- Additional Authors
- Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956.
- Ciulei, Liviu, 1923-2011.
- Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016.
- Guthrie, Tyrone, 1900-1971.
- Ramsay, Maggy.
- Tuttle, Frank.
- Weller, Michael, 1942-
- Yeaton, Kelly.
- Description
- 14.96 linear ft. (27 boxes)
- Subjects
- Guthrie, Tyrone, 1900-1971
- Posters
- Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016
- Theatrical producers and directors
- Tuttle, Frank
- Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)
- Theater > United States
- Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956
- Acting Company (Theatrical group)
- Ciulei, Liviu, 1923-2011
- Dramatists
- Programs
- Schneider, Alan, 1917-1984
- Photographs
- Scripts
- Ramsay, Maggy
- Correspondence
- Clippings
- Weller, Michael, 1942-
- Yeaton, Kelly
- Genre/Form
- Clippings.
- Correspondence.
- Photographs.
- Posters.
- Programs.
- Scripts.
- Access (note)
- Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.
- Collection is open to the public. Photocopying prohibited. Advance notice may be required.
- Source (note)
- Biography (note)
- Director Alan Schneider was born Abram Leopoldovich Schneider in Kharkov Russia on December 12, 1917 (There is some confusion surrounding the date-the true date being December 11).
- Language (note)
- The Arena Stage and Organizations series contain material in Russian.
- Indexes/Finding Aids (note)
- Finding aid available in repository and on internet.
- Call Number
- *T-Mss 1985-002
- Author
Schneider, Alan, 1917-1984.
- Title
Alan Schneider papers, 1923-1984.
- Restricted Access
Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.
- Summary
The Alan Schneider papers consist of correspondence, clippings, programs, scripts, production materials, photographs, personal papers, plans, and administrative records and reports for a number of institutions with which Mr. Schneider was involved. The bulk of the papers document professional rather than personal activities and reflect Mr. Schneider's careers in both the commercial theater and in theater education. The papers include his work at The Juilliard School, Catholic University, and University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Much of the correspondence is photocopied and includes letters from Hume Cronyn, Tyrone Guthrie, Norris Houghton, Robert Kalfin, Anna Deavere Smith, Michael Weller, Kelly Yeaton, Margaret Ramsay and Frank Day Tutttle. Personal papers include a file of clippings on his only Broadway appearance as an actor in the play Storm Operation by Maxwell Anderson (1944). Mr. Schneider's extensive subject files contain mostly photocopied clippings on several topics such as playwrights, arena stages and Off-Broadway, on individual theater artists such as Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekhov, and Liviu Ciulei, and on groups such as the Berliner Ensemble. Production files consist largely of clippings, but include numerous programs autographed by Mr. Schneider for plays he directed, as well as a number of annotated scripts and production materials. Two of Michael Weller's plays, Loose Ends (1979) and Moonchildren (1972) are thoroughly documented. Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.), with which Mr. Schneider was associated intermittently for several decades, is well-documented and includes a number of talks and pieces written by Arena founder, Zelda Fichandler. The group's 1973 trip to Russia, as part of the U.S. Cultural Exchange Program, is also documented.
The organizations series is the largest in the collection and reflects Mr. Schneider's participation mostly with profesionally-related groups. Scripts received by Schneider range from several works by eastern European playwrights and little-known American playwrights, to works by Bertolt Brecht, Clifford Odets and Harold Pinter. Photographs largely document Mr. Schneider's professionally-related trips and interests - specifically of the Berliner Ensemble and of numerous plays and performers during his Cultural Exchange trips to Russia in the 1970s. There are also a number of photos of the proposed Ithaca Festival theater. Oversized materials include photographs and plans for several productions such as The Juilliard School's production of The Cherry Orchard (1977), Loose Ends (1979), Moonchildren (undated), and Pieces of Eight (1983-1984 and undated).
- Access
Collection is open to the public. Photocopying prohibited. Advance notice may be required.
- Biography
Director Alan Schneider was born Abram Leopoldovich Schneider in Kharkov Russia on December 12, 1917 (There is some confusion surrounding the date-the true date being December 11). He arrived in New York with his parents, Leopold Victorovich Schneider and Rebecka Samilovna Malkin Schneider, both physicians, on July 4, 1923 and spent his childhood in Maryland. Mr. Schneider received a B.A. magna cum laude in political science from the University of Wisconsin in 1939 and an M.A. in Dramatic Literature from Cornell University in 1941. His first New York production was A Long Way from Home by Maxim Gorki, adapted by Randolph Goodman and Walter Carroll, which opened at Maxine Elliott's Theatre on February 8, 1948. The only director to receive a Tony Award (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1963) and an Obie Award (The Dumb Waiter and The Collection, 1963) in the same year, Mr. Schneider directed well over one hundred works, including the original American productions of such playwrights as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Robert Anderson, Joe Orton, and Michael Weller.
In addition to the New York theater, he was active in regional theater, especially in his association with The Acting Company and as artistic director of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. (1951-1953, 1961-1963 and 1973). For the proposed Ithaca Festival, he served as artistic director from 1963 to 1968. Mr. Schneider received several international prizes for his work on Samuel Beckett's Film (1964). He also directed for television. He toured the U.S.S.R. in1973 with the Arena Stage production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and was also the U.S. delegate of the International Theatre Institute that year.
Mr. Schneider maintained a lifelong interest in theater education, subsequently teaching at Boston University, ca. 1970, the Juilliard Theatre Center from 1976-1979, and the University of California, San Diego where he was head of the Graduate Directing Program from 1979 to 1984. Mr. Schneider traveled extensively in his professional capacity, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia and also directed productions in England and Israel. In 1949, he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant for a study of European theater and traveled to Eastern Europe as a cultural representative for the U.S. State Department.
He married Eugenie Muckle in 1953; they had a daughter, Viveca and a son, David. Alan Schneider died May 3, 1984 in London from head injuries suffered when he was hit by a motorcycle. At the time of his death, Mr. Schneider served as the president of Theatre Communications Group and had just completed the first volume of his autobiography, Entrances: An American Director's Journey, published posthumously by Viking in 1986.
- Language
The Arena Stage and Organizations series contain material in Russian.
- Indexes
Finding aid available in repository and on internet. http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/rose/theschne
- Location of Other Archival Materials
Alan Schneider papers; Also located at; Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego.
- Connect to:
- Occupation
Dramatists
- Added Author
Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956.
Ciulei, Liviu, 1923-2011.
Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016.
Guthrie, Tyrone, 1900-1971.
Ramsay, Maggy.
Tuttle, Frank.
Weller, Michael, 1942- Loose ends.
Weller, Michael, 1942- Moonchildren.
Yeaton, Kelly.
- Research Call Number
*T-Mss 1985-002