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Stagestruck!

In which archivist Andrew Jones examines the book "Stagestruck" and talks about the Lunt-Fontannes and their place in Broadway history.

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Shakespeare in a Divided America

In which our head archivist examines James Shapiro's new book and his unlikely connection to some other, slightly illicit plays already in the archive's collection.

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A Primer on Brechtian Theatre

In Brecht on Theatre, a new addition to the archive, legendary playwright, director, and agitator Bertolt Brecht lays out his artistic philosophy in a number of brilliant, dense essays and articles. While these writings are invaluable for a theatre student learning about his idea of "Epic Theatre" and alienation, they can be heady and conceptual for those unfamiliar with his work. The National Theatre has therefore created an excellent, short video introduction for Brechtian theatre featuring Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (of Angels in America fame) discussing what goes into making Brecht such a brilliant, ahead-of-his-time artist. Being able to see Brecht's theatre live and in action helps drive home his concepts by making them a concrete reality, hopefully sparking the interest of new theatre-goers or makers.

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The Search for Vital Drama, or, How I Learned to Start Thinking and Not Give Everything a Standing Ovation

Have you ever seen a show that bored you? Did you ever leave a Broadway show you paid too much for and thought: "That wasn't worth it"? Think criticism has lost its bite? Well the Jones-Pfeiffer Drama Archive is proud to include critic Jordan Tannahill's biting new work Theatre of the Unimpressed. In it, Tannahill examines where dull, lifeless plays come from and why they keep being produced. He explores what he calls the "risk aversion" modern theatre culture is beholden to and the causes of that timidness such as the nightmare that is the funding and production system most plays have to go through. The argument that was the most interesting to me as a theatre artist was Tannahill's point that a major reason most plays are dull is that they do not take enough risks where they could fail. In his mind, this chance of failure in the production is what sets "Vital Theatre" from the merely dull: the chance that the work might fail is the very livewire tightrope that makes the live theatre thrilling in the first place. Check out this insightful new text for yourself by visiting the JPDA website today!

-Andrew Jones, Archive Director of the JPDA

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Lucy Barton's Historic Costume For The Stage remains a seminal text on the history and construction of historical costumes and how it might be rendered onstage. Of special notice are the brilliant illustrations by David Sarvis which vividly capture the details of each costume throughout thousands of years of history with a clear, charming style all its own. Above is a selection of illustrations from the text, with special attention paid to how Sarvis captures the textures of fabric while keeping the illustrations simple, as well as the lifelike details he adds to his renderings such as the pets and props he gives to his figures.

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A Conversation with James Shapiro, Author of Shakespeare in a Divided America

One of the most intriguing additions to the archive from our new collection of nonfiction titles is James Shapiro's 2020 book Shakespeare in a Divided America. In this text, Shapiro examines the impact Shakespeare and his works have had over hundreds of years of American history and how various historical figures and movements have interpreted and utilized Shakespeare to advance their own interests. From John Quincy Adams's amateur scholarship on race relations in Othello to the 2017 Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar which featured a Trumpian Ceasar that sparked major protests and press. The director of that infamous production was the artistic director of the Public Theatre, Oskar Eustis who just so happens to be the other speaker on this panel. Considering Shapiro's issues with the production as laid out in his book, the conversation is fasciating as two men each with a passion for The Bard discuss how his works fit in to our increasingly fractured society.

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ARCHIVAL MYSTERIES:

When processing the new nonfiction arrivals, we at the archive noticed that our first edition copy of Ted Chapin's fabulous book on the making of Stephen Sondheim's Follies had an inscription from the author on the front cover! It reads: "To Rebecca, with thanks for all your help + good cheer- Ted Chapin. 9/19/03". This sweet inscription has not been verified by an appraiser or Ted himself, so the archive did some digging to try and find out who this mysterious person might have been. After cursory research, our team found that the only possible answer might be actress Rebecca Luker, who appeared with Ted on his NJTV program American Songbook in 2014, admittedly years after this inscription but Luker would have been appearing in the revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine at the time which Chapin would have likely been aware of. From watching the episode we can see that they are longtime friends, and have both been involved in the world of Broadway musicals for decades. While this is only a hunch, it is interesting to consider and more research will be done to try and suss out who this mysterious person might be!

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MAJOR UPDATE!!

Hello, valued patrons of the Jones-Pfeiffer Drama Archive. We are excited to announce a major new addition of material to our collection. Recently we have acquired a box of nonfiction material spanning genres such as biography, history, cultural criticism, and more. As we process this material we at the archive will be updating this space with highlights from the collection as well as information about the new material. We hope you are as excited as we are about this addition and can't wait to show you what we've got.

