A thread on why the recordings from the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive cannot just be "released", and why the theatrical community needs to stop yelling at the NYPL every 4 months.

First up, this is Betty Corwin. You probably don't know who she is. Learn her name. She is the founder of TOFT, and fought tooth and nail to legitimize the theatre as an art form worthy of preservation. She died in 2019, and you can read her obituary here. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/theater/betty-corwin-dead.html

Before Betty, there was no official record of any stage performances by the Barrymore siblings, Marlon Brando, or any of the other luminaries of the first half of the 20th century. Betty approached Lincoln Center Library of her own accord to ask for their help to stop this loss.

They were able to give her a desk, three months, and no money. She approached the 14 separate unions involved in putting on theatre in NYC, and negotiated every single contract to start filming. They were able to reach a single compromise.

She could record, using professional cameras and sound equipment, but only if the footage was protected from being commercially taken advantage of. That means regional companies copying directorial choices, choreography, costuming, set design, lighting design, prop design, etc.

They were able to accomplish this by creating a space in the Lincoln Center Library where the footage is safely housed, and a place where qualified researchers sign in and out via appointment to view footage. This makes it possible to track who has seen what.

This also makes it possible to preserve footage. A lot of the original reels were made on real film that has decayed and warped over the years. Lincoln Center has put a lot of time and money into digitizing the entire collection. That isn't even getting into organizing it all.

Betty's assistant Patrick Hoffman is now the director and curator of the archive. Between the two of them, more than 8,000 productions from on and off Broadway are available for study. All it takes to access them is a library card, and your physical presence.

I know this sucks for people outside of New York. But truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am telling you that you have to stop hounding the archive to "drop the link". They can't. They have to fight tooth and nail for every single cent, and even then they are cutting corners.

It costs around $12,000 to record a show. Oftentimes they have to record more than one, in order to get all of the right angles. Producers sometimes raise that price if they know the archive is going to really want the production. Some producers block them entirely.

It costs a significant amount of money to house and protect the film, and then the cost is increased if it has to be digitized or salvaged in some way. That's payment for materials, payment for manpower, and payment to house everything in climate controlled spaces.

Betty and Patrick worked incredibly hard to raise enough money so that you don't have to pay to access the recordings. A NYPL library card is free. They have completely changed the way NYC theatre is remembered, in the space of less than 50 years.

Bootleg culture exists, and has since the 1920's. This is not bootleg culture. This is about historical preservation, and trying to hound the NYPL to change that is reductive at best. Yes it sucks if you can't see something. But aren't you glad it even exists at all?