TOFT Founder Betty Corwin Receives LPTW's 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award Tonight

Tonight, November 8, 2017 at 12:00 pm, The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), dedicated to championing women in theatre since its inception and an authority at the forefront of the conversation about gender parity in American theatre for 35 years, will celebrate the legacy of Betty Corwin with a Special Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the American theatre.

The event will take place at at Sardi's (234 W 44th St #3, New York, NY 10036) and feature industry luminaries honoring the legacy of this founding member of the LPTW and theatre history pioneer, who founded the theatre on film archives at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, which have preserved generations of live theatre, and thus the work of some of the greatest artists in the American theatre.

Betty Corwin, founder and former director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), proposed the idea of preserving visual records of live theatre performances to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1969.

According to journalist Peter Filichia, who included Ms. Corwin in his book Broadway MVPs: 1960-2010 - The Most Valuable Players of the Past 50 Seasons for the 1986-1987 season, "Anyone in the Broadway community who has ever been to Library of Performing Arts and watched a show owes a debt of gratitude to Ms. Corwin."

Betty Corwin's background as production assistant and script reader for theatrical producers prepared her to create the Archive, the foremost collection of videotapes of live theatre performances in the world. Ms Corwin, who received a 2001 TONY Award for founding TOFT, has spoken about the Archive to groups across the country, in London and in Warsaw. Articles about her and about TOFT have appeared in several publications; she has appeared on a number of radio and television programs and, with TOFT a role model for similar archives, has served as a consultant to various organizations.

On November 6th at 6PM at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Daryl Roth will be interviewed by Linda Winer for Oral History, which will be archived for Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. All of the League of Professional Theatre Women Oral History interviews have been preserved for posterity in TOFT.

Tickets are $95-$125 and available at theatrewomen.org/event/betty-corwin. Prices: $95 LPTW Members, $125 Non LPTW Members, $1,750 VIP table of 10 (includes a one half page journal ad in the "Bettybill"). All tickets include a champagne toast. Visit www.TheatreWomen.org for more information.

ABOUT Betty Corwin:

Betty Corwin, founder and former director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), proposed the idea of preserving visual records of live theatre performances to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1969.

She is the recipient of an Outer Critics Special Award (1996), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Broadway Theatre Institute (1996), a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of New York (1993), an Obie Award (1993), awards from the Drama Desk (1988), Women in Communications (1984), the Villager (1982) and a Westport, Connecticut Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement (2001).

Ms Corwin has been a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, was a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee, a judge for the Clarence Derwent Award, the St,Clair Bayfield Award, The Joseph A Callaway Award, the Richard Seff Award, was on the advisory board of Theatre Talk Productions, and on the Artistic Advisory Council to the Westport Country Playhouse. Articles by Ms Corwin have been published in Performing Arts Resources, Variety and League Line.

At present Ms Corwin is the Director of Special Projects for TOFT for which she coordinated a joint project between the Library and the American Theatre Wing, videotaping a series of "How to" interviews with 32 notable theatre personalities describing the preparation for their careers and the roles they play in creating a theatrical production. She was co-producer of the League of Professional Theatre Women's WOMEN IN THEATRE television series, dialogues with notable women in theatre broadcast on CUNY-TV and currently produces the interviews at Lincoln Center with outstanding women in American theatre. All of these interviews have been preserved for posterity in the Theatre On Film and Tape Archive.

ABOUT THE LEAGUE OF PROFESSIONAL THEATRE WOMEN:

The League of Professional Theatre Women is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization which exists to champion women in theatre. For over 35 years, LPTW has been leading the gender parity conversation in professional theatre, offering programming, events, and advocacy initiatives which provide visibility and opportunities for women. Since its founding, the League's membership has grown to 500+ members of theatre artists and practitioners of all backgrounds, across multiple disciplines, working in the commercial and non-profit sectors. To promote visibility and increase opportunities for female-identifying people in the field, LPTW spearheads events, public programming, advocacy projects, and media and publications that celebrate industry luminaries, preserve the legacy of historic visionaries, raise awareness of the importance of nurturing women's voices, and shine a spotlight on the importance of striving for gender parity and of fostering a diversity of expression, both in the theatre world and world at large. In 2015, the LPTW issued its Women Count Report, a study of the hiring of women Off-Broadway over the course of five seasons. The findings in this widely-acclaimed study led to the LPTW Seal of Approval initiative, which awards theatres in the off-Broadway community that have achieved 50/50 gender parity or better in their seasons. None of the LPTW's work is possible without generous philanthropic support to find out more, visit www.theatrewomen.org and click on the "Support Us" tab.

Pictured: Betty Corwin, Paula Vogel and Linda Winer. Photo by Kacey Anisa Stamats.