The Creative Process: Interviews from TOFT

For nearly 50 years, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has revolutionized theatre research and access by recording and collecting live theatre performances. The brainchild of visionary former theatre professional Betty L. Corwin in the late 1960s, the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) is the single largest, most comprehensive collection of live theatre anywhere in the world and includes over 5,000 plays, musicals, experimental, and avant-garde productions and 3,000 videos of interviews, dialogues, film and television adaptations, and other theatre-related programs.  

This November marks the 50th anniversary of our landmark archive and to celebrate, we are launching a campaign to ensure that TOFT continues its important work for the next 50 years. Over the next few months, we will stream an online series, entitled "The Creative Process: Interviews from the TOFT Archive," which will feature interviews with some of the most revered actors and theatre professionals which will then culminate (once the Library reopens to the public) with an exhibition celebrating the TOFT Archive's important history. 

To kick off the series, we are featuring interviews with Baayork Lee, Chita Rivera, and Angela Lansbury, which are captured in our TOFT Archive and which have never been seen outside our library walls.  These interviews were filmed by TOFT in collaboration with the League of Professional Theatre Women's Oral History Project, which chronicles and documents the contributions of significant women in theatre.

Baayork Lee with Robert Viagas

Dancer and choreographer Baayork Lee discusses her career with author Robert Viagas, beginning with her childhood experiences in the original Broadway productions of Flower Drum Song and The King and I. She also talks about her formative relationship with director and choreographer Michael Bennett, her experiences in the original production of A Chorus Line, her work as Bennett's successor in subsequent productions of the show, and co-founding the National Asian Artists Project (NAAP).

Chita Rivera with Richard Ridge

Performer Chita Rivera discusses her life and career with theatre journalist Richard Ridge. She begins with her childhood introduction to dance, her training, and her early experiences touring in various musical shows. She also speaks of a number of colleagues, including Gwen Verdon, Leonard Bernstein, and Jerome Robbins, and reminisces about some of the many shows in which she has performed.

Angela Lansbury with Charlotte Moore

Actress Angela Lansbury discusses her seven-decade stage and screen career with interviewer Charlotte Moore. She reminisces about her days as a young actress at the MGM studio and briefly talks about some of the notable films she appeared in, such as George Cukor's Gaslight and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. She also talks about her stage career, especially her role in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, and pays tribute to her director on that show, the late Harold Prince.