Scope and arrangement
The New York Street Theater Caravan (NYSTC) records date from 1953 to 2005 and consist of production files; tour files; company files; publicity files; photographs; biographical files for Marketa Kimbrell; and realia. Although NYSTC created separate files for publicity and photographs, researchers should also consult the production, tour, and company files for access to these document types. Correspondence is located throughout the production, tour, and company files.
Production files are arranged alphabetically by title and document the writing, performance, and reception of plays, skits, and concerts produced by NYSTC from 1968 to 1998. Files typically hold photographs, correspondence, programs, announcements, reviews, lighting plots, stage plans, scripts, and other writings. The majority of NYSTC's productions are well-represented, though document types may vary for each production. Titles include Gold, Molly McGuire, Hard Time Blues, Street Corner Cabaret, Sacco & Vanzetti, Blues in Rags in B Sharp, and The Grand Inquisitor, among others.
Gold and Molly McGuire are among the better represented productions in the collection. Gold production files date from 1984 to 1989 and document the life of the production from the writing and planning stages, to performance and review. Files contain budget and ticket sale information, contracts, rehearsal schedules, technical requirements, scripts, lighting plots and cue sheets, synopses, thematic and analytical notes on the script, and photographs. There are many drafts and versions of the script, including sound and lighting scripts, manuscript and typescript drafts, and final versions. The files also include program and advertisement mock-ups, press releases, reviews, flyers, and business plans, notes, and correspondence. A small amount of the material concerns the distribution of the film version of Gold. Molly McGuire files date from 1977 to 1983 and document productions in the United States, Germany, and France through correspondence, photographs, stage plans, scripts, notes, and publicity material. The files contain plot synopses, press releases, and reviews in English, Spanish, and German. A small booklet containing abstract drawings of the actors from the German tour of Molly McGuire in 1980 is also present. Materials for Blues in Rags in B Sharp date from 1989 to 1991 and consist of German and American press releases and reviews; photographs of the actors spending the night on the street; and rehearsal, performance, and promotional photographs for their 1989 performance at the Schauspiel Köln in Cologne, Germany. Production files for Sacco & Vanzetti date from 1974, when the play was first written, to 1996, when Kimbrell was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Award for Playwriting. The files contain scripts, plot descriptions, publicity materials for various productions of the play, and a limited amount of background research on the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Scripts for several of NYSTC's smaller skits are also present in the production files, including Sludge Skit, Superunion Man Skit, and Patriotism Skit.
Tour files are arranged by place and precede the production files. They document NYSTC's national and international tours from 1970 to 1998. Multiple productions are typically represented through each tour file, as the company frequently toured more than one production at a time. The degree to which each tour (year) is represented varies, though typically the files contain reviews, notes, budget lists, and correspondence. Among the better represented tours is the company's 1982 trip to Nicaragua. The files contain Kimbrell's diary from the trip and other detailed accounts of their travels and performances, as well as grant agreements, press contact lists, press releases, reviews, programs, and correspondence. Correspondents include potential fundraisers, magazine editors, and the Ministerio de Cultura de Nicaragua.
Company files date from 1967 to 2001 and chiefly contain correspondence and grant applications. Contracts, schedules, planning and meeting notes, budgets, and information on the company's history, mission, and board of directors are also present. Correspondence discusses production planning, travel arrangements, and fundraising; and includes many letters of support and gratitude. A wide range of projects and productions are discussed in the letters, including funding for trips to theater festivals in Romania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria; the planning of the St. Peter's Performing Arts Center and NYSTC's eviction from the church; drama workshops; and contracts, schedules, and performance planning for many of their tours in the United States. Letters to editors, school boards, and other companies regarding the fair treatment of animals are also present. Correspondents include event planners and community leaders from schools, colleges, unions, and prisons, including The United Furniture Workers of America, The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, The United Automobile Workers, The Chinese American Arts Council, The Salvation Army, The Southern Appalachian Labor School Foundation, The Coal Miners Research Association, Long Island University, The New York City Housing Authority, and several prisons in New York, including Albion Correctional Facility, Woodbourne Correctional Facility, and the Eastern New York Correctional Facility. Among the prison correspondence are letters of appreciation from Attica inmates and employees, including a 1977 review of Hard Time Blues by Attica's inmate entertainment reviewer. Also present is a letter from a past inmate student describing Kimbrell's drama class at the Queens House of Detention; and a letter from Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, written from solitary confinement at the Federal Correctional Institution for Women.
