Patrick Hoffman, NYPL's Curator and Director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, To Retire

Patrick Hoffman, The New York Public Library’s Curator and Director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive in the Billy Rose Theatre Division, is retiring after a career of more than three decades at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. During his time at the Library, Hoffman continued to build TOFT into the world’s largest and foremost archive documenting and preserving live theatre stage productions for theatre history and use by theatre professionals, students, and researchers that is known today. His last day will be January 10, 2025. 

“To say that the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive has been my life’s work is an
understatement. It has been an honor and privilege to have preserved the diversity and
depth of theatre productions now in the TOFT Archive. It is a collection and legacy of
which I am immensely proud. It would not have been possible without the incredibly
talented members of our video crews, and the many dedicated TOFT staff members
through the years. We all love the theatre and have the utmost respect for its creative
artists who are so generous in allowing TOFT to document and preserve their amazing
work, both for theatre history and for the generations of aspiring theatre artists yet to
come.” said Patrick Hoffman.

Since its founding in 1970, TOFT has created professionally-shot videorecordings of 2,364 theatre productions, as well as 168 interviews with notable theatre professionals, and made these accessible at the Library for the Performing Arts free-of-charge at all times. To make this possible, Hoffman has worked in close collaboration with the theatrical unions and guilds, each production's artistic creative team, producers, general managers, company managers, IATSE crews, house management, and others. The TOFT Archive, founded by Betty L. Corwin, has made the Library for the Performing Arts a world-class destination for generations working in the theatre and performing arts industry, as the vast majority of its holdings are exclusive, one-of-a-kind documents of stage productions, therefore the only place in the world where many of these productions and artists’ work can be viewed.

Hoffman was the Associate Curator of the Theatre Collection at the Museum of the City of New York, when he was approached to come to the TOFT Archive and The New York Public Library in 1993. After working closely with Corwin for the better part of a decade, in 2001, he then succeeded the TOFT founder as Director and Curator. In the past two decades, just some of Hoffman’s specific achievements include:

Videorecording 1,229 productions and 76 interviews
-Captured legendary performances such as Meryl Streep in Mike Nichols’
production of The Seagull, Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in August Wilson’s Fences, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Producers, Bryan Cranston in Network, the original productions of Doubt, Grey Gardens, Stephen Sondheim’s Here We Are, Paula Vogel’s Indecent, The Light in the Piazza, Spring Awakening, and hundreds of others.
-Overseeing the transition from analog to digital video for capturing productions
-Establishing and maintaining close ties with Broadway unions and guilds who
trust the Library for the Performing Arts to steward the legacy of their members
work for future generations
-Curating the exhibition Focus Center Stage: 50 Years of the Theatre on Film and
Tape Archive in 2022.
-Provided hundreds of orientation talks to thousands of students, schools,
colleges, universities, and other groups introducing them to the Archive’s
holdings and how to utilize them.
-Secured grants and donations to enable the Archive to continually videorecord
new productions

“The Library for the Performing Arts and the theatre field are forever changed because of Patrick Hoffman’s work. Since the very beginning of his career here, he has remained a tireless proponent of preserving Broadway, Off-Broadway, and theatre history. His work as Director and Curator has helped build the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive into an unmatched destination for researchers, students, and theatre industry professionals from all over the world.” said Roberta Pereira, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of the Library for the Performing Arts.
 

To post a comment, you must register and login.