Sub-series 3 - Productions and Professional Projects

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id: 503834
level (num): 2
level (text): subseries
identifier (local_mss): 762597
max depth: 5
boost queries: add/edit
created: 2013-05-02 16:45:38 UTC
updated: 2020-01-07 16:27:42 UTC

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unitid: {"value"=>"762597", "type"=>"local_mss"}
unitdate: {"value"=>"1922 - 1992", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1922/1992"}

{"value"=>"2001", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"2001"}

{"value"=>"1953", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1953"}

{"value"=>"1954", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1954"}

{"value"=>"1981", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1981"}

{"value"=>"1944", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1944"}

{"value"=>"1948", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1948"}

{"value"=>"1949", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1949"}

{"value"=>"1952", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1952"}

{"value"=>"1959", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1959"}

{"value"=>"1969", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1969"}

{"value"=>"1943", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1943"}

{"value"=>"1950-1951", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1950/1951"}

{"value"=>"1941", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1941"}

{"value"=>"1946", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1946"}

{"value"=>"1947", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1947"}

{"value"=>"1950", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1950"}

{"value"=>"1951", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1951"}

{"value"=>"1975", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1975"}

{"value"=>"1976", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1976"}

{"value"=>"1958", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1958"}

{"value"=>"1963", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1963"}

{"value"=>"1974", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1974"}

{"value"=>"1980", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1980"}

{"value"=>"1985", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1985"}

{"value"=>"1983", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1983"}

{"value"=>"1984", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1984"}

{"value"=>"1987", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1987"}

{"value"=>"1971", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1971"}

{"value"=>"1961", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1961"}

{"value"=>"1938", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1938"}

{"value"=>"1978", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1978"}
unittitle: {"value"=>"Sub-series 3 - Productions and Professional Projects"}
physdesc: {"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"25.5 boxes"}
scopecontent: {"value"=>"This series contains correspondence, scripts, contracts, programs, production and publicity materials, and clippings documenting the numerous productions in which Berghof performed, directed, adapted, translated, or developed. The productions and projects span Berghof's entire career from the late 1920s to 1990 and range from Broadway, off Broadway, stock, and HB Playwrights Foundation, to international productions. Although Berghof mostly worked in the theater, there are also materials for film, television, and radio. Some of the papers are in German. Productions and projects on which Berghof worked with Uta Hagen are filed with Hagen's papers, except for The Deep Blue Sea; Hagen replaced Margaret Sullavan on the road (1953). Scripts and revisions with Berghof's numerous handwritten notes abound, providing a valuable window into the evolution of a theater piece, as well as Berghof's working process. Extensive research materials for many productions also give evidence to his meticulousness and thorough professionalism. Two examples of many are The Apollo of Bellac by Jean Giradoux, performed at the Herbert Berghof Studio (ca. 1954) and the Theater in der Josefstadt's proposed production of The Merchant of Venice in which Berghof was to have played Shylock (ca.1981). Papers relating to most of Berghof's European work in theater can be found in the Personal Papers series, except several for which there are more than just minimal materials. Included in this series are papers relating to one of his last projects before emigrating in 1938, The Lost Melody, since he continued to work on the production after coming to the United States. Berghof's earliest work on Broadway was staging the musical revue From Vienna, produced by the Refugee Artists Group at the Music Box Theatre in 1939. In 1940, he also staged and performed in a second revue, Reunion in New York, at the Little Theatre. Berghof was a member of the Refugee Artists Group; the papers contain a 1938 letter from Albert Einstein wishing the group well. He played the title role in Nathan the Wise, both at the New School and at the Belasco Theatre in 1942. Numerous roles on Broadway followed over the next two decades. Some of his most notable appearances include The Man Who Had All the Luck which marked the first Broadway production of Arthur Miller's work (1944), Ghosts and Hedda Gabler with Eva Le Gallienne (1948), Miss Liberty, the Irving Berlin musical (1949), Tovarich at City Center with Luther Adler and Romney Brent (1952), The Andersonville Trial(1959), and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1969). From the late 1940s through the early 1950s, Berghof worked extensively in stock and regional theaters, both alone and sometimes with Uta Hagen, as actor and director. These productions include Design for Livingwith Kitty Carlisle (1943), Grand Hotel(1948), The Guardsman, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond and directed by Sam Wanamaker (1950-1951), and The Play's the Thing(1941 and 1946). In 1960, Berghof played Krapp in the Cricket Theatre off-Broadway production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. Also during the 1940s and early 1950s, Berghof worked on radio, including several appearances for the Theatre Guild on the Air in plays such as Men in White (1947), Alien Corn and The Gentle People (1949), Blow Ye Winds (1950), and The Third Man(1951). Berghof directed the Broadway premiere of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot to critical acclaim and an all-black version in 1957 starring Earle Hyman, Geoffrey Holder, and Rex Ingram. The production file includes correspondence from Beckett. Berghof also directed Poor Murderer by Pavel Kohout at the HB Playwrights Foundation and the Broadway production, starring Laurence Luckinbill and Maria Schell (1975 and 1976). Poor Murdereris especially well-documented. His last Broadway directing credit was Charlotte by Peter Hacks, translated and adapted by Berghof, and starring Uta Hagen and Charles Nelson Reilly. (Materials relating to this production are filed with Uta Hagen's papers.) Films include Five Fingers (1952), Red Planet Mars (1952), Fraülein with Dana Wynter (1958), Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison (1963), Harry and Tonto with Art Carney (1974), Those Lips, Those Eyes with Frank Langella, Jerry Stiller, and Kevin McCarthy (1980), and Target with Gene Hackman (1985). Of particular note is a 1961 telegram from Elizabeth [Taylor] and Eddie Fisher inviting Berghof and Hagen to a party in Rome during the filming of Cleopatra. A large number of plays developed, presented, and sometimes directed and performed by Berghof at his studio, and later for the HB Playwrights Foundation, are represented in the papers. The Apollo of Bellacby Jean Giradoux, adapted and translated by Berghof (1954 and 1983), The Game of Love and Deathby Romain Rolland (1984), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1987), The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracksby Romulus Linney (1971) which went on to an unassociated production on Broadway, Rainer Maria Rilke's Portuguese Letters, translated adapted by Berghof (1971), several staged readings in the 1960s of Seize the Dayby Saul Bellow, and This Side of Paradiseby F. Scott Fitzgerald by Sydney Sloane (1961) which opened off Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in 1962. Materials for proposed productions are also contained in the papers, for example, Cold Storage, The Gin Game, and The Merchant of Venice, which the Theater in der Josefstadt had hoped to present. Other professional projects included are memorial and benefit programs with which Berghof was associated, such as those for Max Reinhardt and Oscar Karlweis, and the Ivriah Springtime breakfasts. Unidentified productions and several items written by Berghof are filed at the end of the series. The writings include ideas for a screenplay in German (1938), a scenario in German re: marriage in crisis (undated), and a piece on death of Felicia Montealegre (ca. 1978)."}
arrangement: {"value"=>"Alphabetical"}
date_start: 1922
keydate: 1922
date_end: 2001
date_inclusive_start: 1922
date_inclusive_end: 2001

Sub-series 3 - Productions and Professional Projects

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