New York City Theatre Archives

Join us to celebrate the publication of the latest edition of Theatre Research Resources in New York City—one of MESTC Publications most sought after books.

To mark the occasion, the Segal Center will be bringing together several archivists and librarians from across the city to talk about their collections, the archiving process, and why it is important for scholars and artists alike to engage directly with theatre's material past. Theatre Research Resources in New York City is an essential text for anyone conducting research in theatre and performance in NYC. It includes a comprehensive list of institutions ranging from the NYPL for the Performing Arts to the Joyce Theater to the Schubert Archive with information on the materials they hold and how and when to access their collections. The book is available in print form in a new pocket edition as well as online. Please join us for this special evening! The event is free and open to the public.

Participating institutions include: LGBTQ+ Artist Archive Project, Mark Morris Dance Group, New York University, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The House Foundation for the Arts, and The Watermill Center.

Learn more about the participants, below:

Linda S. Chapman (Co-Director LGBTQ+ Artist Archive Project) is currently Founding President of Youth Arts New York. YANY provides experiences in the arts, sciences, and civil society to engage youth in building a future of peace, social justice, and sustainability. A member of the Board of the Pick Up Performance Company, she retired in 2020 as the Associate Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop. Chapman joined the company in 1995 and served as an instrumental curator, advocate, and collaborator. Prior to her time at NYTW, she was Managing Director of The Wooster Group from 1983–94. She was a co-producer of DYKE TV, a grass roots, public access program, made by and for the lesbian community. For the League of Professional Theatre Women, she was co-director of the last Guilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program, former chair of the Lortel Award Committee, and former VP of Membership. She is a past panelist of the BOLD Theatre Women’s Leadership Circle and has served on funding panels for TCG, NEA, The Princess Grace Foundation, Mellon Foundation, The Drama League, the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, and the Fox Fellowship. She is a Lilly Award and Prelude '23 Frankie Award winner. Chapman is also co-writer and performer of the Obie Award-winning Gertrude and Alice: A Likeness to Loving with her life partner of 40 years Lola Pashalinski, their two-character play about Gertrude Stein and her longtime companion Alice B. Toklas, directed by Anne Bogart. She co-adapted Ann Bannon’s lesbian classics The Beebo Brinker Chronicles for the stage with playwright Kate Moira Ryan. The play was awarded a GLAAD Media Award and nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.

Alyce Dissette (Co-Director LGBTQ+ Artist Archive Project) is a producer of performing, visual, film, and digital arts who has worked in a wide range of venues and projects from staff member in the Metropolitan Opera Presentations Department to former Executive Producer of the PBS national series Alive from Off Center, and on digital media productions with the Voyager Co. She has worked with hundreds of artists including filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Francois Girard; visual artist James Turrell; author Art Spiegelman; and performing artists Sir Richard Alston, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Karin Coonrod, Ain Gordon, David Gordon, Philip Glass, Nona Hendryx, John Kelly, Urban Bush Women, Brenda Way, Robert Wilson, and Arthur Yorinks. She has served on the Board of Directors for Dance/USA and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. She produced the multi-faceted archive project for director/choreographer/writer David Gordon that is considered a model in the field. She is the Producing Director for the Pick Up Performance Co. 

Rye Gentleman is the Librarian for Performing Arts in the Division of Libraries at New York University. He holds a PhD from the Theatre Arts & Dance department at University of Minnesota and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. His writing has been published in TDR/The Drama Review, Theater, Performing Arts Resources, and in the anthology Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre (Routledge). His current projects include co-curating Archives Onstage, a collaboration between NYU Libraries and the Skirball Center, and researching a dissertation-based book project that explores real and imagined links between transgender and transhumanism through the work of trans artists and asks what trans theory might contribute to ongoing conversations about the figure of the human.

John Calhoun is the Chief Reference Librarian for the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He has served on the board of the Theatre Library Association (TLA) as well as a juror for the organization's annual book awards. He has also edited two issues of TLA's Performing Arts Resources journal. Previously, he was a journalist covering film and theatre, and holds an MA in Cinema Studies as well as an MLIS.

Clifford Allen is a writer, archivist, scholar, historian, and concert presenter living in the Hudson Valley. From 2013 until the end of 2023, he was the lead archivist and director of archives for The Watermill Center

Sarah Lerner is a seasoned arts administrator with over a decade of experience in management, operations, development, production and programming. Currently, she is the Executive Director of The House Foundation for the Arts, which presents, produces and preserves the work of the iconic interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk. Previously, she worked as Director of Operations at UnionDocs and as the lead producer for the Northside Festival and Northside Film. She holds an undergraduate degree from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and a masters degree in Museum Studies from CUNY.

Stephanie Neel is an archivist based in New York City, working primarily with photography and performing arts collections. She has been the archivist at Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn since 2017 and has worked with a number of performing arts companies and artist estates as a consultant for grant writing, project formation, digitization, and database advisement. Stephanie is a member of the Archives Funding Coalition for Dance/USA and serves on the Programming Committee for Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York.

*Participant list subject to change.