Shows that the couple acted in for the New York Shakespeare Festival from the 1950s to the 1970s are well-represented through articles, reviews, and programs. Virginia Museum Theatre material consists of programs, announcements, and reviews for The Lion in Winter, The Gin Game, and Dear Liar, as well as biographical articles on the couple. Other productions covered in the scrapbooks include Volpone, Waltz of the Toreadors, St. Joan, Hedda Gabler, Monsieur Amilcar, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and The House of Blue Leaves. Scrapbooks have been disassembled and the pages may span several folders or boxes.</p> <p>Photographs in the collection span the bulk of Gerringer and Falkenhain's careers. The majority of the images are performance stills from unidentified stage productions. Posed production portraits, publicity headshots, backstage photographs, and personal snapshots are also present.</p> <p>The collection holds Gerringer and Falkenhain's unpublished writings. Gerringer's writings consist of poems, personal narratives, scripts, and a manuscript titled The Shattered Image. Scripts include partial manuscript and typewritten drafts of Zillah and a typewritten draft of a one-act play called So Many Faces. Gerringer's college notes are also here. Falkenhain's writings are more limited and consist of her notes on Greek, Roman, and 18th-century theater.</p> <p>The collection holds Robert Gerringer's drawings and watercolors dating from 1934 to 1988. Several of the drawings are preliminary sketches of theater characters that Gerringer studied. Detailed line drawings are also present. Subjects of the drawings and sketches include Shakespeare characters, Patricia Falkenhain, historical and fictional figures, churches, buildings, and landscapes. One sketchbook contains technical line drawings of an unidentified machine with individual drawings of the machine's units. Watercolors primarily illustrate natural landscapes, as well as paintings of characters, such as those from The Beaux Stratagem. In addition to works by Gerringer, two drawings by Staats Cotsworth are present.</p> <p>The collection contains Falkenhain's 1985 Obie Award for Ensemble Performance in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is arranged into the following categories: Scripts; Scrapbooks; Photographs; Writings; Drawings and Watercolors; and Obie Award. Scripts are arranged alphabetically by title.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Dot Lee, 2004.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Compiled by <span class=\"name\">Robyn Hjermstad</span>, <span class=\"date\">2014</span>.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatrediv@nypl.org.</p>"}
- dsc_type
-
combined
- extent_statement
-
8.87 linear feet (27 boxes, 1 oversized folder, 1 tube)