Grant proposals, correspondence, and final reports for the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the North Star Fund, Ruth Mott, and the Puffin Foundation are present in the company files. The applications include descriptions of the NYSTC's projected goals, budgets, and travel plans. Final reports contain rich descriptions of the company's tours, commercial productions, workshops, and other business activities completed throughout the duration of a given grant. They discuss travel conditions; technical difficulties or problems with performance spaces; the atmosphere during performances; positive developments in the cast; and audience information, such as size, demographics, and overall reception. Letters to potential board members, contact lists, form letter drafts, and bylaws make up the material for the board of directors. The company files also hold the NYSTC manifesto, company rules, and multiple versions of the NYSTC's history and mission statement written at various points throughout the company's history.
Publicity files and programs were compiled over the course of NYSTC's existence and consist of original, working, and photocopied versions of fliers, brochures, press releases, reviews, press packets, posters, and tour schedules. Many of the materials were hand-drawn by the company, assembled into collages, and photocopied. These files showcase the wide range of performance venues and communities in which the company performed.
Photographs consist of rehearsal and production stills, travel photographs, cast portraits, publicity photographs, and images of audiences from NYSTC's performances. Many of the photographs are undated and not labeled. There are photographs of The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal performed in Resurrection City in Washington, D.C. in 1968. Other shows documented in the photographs include The Brementown Musicians (a version of Hard Time Blues), Street Corner Cabaret, Calliope 5, Hard Time Blues, The Mother, Bitter Harvest, Sacco & Vanzetti, and their performance at the 1972 Olympics in Germany. Many of the photographs depict performances on NYSTC's flatbed truck, which they used as a stage while touring. Travel photographs were taken primarily in the 1970s and depict small coal mining and farming towns, places they stayed during their trips, and candid shots of the cast rehearsing and talking with local residents. Among the many cast members in the photos are Amy Berkman, Phyllis Blanford, Ted Hannan, Doug Hudgins, Earl Imbert, Valerie Knight, Linda Segura, and Cynthia Wright. Audience members in the photographs include families, coal miners, factory workers, children, and many union members, including UAW174 (United Automobile Workers Union), located in the Detroit suburbs.
Marketa Kimbrell's files document her career as an actress before her artistic directorship of NYSTC and her work as an educator of drama and film direction at New York University. Files contain writings, correspondence, and scrapbooks. Writings discuss stage and film directing methods, drama theory, script and scene analyses, and other creative excerpts written by Kimbrell from the 1960s to the 1990s. Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature. Personal correspondence consists mostly of letters of support or general correspondence from friends. Professional correspondence discusses Kimbrell's application for tenure in 1985, letters of recommendation, and a teaching assignment she took in Cuba in 1998. Travel applications, correspondence, and her travel license for Cuba are also present. The scrapbooks hold reviews, programs, and photographs for Kimbrell's stage and film productions between 1953 and 1969, including The Fortune Teller (1953), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1966), The East Wind (1967), Edith Stein (1969), and the 1965 film The Pawnbroker.
Realia in the collection consists of three papier-mâché pig masks and masks used by NYSTC during their trip to Mexico in 1973, as well as a leather saddle used in an unidentified production.
The collection contains audiovisual material consisting of film reels, videocassettes, and audiocassettes of several of NYSTC's performances. Inquiries regarding audiovisual material may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatre@nypl.org). Audiovisual materials will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.
The collection is primarily in English, with some materials in German, French, Danish, Spanish, and Norwegian.
The New York Street Theater Caravan records are arranged in seven series: