Loading...
Creator
Lincoln Center Theater (New York, N.Y.)
Call number
*T-Mss 1991-024
Physical description
21.29 linear feet (41 boxes, 19 tubes). 338 audio_files. 2 video_files
Language
Multiple languages; Materials in English and Hebrew (in audio recordings).
Preferred Citation
Lincoln Center Theater records, *T-Mss 1991-024. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Sponsor
Description of audio and moving image materials was made possible by a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, "The Shelby White and Leon Levy Initiative to Press Play on the Audio and Motion Picture Archives at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts."
Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The Lincoln Center Theater was formed as a non-profit in 1985 to present and develop theatrical works and make the performing arts accessible to a wide audience through the use of low cost and free tickets for culturally under-served populations. The Lincoln Center Theater records hold production files and audio and video recordings from the group's early seasons (1985-1991) as well as files documenting the group's 1985 restructuring and transition from earlier management. There are also financial and facilities rental materials from the theater's time under the Lincoln Center Theater Company which managed the physical theater's operations from 1979 to 1985.

Biographical/historical information

The Lincoln Center Theater Company (LCTC) opened in 1980, under the direction of Richmond Crinkley with a five-member committee of advisors consisting of Woody Allen, Sarah Caldwell, Liviu Ciulei, Robin Phillips, and Ellis Rabb. Edward Albee was the company playwright. The LCTC was the third resident company at the Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont and Mitzi Newhouse theaters. Previous resident companies were the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center (1964-1973) and Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival (1973-1977). The governing body of the Lincoln Center Theater Company was the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Inc., which oversaw the various uses of the theater.

The LCTC presented only one season, from 1980 to 1981, which included Macbeth, The Philadelphia Story, and a new play by Woody Allen, The Floating Light Bulb. The productions were generally not well received. Crinkley then decided that the Beaumont would need major renovations before the next season could continue. Lincoln Center's governing body, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., asked that the renovations be postponed until the company could reevaluate its artistic mission.

Crinkley prevailed and a $6.5 million interior renovation of the Vivian Beaumont closed the theater from late 1981 to 1983. In addition to adding a proscenium arch, the renovation improved acoustics and sight-lines and increased seating capacity from 1,143 to about 1,200. These renovations, combined with the fact that LCTC had not produced any further resident seasons, were a point of contention between Crinkley and Lincoln Center. Disagreements escalated in 1984 when the Lincoln Center board stripped the Beaumont of the use of the words ''Lincoln Center'' in its name and denied the theater access to Lincoln Center funds. The restrictions were removed in 1985 in exchange for an agreement by the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Inc. board to take on new members and elect new leadership, which would move towards establishing an active resident company. From 1978 through 1985, the Beaumont had been primarily rented to outside producers, and the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater had remained mostly unused.

In 1985, the building's current management - Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) - was established. This change in management was led by former New York City Mayor John Lindsay, who assembled a new board of directors and signed Gregory Mosher as Director and Bernard Gersten as Executive Producer. Crinkley resigned in 1985 shortly after the new board was appointed.

The new board formed committees for maintaining the building, fundraising, and program development. Fundraising for their first season began at once, with solicitation of corporate donors, the continued rental of the Beaumont and Newhouse, and a succession of galas. The new company opened their first production, The House of Blue Leaves, in the spring of 1986 and produced their first full season in 1986 and 1987. The theater went on to open many notable productions, including Anything Goes (1987), and Mule Bone (1991). Mule Bone was written in 1930 by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. After a falling out between the two authors, the manuscript was shelved and never produced. Lincoln Center worked with the estates of both authors to produce the play for the first time in January of 1991. LCT also produced the South African musical Sarafina! (1987) and an accompanying documentary film, Voices of Sarafina!.

In 1991, Linda LeRoy Janklow and Andre Bishop succeeded Lindsay and Mosher as chairman and artistic director, respectively. Lincoln Center Theater has outlasted all prior managements combined and has become America's largest non-profit theater. The company continues to produce plays and musicals at the Beaumont, the Newhouse, and other theaters around the city.

Scope and arrangement

The Lincoln Center Theater records hold production files, committee records, financial materials, and facility rental records for both the short-lived Lincoln Center Theater Company (1979-1985) and Lincoln Center Theater. The Lincoln Center Theater records cover the productions under that company's first administration, Lindsay and Mosher (1985-1991). The records also hold audio and moving image recordings for productions from 1985 to 1991.

The production files document individual productions mounted by the companies. Productions are arranged by season and then opening date. The amount and content of the files varies by production. Files may include programs, director notes, cast sheets, contact lists, scene breakdowns, orchestral scores, prop lists, lighting and sound designs, fly cues, and scripts. Scripts may be drafts of production scripts, marked operating scripts, stage manager's scripts, and those used for music and lighting cues. There are limited photographs. Anything Goes is the most fully represented production, with general production files, the full set of orchestral parts used in the pit orchestra, and the masters of the cast recording (see below). The files for Sarafina! also hold correspondence and contracts regarding the documentary film produced about the creation of the musical. The Mule Bone files hold research and script drafts which trace the reconstruction of the piece, as well as a model of the set. Lincoln Center Theater Company's 1980-1981 season files contain only production photographs.

The committee files evidence the 1985 change of LCT management through notes and correspondence from the newly formed building committee, the development committee, and the special events committee. There are budget estimates for the renovation of the Newhouse and Beaumont theaters for the new enterprise, as well as fundraising needs and charts with estimated operating costs. There are also correspondence and notes relating to the December 1985 benefit gala that marked the return of a resident company to the Beaumont.

The financial records of the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Inc. hold files from 1980 to 1985, representing time spent working with the Lincoln Center Theater Company. There are annual budgets, statements, accounting reports, central services payments to Lincoln Center, and ledgers for cash received, all arranged by date.

The facilities rental files represent the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Inc.'s primary activity under Lincoln Center Theater Company - renting the Beaumont for income. Rental activities continued through December of 1985, when Lincoln Center Theater was ready to take over the space with their own resident company. These files, arranged by date, contain lists of staff required for each event, payment terms, lists of hours worked by facility staff, correspondence with the event planner, and occasionally programs from various events.

Most of the audio recordings in the collection consist of sound effects used in various productions, as well as incidental cues or pre-show/intermission music (usually commercially-released material). The major exception is the 1987-1988 revival of Anything Goes. The collection contains the multi-track recordings and mixed master recordings of that show's original cast album released on RCA records, produced by Jay Saks.

Productions with sound effects or music are the plays Boy's Life, The Front Page, The House of Blue Leaves, Measure for Measure, and The Tenth Man. The Measure for Measure recordings contain original music by Mel Marvin, and the Boy's Life recordings have music by David Yazbek. The Tenth Man recordings contain Hebrew prayers and High Holiday services, recordings of which may have been produced specifically for the play.

There are also three unidentified productions with recordings, denoted as "Body Falls," "Haggerty," and "ITC." A larger set of sound effects and music recordings did not contain documentation of which production they were made for. There are two video recordings which were also not specified as to production. Both are silent loops of film from about the early 1960s.

Arrangement

Alphabetical by file type.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Jack Lines, 2011.

Revision History

Enhanced description for audio and moving image material and boxes 40 and 41 added by Matthew Snyder in (2024.)

Processing information

Processed by Lea Jordan, 2013.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Access restrictions

Audio and moving image materials can be used onsite at the Library for the Performing Arts. To request materials, please contact the Theatre Division.