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London

Fellows Find: Smile (or pout!): Photographs of London’s professional primpers

May 24, 2016 - Jennifer Henneman

W. & D. Downey (British, active 1855–1940), [Mary Cornwallis West], ca. 1880. Albumen print with applied color (cabinet card), 6 ½ x 4 ¼ in. Gernsheim collection, 964:0488: 0002, f TR 655.11 C525 HRC-P

Before Lillie Langtry (née Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, 1853–1929) became a stage actress, she was known as one of London’s “professional beauties.” [Read more…] about Fellows Find: Smile (or pout!): Photographs of London’s professional primpers

Filed Under: Photography, Research + Teaching Tagged With: Countess of Dudley, Fellows Find, Gernsheim collection, Jennifer Henneman, Kate Vaughan, Lillie Langtry, London, Mary Cornwallis West, professional beauties

Dramaturg uses archival materials to edit new version of Tennessee Williams play for production at The Old Vic

July 25, 2013 - Abigail Cain

Dramaturg James Graham admits he had barely heard of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth before starting work on the play. Alongside Williams’s other works—including Pulitzer Prize winners A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof—the difficult script often fades into the background.

This summer The Old Vic in London is bringing Sweet Bird of Youth to center stage. The play, which follows professional gigolo Chance Wayne and aging Hollywood star Alexandra Del Lago, exists in countless forms. Williams spent over 15 years writing and rewriting the play; some versions conclude with the characters alive and well, others with them dead. Entire acts that were slashed from earlier versions are later revived as Williams struggled to get it right.

Dramaturging involves editing and analyzing an existing text, and in the case of Sweet Bird of Youth, this task was especially difficult. Although many theaters select a single version of the play to perform, Graham instead wove together the different versions to make a cohesive whole. As part of his research, he spent time with the Williams collection at the Ransom Center in early 2013 reading through drafts of the play.

“Following [Williams’s] brain was an adventure—insertions, appendices, and keys leave a trail,” Graham said. “Seeing the names of his characters evolve, as Delphine became Valerie became Heavenly, and Phil Beam elevated to the more heroic-sounding Chance Wayne. I noted his coffee stains and allowed myself to imagine the smell of cigarette smoke wafting from the page.”

The Ransom Center’s collection is one of the principal archives of Williams’s works. The Center acquired the author’s own papers between 1962 and 1969, which document his career through more than 1,000 separately titled plays, poems, and short stories, along with correspondence and newspaper clippings. In 1964, the Center purchased the correspondence between Williams and his literary agent Audrey Wood. Then, in 1965, the collection expanded with the acquisition of family papers from his mother.

Sweet Bird of Youth, starring Kim Cattrall and Seth Numrich and directed by Marianne Elliott, premiered on June 1 and will run through August 31 at The Old Vic in London.

Watch a scene from the production.

Filed Under: Authors, Theatre + Performing Arts Tagged With: John Graham, London, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tennessee Williams, The Old Vic, theater

Iain Sinclair’s "Ghost Milk" includes visit to Austin

September 7, 2012 - Alicia Dietrich

Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.

Ghost Milk: Recent Adventures Among the Future Ruins of London on the Eve of the Olympics (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), the latest work by British writer-filmmaker Iain Sinclair, explores the changes in East London as the city prepared for the 2012 Olympics and concludes with his visit to the United States, including his April 2010 trip to the Ransom Center.

Sinclair, whose archive resides at the Ransom Center, delivered a public talk, met with students, and worked with archivists cataloging his papers. Long walks in urban areas are a frequent topic of Sinclair’s writing, and Sinclair agreed to tour the campus, including the 307-foot-tall Tower, and offer his insights.

Please click on the thumbnails below to view full-size images.

Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.
Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.

 

Filed Under: Authors, Books + Manuscripts Tagged With: Farrar Straus and Giroux, Ghost Milk, Iain Sinclair, London, Los Angeles Times, Olympics

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