Video: How to Spend a Theatre-Filled Day at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Are you a theatre lover who is looking for something new to do in New York City? All you need is a library card! 

"Make a day of it! Come, see an exhibition, go to the 3rd floor and check out something at [the Theatre on Film & Tape Archive], then see a program at our Bruno Walter Auditorium," said Roberta Pereira- the newly appointed Executive Director of the Library for the Performing Arts. "You can spend literally the whole day here and not pay anything, which is something very rare in New York! It's all free."

Roberta officially began her new role in January, after serving as the Executive Director of The Playwrights Realm and  programming consultant for the Miranda Family Fellowship. 

Located at Lincoln Center, the Library for the Performing Arts has one of the most extensive performing arts collections in the world. The Library is an archive of dance, theater, music, and recorded sound, and our close to eight million archival items date back to the 11th Century and include Ludwig Beethoven’s hair, Clara Schuman’s nibbled pencils, a 15th-century dance treatise of dance master Guglielmo d’Ebreo da Pesaro, Anna Pavlova’s pointe shoes, the original set model for In the Heights, and the archives of many masters, including Bill T. Jones, Hal Prince, Jerome Robbins, Arturo Toscanini, and many more.

"One of the core principles of the library is that it is accessible for all. Looking at the Library for the Performing Arts, we have word class exhibitions (all free!), incredible programming every day (everything is free), and then we have our incredible research and archive collection, which anybody can access. All you need is a library card. You can make a reservation and see a film at TOFT or you can see things from our archives that can be pulled for you."

In this video, watch as Pereira chats more about how any New Yorker can get in on the action at the Library for the Performing Arts!