Hello to all my performing arts pals! Today I followed up on my last blog about PALs and visited the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library on the University of Maryland campus. I did not have to make an appointment but I did anyway just because I think it’s the state of the union right now with COVID and what not, plus it helps me and the attending information desk humans to plan for what to look at. I had been emailing with Ben and we made an appointment and discussed looking through a specific collection of photographs by Stanford Barouh. Mr. Barouh was active in photographing the DC-area theatre scene from 1989 to 2007 (I believe) and he had photographed productions with some organizations that I had also done photography or graphic design work for including the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage and The Studio Theatre. The finding aid also included work from the Port Tobacco Players which was my local community theatre growing up where I had done numerous shows, so I was definitely interested in seeing this collection to draw personal connections.
When I got to the library, I went to the welcome desk and the girl there did not know what exactly to do when I said I was there for my appointment in the reading room, but there was someone else there who took me back to the reading room and went to get Ben for me. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and there were no sign-in sheets or security measures to worry about to gain entry. In fact, the door to the reading room was wide open. Once Ben entered the room he asked if I had any specific parts of the collection that I wanted to look at because it was a large collection with numerous folders. I referred back to the finding aid and first asked to see work from The Kennedy Center and Arena Stage. He told me he would be right back and went to go get the folders. After a few minutes he returned and I had already put gloves on so he mentioned that he was happy to see that and provided with a few dividers to mark where I had taken folders out. He also told me that I was not allowed to take photos of the collection due to copyrights and that if I wanted copies of anything I just needed to let him know and then he would take me through the appropriate steps. I spent about 30 minutes looking through these folders and was really in awe at how he did this type of work with film and used photo-manipulation techniques in the dark room to make these prints usable by their organizations for press and advertising. Once I was done, I gave him the box of folders back and asked if he could grab the folders from The Studio Theatre and Port Tobacco Players and he went to get those for me and came back with The Studio Theatre stuff. He said he would be right back with the other folders so I started looking through the ones I had. Then he came back and gave me some sad news. When the photos were processed and labeled for Port Tobacco Players, THEY WERE LABELED WRONG! Apparently, PTP also stands for “Potomac Theater Project” and that’s what those photos were actually of. So the finding guide was wrong and they did not actually have the photos I was really hoping to see. Regardless, it was still really fascinating to see his work and how he approached the difficulties of shooting that type of event on film, and it was interesting to see the history of theatre and how much has changed in production value, costuming and staging.
I would say that I fulfilled half of my goal for the day… I got to see relevant work from a professional photographer who did work like mine, but in the analog era of photography, but I really wanted that nostalgic look at some photos from my hometown theatre group. Ben did everything that he could and provided me with everything that he actually had access to. I did do a search on the UMD Libraries’ catalog and found a hit in the Special Collections at Hornbake for a Port Tobacco Players playbill from 1950, so I went to go take a look at that and… drumroll please… THAT DOCUMENT WAS MISSING TOO! So no dice for me on the nostalgia front, but that’s okay.
I might not have gotten to relive a fond part of my childhood today, but I would still encourage all my theatre geeks out there to give it a try if you’re looking for old programs, reviews and photographs to stir up those old fuzzy feelings about your favorite venue. The staff is super friendly and helpful in spite of the shortcomings of some of the finding aids. There are also music, dance, and AV collections and a collection of musical scores if that’s your fancy. Just for funzies… here’s a little collage of me (with hair!) from my acting days…
No comments:
Post a Comment