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Our second episode of Treasures From the Archive takes a look at the conspiracy-filled world of Bohemian Grove and the plays (??) that they write and perform during the meetings!

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Our second episode of Treasures From the Archive takes a look at the conspiracy-filled world of Bohemian Grove and the plays (??) that they write and perform during the meetings!

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And now it's time for everyone's favorite new segment: COOL STUFF WE FOUND IN THE ARCHIVAL PIECES! This is a new series where we at the archive highlight quirky, interesting items found left inside the texts compiled in the archive. Today we have:

A FOLDOUT PAGE OF ALL THE BOHEMIAN GROVE PLAYS!

These Bohemian Grove plays feature a list in each play of all the prior plays done at the retreat spanning back to the turn of the century. I feel like a better conspiracy theorist than I would be able to find some hidden message in their dramaturgy but it's beyond me. Still interesting to see though!

AN OUT-OF-DATE LIBRARY CARD HOLDER!

In this copy of Charles Ludlam plays, we can see that it was once a book belonging to the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL. Apart from being potential evidence in a library-based crime (calling Phillip Baker Hall), it is of interest because the Mid-Manhattan branch no longer exists! It was renamed the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in 2017 after the titular foundation donated $55 million to the library for renovations.

A TINY CARD HOLDER!!

Inside this copy of Athol Fugard's The Road To Mecca, I found a little identifier sticking out listing the author, name of the play, publisher and copyright date. I figured this was for whoever had archived the play before me but I was more intrigued by the adorable holder/envelope thing that the card was in. It is printed with the (beautiful) logo for GEVA Theatre in Rochester, New York. Aside from being my hometown, this was exciting because GEVA was where I saw many of my first theatrical performances and it holds a very special place in my heart so this was fun to find.

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The JPDA features a wide collection of Queer plays spanning decades of English-language history and writing. From Larry Kramer's incendiary 1985 bombshell The Normal Heart, to the camp classics of Charles Ludlam and The Ridiculous Theatre Company, the archive is committed to preserving LGBTQ+ theatre history and making it accessible to the public. It is with this in mind that we are proud to announce the JPDA Queer Play Exchange. Once a month, everyone subscribed to the JPDA mailing list will receive a play in a digital format (PDF, Word, etc.) and will be invited to a special Zoom session where we will discuss the work and break down its place in the archive as well as in Queer history. Our inaugural work will be The Normal Heart and we hope you can join us in experiencing this seminal work of theatre together as a community.

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As a companion piece to the first "Treasures from the Archive" video recently uploaded to the archive's website, I thought it would be fun to do a slightly deeper dive into the oldest item we have here at the JPDA. This is the Riverside Literature Series copy of William Shakespeare's As You Like It. It is number 93 in the series and was published in 1896, making it the oldest item in the collection by some margin. What is particularly interesting about this piece, other than the age, is that we know who it at one point belonged to! On the front cover near the top is written in pencil "Anna Van Aalet" and her writing can be found throughout the text. On the front page, we see her writing about SIlvius and Phebe, two pastoral characters from the play who fall in love, as well as their purpose in the play to "allow time to pass." While we don't know if she played either of these parts, no lines are underlined, we do know what she thought of the play overall. On page 79 we can see that she has written in the upper margin "I am so bored." As a theatre teacher, this made me crack up. A hundred year into the past and kids still hate Shakespeare. Other notes of interest include the "translations" at the bottom of the page for more modern definitions of Elizabethan English, a feature of many current Shakespeare texts present a hundred years in the past, as well as actual music for the songs! As You Like It has the most songs of any Shakespearean comedy and I don't think I've ever seen a text of the play that features written music before, I'd love to try and play it. Maybe for another post!

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The first edition of Treasures From the Archive is live! Come explore with me the oldest item in our archive! Find out about this old, old, old text as well as the disgruntled former owner!

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Welcome! This is archivist and blogger Andrew Jones welcoming you to the new (still has that fresh-blog-smell) Tumblr account for the Jones-Pfeiffer Drama Archive! Expect to find highlights from the archive, informative posts, activities, videos, and anything in between. This archive was compiled using the collected plays of the Jones family (Andrew, Karen) and the late Dr. Norman Pfeiffer (pictured above.) Dr. Pfeiffer was an avid theatre-goer and patron of the arts who was as responsible as anyone for my interest in theatre from a young age and the archive has been founded in his memory. We hope you enjoy your time here and remeber to visit us at the archive's website, https://andrewgroans.wixsite.com/the-jones-pfeiffer-d