Scope and arrangement
The George E. Joseph photographs cover many productions produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival/the Public Theater between 1956 and 1993.The collection includes images of performances, rehearsals, staged stills, cast shots, backstage, audiences, construction of both the Delacorte and Public Theaters, fundraising events, and New York City Parks. There are many images of Joseph Papp throughout the collection including headshots, Papp at work producing/directing, at home with family, and events honoring Papp.
The collection is arranged into two groups: Productions and Subjects and Additional Material. Productions and Subjects represent the bulk of the collection and include productions, events and other assignments photographed by Joseph. Some paper material such as programs and press releases may also accompany photographic material. Additional Material contains paper material such as programs, flyers, press releases, indexes, and other ephemeral material that did not accompany photographs. Both groups are arranged alphabetically.
Formats represented in the colletion include 35mm and 120mm negatives, prints, color slides, and contact sheets.
Productions of note include: Hair, A Chorus Line, True West, Streamers, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, The Curse of the Starving Class, That Championship Season, Runaways, The Colored Museum, Talk Radio, Fen, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf, No Place to Be Somebody, The Normal Heart, Wedding Band, The Pirates of Penzance, and many more.
Notable actors represented throughout the collection include: James Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst, George C. Scott, Charles Durning, Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, Meryl Streep, Raul Julia, Kevin Kline, Martin Sheen, Olympia Dukakis, Ruby Dee, F. Murray Abraham, Al Pacino, Carol Kane, Morgan Freeman, Stacy Keach, Gloria Foster, Roscoe Lee Browne, Julie Harris, Meat Loaf, Cleavon Little, Garrett Morris, Mandy Patinkin, Danny DeVito, John Cazale, Irene Worth, Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Denzel Washington, Linda Ronstadt, Madeline Kahn, Victor Wong, Mary Beth Hurt, Anna Deavere Smith, Lee Grant, Robert DeNiro, Estelle Parsons, Dianne Wiest, Ethan Hawke, and many others who graced the stages of the Delacorte or Public Theater as up-and-coming performers or established stars.
Playwrights of note, whose work is represented throughout the collection include: Elizabeth Swados, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Wallace Shawn, Caryl Churchill, George C. Wolfe, Bill Gunn, Tina Howe, Larry Kramer, Charles Gordone, Thomas Babe, David Hare, Eric Bogosian, E.L. Doctorow and many more.
In addition to plays and musicals, other productions represented throughout the collection include: cultural festivals, performance pieces such as Meredith Monk's Specimen Days; music performances; poetry readings; performances and workshops by Bread and Puppet Theater; and dance festivals featuring performances by the Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, and others.
While primarily covering Joseph's work for the New York Shakespeare Festival/the Public Theater, a small amount of non-NYSF material exists including slides from a television program hosted by Jack Lescoulie, wedding photographs, and shots of the Joseph family home.
Joseph maintained an internal numbering system for each assignment he worked for NYSF; these numbers were written on the backs of prints, contact sheets, and negative envelopes, and correspond with detailed indexes. Researchers are advised to consult these indexes in Additional Material for more information. Examples of indexes include productions sorted alphabetically and by year; Joseph Papp; production of Shakespeare works; Public Theater renovations; and Name indexes for actors, directors, and designers sorted alphabetically and by company debut.