Helen Mirren Costume Photo

From: BWW Exclusive: A Visit to New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' CURTAIN UP Exhibit

"Curtain Up: Celebrating Forty Years of Theatre in New York and London" opened at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center October 31st. The idea for the exhibit was conceived when the Society of London Theatre wanted to create a display in conjunction with London's Victoria and Albert Museum to honor forty years of the Olivier Awards. Doug Reside, who is the curator for the Theatre Division at the library, explained that eventually "those conversations [between SOLT and V&A] started to morph about including us and including the Tony's." From there Reside worked with Anna Landreth Strong, V&A Curator of Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Performance, to create an exhibit that worked on both sides of the Atlantic. To qualify for the exhibit a show must have been nominated for both a Tony Award and an Olivier Award, won one of those nominations, and had a production within the last 40 years.