THE OFF-BROADWAY MANIFESTOS: Inscribed Presentation Libretto, Production Programs, Correspondence, and Private Ephemera
New York: Program Publishing Co. / HB Playwrights Foundation, 1957- 1967. FROM AUTHOR TO PUBLISHER:
Among the most compelling pieces is Bentley's libretto for Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, inscribed across the cover ‘To Ben — From Eric.’ The copy contains Bentley's handwritten press quotations, textual alteration, and manuscript commentary, transforming an already significant association copy into a working document connected with the author's theatrical career.
Bentley's correspondence with Raeburn extends the record beyond the published works. A substantial 1965 letter discusses theatrical projects, A Man for All Seasons, The Dramatic Event, Bentley's work as a critic, and possible future activity in the New York theater.
BRECHT ON THE NEW YORK STAGE:
A particularly important component is the 1961 Columbia Players program for Nikolai Gogol's The Gamblers and Bertolt Brecht's The Exception and the Rule, in English versions by Bentley, directed by Isaiah Sheffer, with original music for the Brecht production by Stefan Wolpe. The program also reproduces a 1950 photograph of Brecht directing Mother Courage, with Bentley beside him as his assistant.
A WORKING THEATRICAL NETWORK:
Additional material broadens the archive beyond Brecht. A 1967 invitation from the HB Playwrights Foundation documents performances of Bentley's Commitments, directed in two parts by Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, while other material records the network of playwrights, directors, composers, publishers, and performers surrounding Bentley's work.
BRECHT, BENTLEY & THE AMERICAN THEATER:
Bentley's importance to Brecht's American reception rested not simply upon translation. As critic, translator, adaptor, director, and publisher's author, he helped establish a vocabulary through which American theater encountered Brecht during the postwar decades.
The archive includes inscribed and annotated material, correspondence, theatrical programs and announcements, production-related ephemera, photographs reproduced within contemporary programs, and other associated documents.
A fully illustrated PDF catalogue, including individual descriptions and transcriptions of significant manuscript and correspondence material, is available below. CLICK THIS LINK
Subjects: Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley, Ben Raeburn, Horizon Press, Off-Broadway History, Columbia University, HB Playwrights Foundation, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof, Stefan Wolpe, Isaiah Sheffer, Publishing History, New York Avant-Garde.
Item #22550
Price: $375.00
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