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The Equity Library Theatre (ELT) was a New York City theatre company active from 1943 until 1989.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2013) |
The Equity Library Theatre (ELT) was a New York City theatre company active from 1943 until 1989.
Founded in 1943 by Sam Jaffe, representing Actors' Equity, and George Freedley, at the time curator of the New York Public Library Theatre Collection, Equity Library Theatre was designed to provide a showcase for young actors, directors, and technicians and to create an audience from among those who could not afford commercial theatre. [1] A non‐profit organization, it originally presented its plays at libraries and charged no admission but asked instead for a contribution to help sustain it. Beginning in 1949, it operated its own theatre, first at the Lenox Hill Playhouse and later at other auditoriums. Financial problems forced its closure during the 1989–90 season.
Since its founding, some 12,000 actors, directors, and stage technicians have worked for no pay in more than 600 company productions at Equity Library Theatre. The theater's philosophy was to mount nonprofit productions to provide exposure for actors seeking paying roles in commercial shows. Because a substantial number of actors obtained future paid acting jobs as a result of their appearances, as many as 700 people would show up to audition for each production. Actors who performed at the ELT early in their careers include Martin Balsam, John Cazale, Danny DeVito, Lee Grant, James Earl Jones, Richard Kiley, Sidney Poitier, Tony Randall, Jason Robards, Jean Stapleton, and Rod Steiger.
New York playwright and director Johnny Culver resurrected the name and ideals of ELT and currently provides new playwrights a chance to present their works in New York City library performance spaces, in a casual play festival format, at no cost to anyone. Many up-and-coming New York actors have performed with the new Equity Library Theater. The company performs at the New York Public Library's George Bruce Theater on West 125th street and at the Alvin Ailey Auditorium on West 115th Street. ELT holds an annual new play festival, free for all to participate. As of 2020 [update] , ELT has premiered more than 200 new plays.
In 2014, ELT produced a reading of David Garrick's Catherine and Petruchio, a rarely-performed 18th Century adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , as well as a presentation of short plays by John Ladd and KK Gordon. In 2015, they presented a reading of short plays by writers from the Provincetown Playhouse and other early 20th century NYC writers, including Overtones by Alice Gerstenberg, as well as a new play by Pamela Robbins, and a staged reading of The Father. The Village Light Opera Guild joined them for a musical cabaret in 2016 as a benefit. In December 2016, they presented Songs of My Father, short plays written by fathers of celebrated New York actors, and in early 2017, a reading of a screenplay by Tom Meade.
ELT has also created a "spinoff" company, the Woodside Players of Queens, which presents rare short plays from late-19th century Broadway at Queens Public Library branches. The Woodside Players produced a staged reading of Keep Calm, Camilla, a Broadway comedy from 1918, in the fall of 2017 at the ELT space at the Harry Belafonte branch of the NYPL. In December of that year, ELT presented a comedy by Cricket Daniel, The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, at the new NYPL branch on West 53rd Street. In 2018, ELT produced a reading of The Retreat by Enzo Gattuccio, Aunt Maggie's Will from 1910, and in the fall of 2018, a reading of a play by Carol Hollenbeck (Holland).The Woodside Players have been nominated for several Josephine awards and won last year for best director.
2019 and 2020 have been busy for ELT, with their online summer play festival, live and virtual readings, free online writing classes, and a new group, Fifth Avenue Theatre of New York, geared towards local (NYC) writers and their works. More information and events can be seen at www.equitylibrarytheater.info.
ELT is not associated with either the Actors' Equity Association or the Dramatists Guild of America.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:
In American theater, summer stock theatre is a theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock theatres frequently take advantage of seasonal weather by having their productions outdoors or under tents set up temporarily for their use.
John Collins is an American experimental theatre director and designer. He is the founder and artistic director of Elevator Repair Service (ERS) and has directed or co-directed all of its productions since 1991. Most notable among his work with ERS is Gatz, a verbatim performance of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Anthony Crivello is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in the original cast of a number of Broadway shows, including Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Golden Boy, Marie Christine, and The News. In 1993, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is best known for his roles as serial killer William Hinks on The Practice, Benjamin Linus on Lost, Zep Hindle in the first Saw film, Cayden James on Arrow, and Harold Finch on the CBS series Person of Interest. Emerson has also worked extensively in theater and narration. He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards and been nominated for three others, as well as receiving other awards and nominations. He currently stars as Dr. Leland Townsend in the CBS thriller series Evil.
Shakespeare in the Park is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are managed by The Public Theater and tickets are distributed free of charge on the day of the performance. Originally branded as the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) under the direction of Joseph Papp, the institution was renamed in 2002 as part of a larger reorganization by the Public Theater.
Bill Bowers is an American mime artist and actor based in New York City. As an actor, mime and educator, Bill has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He is a Movement for Actors Instructor at NYU Tisch School for the Arts and also teaches at the William Esper Studio and the Stella Adler Studio in NYC.
McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.
Charles Messina is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and co-founder of NahNotOutsideMyHouse! Productions. He is of Italian-American descent. He attended Xavier High School and then later, New York University.
As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theatre as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dramatic arts, free from the standard production mechanisms used in prominent commercial theatres. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Detroit, companies formed to produce more intimate, non-commercial, non-profit-centered, and reform-minded entertainments.
Gerard Alessandrini is an American playwright, parodist, actor and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning off-Broadway musical theatre parody revue Forbidden Broadway. He is the recipient of Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, an Obie Award, four Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and two Lucille Lortel Awards, as well as the Drama League Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
Leonard Joel Baker was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.
J. T. Buck is a composer, and lyricist, and stage director, and project coordinator.
Gayfest NYC is an annual theatre festival in New York City which showcases plays and musicals that feature gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender themes, plotlines, and/or creative teams. The festival is produced by Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman. The goal is to produce professional showcases of new works, complete with an Actor's Equity Association cast and director.
Donald Ragan Stephenson IV, known as Don Stephenson, is an American actor and stage director. He has numerous credits on both television and in the theatre.
The Forestburgh Playhouse is the oldest continuously operating summer theater, in New York State, 7 miles south of Monticello. Founded in 1947 by John Grahame and Alexander Maissel, it was originally the Forestburgh Summer Theatre, until 1980, when the name was changed to the Forestburgh Playhouse.
Marcia Haufrecht is an American actress, playwright and director, as well as a noted acting teacher and coach. A life member of The Actors Studio, and a longtime member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre, she is also the founder and artistic director of the Off-Off-Broadway company, The Common Basis Theatre.
The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), a collection within the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, produces video recordings of New York and regional theater productions, and provides research access at its Lucille Lortel screening room. The core of the collection consists of live recordings of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, with some additional productions from professional regional theaters. The Archive also records interviews and dialogues with notable theater professionals.
Stella Holt was an American theater producer. She served as managing director of the off-Broadway Greenwich Mews Theater in New York City for 15 years.
The Dirty Blondes Theater Company is a not-for-profit theater group based in Brooklyn, New York. The Dirty Blondes Theater Company is dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting works of female-identified artists, as well as members from other under-represented groups. Currently, Ashley J. Jacobson serves as the artistic director, Elizabeth Sarkady serves as the executive director, and Olivia Baseman as an associate producer.
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