Roundabout Theater Co Plans To Establish A Permanent Archive

Roundabout Theatre Company (Artistic Director, Todd Haimes) is proud to announce plans to establish a permanent archive, generously funded by a major grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.

Roundabout's archive will permanently document the company's illustrious 43-year production history as well as provide a resource for the theatre community, Roundabout's audience and the general public.

During the last 43 years Roundabout has become one of the country's largest non-profit theatre organizations, yet has no central repository for its records. Having re-located several times since 1965, many historical items have moved to private hands, been collected by souvenir hunters, been thrown out or given away. The materials that exist are scattered among Roundabout's buildings, theatres and off-site storage - and are in need of urgent archival care and preservation.

With the establishment of an archive Roundabout aims to not only document and preserve Roundabout's history but also provide a resource to the theatre community and to the general public. Materials such as theatrical documents, manuscripts, letters, publications, photos and memorabilia will be carefully preserved and hopefully aid in recording the history of the American theatre movement.

The archive will be located at Roundabout's administrative offices at 231 W. 39th Street. Tiffany Nixon has been hired as archivist. Plans for public access to the archive will be announced at a later date.

Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes said: "We are so grateful to Shelby White and the Leon Levy Foundation for their amazing support of this archive project. We are confident that preserving our company's history will be invaluable to our audiences and the theatre community in New York. And we are hopeful this permanent archive will become a useful guide to our part of American Theatre's history."

Shelby White, founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, said, "The Roundabout Theatre has built a rich and illustrious history over its four decades as a staple of the New York city theater community. Leon and I attended Roundabout performances and had a subscription for over three decades, enjoying performances of Shaw and Oscar Wilde and such stars as Uta Hagen in the early days. The Leon Levy Foundation is pleased to help provide a permanent archive that will preserve and make available the important records of the Roundabout to students, scholars, and the general public."

The Leon Levy Foundation, founded in 2004, is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the estate of Leon Levy, an investor with a longstanding commitment to philanthropy. The Foundation's overarching goal is to support scholarship at the highest level, ultimately advancing knowledge and improving the lives of individuals and society at large.

Roundabout Theatre Company's mission has remained consistent for 42 years. At the very heart of the not-for-profit company is a commitment to re-energize classic plays and musicals by teaming great theatrical works with the industry's finest artists, providing great theatre and a quality experience to their subscribers. Each year, over 40,000 subscribers see up to eight new productions at Roundabout all at a cost well below Broadway box office prices. An equally important core value of the organization is its dedication to providing the highest possible level of customer service to its audiences and loyal subscribers. Friendly and welcoming staff, comfortable state-of-the-art venues, audience enrichment programs, and initiatives such as ACCESS ROUNDABOUT, are all an integral part of the Roundabout experience.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2008-2009 season also includes Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Matthew Risch & Martha Plimpton, directed by Joe Mantello; Lisa Loomer's Distracted featuring Cynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Paul Sparks and Peter Stormare, directed by Ian Rickson; Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, starring Matthew Broderick, directed by David Grindley and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring (in order of speaking) Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, David Strathairn, directed by Anthony Page. Roundabout's sold out production of The 39 Steps made its second Broadway transfer to the Helen Hayes Theatre on January 21, 2009.

ROUNDABOUT SUBSCRIPTIONS & TICKETS:
Roundabout Theatre Company subscriptions and single tickets are available for purchase by calling (212) 719-1300 or online at www.roundabouttheatre.org.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Photo: Tara Rubin and Todd Haimes