The Billy Rose Theatre Division is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive this year. Our festivities have been somewhat muted by the global pandemic that has paused our recordings and closed our reading reading rooms, but we are preparing all the more eagerly to celebrate when the Library reopens. Patrick Hoffman, who is only the second curator of this phenomenal collection and has been responsible for thousands of recordings, reflects on the history of the archive (and makes an exciting announcement) in his blog post below:

From Patrick Hoffman, Curator of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive

This has been a challenging time for each of us in many different ways and that has certainly been the case for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. In fact we had everything arranged to record the Broadway production of A Soldier's Play starring Blair Underwood, David Alan Grier, and Jerry O’Connell the next night, when we received word of the executive order from Governor Cuomo on Thursday afternoon, March 12 that no gatherings of more than 500 people were permitted. Through a lot of frantic work on behalf of the TOFT staff, the Roundabout Theatre Company General Manager, and a very enthusiastic cast, I’m proud to say, we were able to pull it off and proceed with the taping the following evening. We ended up being the only show on Broadway that night with the cast giving sensational performances to a big, elegant, empty Broadway theatre. I sat outside in the video truck but it was an evening at the theatre I will never forget. The production was, thankfully, preserved for the TOFT Archive and theatre history. It is the kind of work we have produced and created for the past 50 years and are incredibly proud to celebrate this year.

I’m happy to share with you some news about the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive’s plans to mark its 50th anniversary. The centerpiece of that celebration will be an exhibition which will be mounted in the first- and second-floor corridor galleries at the Library for the Performing Arts. Excerpts from the collection playing on multiple screens will be the leading star of the show. In fact, one of the great challenges of planning the exhibition was the fact that though we have lots of correspondence, contracts, and paperwork, we have very few photos documenting the history of the Archive. We were always so focused on the stage and the work at hand and setting up the tapings that hardly any photos were taken of the TOFT staff and video crew at shoots themselves. And most of our history is prior to the world becoming selfie-obsessed! So we thought, so much of the theatre community, the academic community, young students and aspiring artists, and the general public will be excited to see highlights from the productions themselves, what better way to show the result of our 50 years of work, and the unparalleled collection which is TOFT.

Because we are the first, foremost, and to this day, largest collection of its kind in the world, the Archive has unparalleled quality and depth in its collection. With a collection now numbering over 8,000 titles, 5,000 of those live captured performances, the exhibition will truly be only an ‘amuse bouche’ of its spectacular holdings but will, hopefully, educate, enlighten, inspire creativity, and open the door for new audiences to be aware of TOFT, its vast holdings, and what is available at the Library for the Performing Arts for them to discover, learn, and explore.

With the opening of the exhibition planned for early 2021, it may very well serve as an exciting harbinger of spring, either offering a thrilling reminder of the excitement of live theatre and what is very soon-to-come or coincide with the kick-start of Broadway and Off-Broadway. Either way, like the Legacy Robe ceremony, we hope the exhibition will gather the theatre community together again in a circle and be a must-see event for theatre-lovers of all ages.