Neighborhood Playhouse costume and set designs

1916-circa 1931

Alice Lewisohn Crowley was born in New York City in 1883, a daughter of Leonard Lewisohn. With her sister Irene Lewisohn, she established the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street in 1915, a theater and teaching facility for dance and drama. By 1920, professional actors had replaced the amateur troupe of children and adults, and the Playhouse became known for its avant-garde productions. The neighborhood theater closed in 1927. In 1928, Alice Lewisohn Crowley, Irene Lewisohn and Rita Wallach Morgenthau established The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, still in operation in New York City. Crowley died in 1972 in Zurich at the age of 88. The designs are primarily costume designs, with a few set designs, for theatrical productions including Everybody's husband by Gilbert Cannan, 1919; Harlequinade by Harley Granville-Barker and Dion Calthrop, 1921; The mummer's revel and The masque of the apple, music by Kurt Schindler, 1931 with costume designs possibly by Esther Peck; Night at an inn by Lord Dunsany, 1916; Pinwheel by Francis Edward Faragoh, 1927 with sketches and notes by Donald Oenslager; and The player queen by William Butler Yeats, 1923 with costume designs probably by Alexander Koiransky. Ballets represented in the collection are La boutique fantasque, music by Ottorino Respighi, 1920 with costume designs probably by Esther Peck; Petrouchka, music by Igor Stravinsky, 1916; Royal fandango by Gustavo Morales, 1921 with costume designs and 1 set design by Ernest de Weerth; and 1 costume design for Le tricorne, 1922 "after Picasso's design for a costume for the ballet." There is 1 set design by Jo Davidson of the Wailing Wall for the symphonic drama Israel by Ernest Bloch, 1928. There are also several unidentified costume and set designs.