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Creator
Wexler, Peter
Call number
*T-Vim 1998-044
Physical description
41.25 linear feet (105 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Guide to the Peter Wexler Photographs and Designs, *T-Vim 1998-044. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Peter Wexler (b.1936-) is primarily a set and costume designer for theater, music, and television, as well as a producer, artistic director, lighting designer, photographer, and visual artist. This collection contains set designs, correspondence, and other materials related his production designs from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. Also included are materials for original projects on which he collaborated as a design consultant.

Biographical/historical information

Peter Wexler has had a prolific career as a designer of vast range, creating the scenic, costume, and lighting designs for several theatrical, television, opera, and music festival productions. He studied at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1958, and attended the Yale School of Drama. During the 1960s and 1970s, he actively exhibited his drawings and painting in numerous journals and magazines such as Theatre Crafts, Opera News, Theatre Design and Technology, as well as in galleries such as the Wright-Hepburn-Webster Gallery in New York City, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. It was also during this time that his designs for the stage brought him critical acclaim. His Broadway credits include Murderous Angels, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Camino Real, and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Off-Broadway design work included Unfinished Stories and Candide at the Mark Taper Forum, The Web and the Rock at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and The Big Knife at the Seven Arts Playhouse.

He founded his own production company, Peter Wexler, Inc., as a way to promote, design, plan and execute for a variety of theatrical events. With his company, Wexler worked as a Visual Consultant for such television productions as Lifetime Medical Television and The Big Deal. He also worked as a design consultant for Reebok River Stage and as Artistic Director for the Spring Creek and Texas Arts Festivals in the 1990's. During the 1960's and 1970's, Wexler designed sets for several opera productions, including Lizzie Borden for New York City Opera, Le Prophete, Les Troyens, and Un Ballo in Maschera for the Metropolitan Opera. His work for the New York Philharmonic includes interior designs for the Promenade Concerts and Rug Concerts at Avery Fisher Hall.

Scope and arrangement

The work represented in this collection includes Wexler's designs for Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, music, outdoor festivals, and television productions. The material consists of lighting plots and sections, theater ground plans, stage plans, photographs, slides, and costume designs. Production materials includes design processing papers, project proposals, photographs, scripts, memos, production notes, contracts and some correspondence relating to many productions. Photographs/Slides also contain slides of his early drawings and paintings that are examples of artwork Wexler has exhibited in galleries. No personal papers are included in this collection.

The Peter Wexler photographs and designs are arranged in three series:

  • Series I: Production Materials
    1987-1996
    46 boxes

    This series includes materials such as vendors' promotional materials, correspondence, design processing papers, resumes, magazine and newspaper articles, materials from conferences in which Wexler participated, photographs, and several project proposals, scripts, memos, production notes, contracts, and some correspondence relating to many productions.

  • Series II: Photographs/Slides
    1957-1996; undated
    21 boxes

    This series contains black and white/color photographs, slides, and negatives, including production and publicity photographs. It may contain photographs taken for use in scenic and costume design.

  • Series III: Designs
    1986-1995
    38 boxes

    This series contains oversize technical designs for Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional productions, and international tours. The materials included are lighting plots and sections, theater ground plans, set design plans, and costume designs, some with fabric swatches or notes attached.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Peter Wexler Photographs and Designs were donated to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 1998 by Peter Wexler.

Processing information

Processed by Cynthia Tobar; Machine-readable finding aid created by Cynthia Tobar.

Related Material

Peter Wexler Papers, (S)*MGZMD 186. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library Performing Arts.

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

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.