MC 927

Tom O'Horgan Theatrical Papers

By Wendell Piez

September 1993

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries

Finding aid encoded in EAD, version 2002 by Maisy Card November 2010

Descriptive Summary

Creator: O'Horgan, Tom.
Title: Tom O'Horgan Theatrical Papers
Dates: 1965-1991
Quantity: 4.3 cubic feet (9 manuscript boxes, 5 photograph boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 2 map folders)
Abstract: Tom O'Horgan was a musician, composer and innovative theater director, of New York City. His papers consist chiefly of scripts, music manuscripts, programs, photographs, videotape recordings, stage designer's drawings, posters, reviews and other materials pertaining to over 50 theatrical productions (plays, musicals, television productions and films) and other staged events (primarily concerts). Included are materials relating chiefly to performances in the United States (at La Mama E.T.C., other New York City venues and elsewhere) and in Europe (especially Denmark). Some of the scripts are the copies used by J. Galen McKinley, the stage manager for several of O'Horgan's productions.
Collection No.: MC 927
Language: English
Repository: Rutgers University. Special Collections and University Archives

Biographical Sketch

Thomas Foster "Tom" O'Horgan was born in Chicago on May 3, 1926. His father, an amateur singer and theater enthusiast, encouraged O'Horgan's interests from a young age: as a child, O'Horgan was already writing opera and planning ambitious stage productions. After taking degrees in music from DePaul University, O'Horgan began work in New York and Chicago managing and performing in different shows, and presenting a nightclub act as (he later said) a "beat harpist." He also composed music, wrote and directed productions for the Chicago theatrical company Second City.

The late 1950s found O'Horgan in New York, where Second City had relocated. Over several years O'Horgan staged various original works in New York's increasingly active avant-garde theater scene. After an O'Horgan staging of Jean Genet's The Maids at Caffe Cino was seen and admired by Ellen Stewart, the costume designer and force behind the Cafe La Mama (founded in 1961), O'Horgan began working─and, for a time, living─at La Mama, one of the most active venues of the burgeoning New York Off-Off Broadway theater movement. There he directed, performed, wrote music and built sets for numerous productions put on in the club, new plays by Tom Eyen, Paul Foster, Leonard Melfi, Rochelle Owens, Sam Shepard, Jean-Claude Van Ittalie, Lanford Wilson and others.

In 1965 Ellen Stewart sent two companies of actors from La Mama abroad. A group which went to Paris was not very well received; but Tom O'Horgan's company, which went to Copenhagen, met with popular and critical acclaim. In addition to its stage repertory, the La Mama Troupe (as it had been dubbed) under O'Horgan's direction made a film, Boxiganga, with a screenplay by the Danish writer Elsa Gress. Danish tours in 1965 and 1966 were followed by a longer tour in 1967 to a number of European cities, culminating in the 1967 Edinburgh festival, where the La Mama presentation of Rochelle Owens' Futz! won for it some notoriety in the conservative Scottish press, and where, more importantly, Paul Foster's Tom Paine was received with great enthusiasm.

With the La Mama Troupe, O'Horgan had refined and developed the working techniques for "total theater." The basic idea of total theater was derived from the opera; as it evolved between O'Horgan and his actors, however, the term took on a special meaning. As O'Horgan applied it, total theater applied most immediately to the actors themselves, who were directed by O'Horgan in communicating with their entire bodies, not only through speech but through singing, playing, dancing, expressing. O'Horgan's role as director was not so much to tell the actors what to do and how to react, as it was to arrange them in such a way that their own actions and their reactions, to the basic raw material of a play and to each other, would combine for maximum effect─in keeping with the synaesthesia of total theater, O'Horgan conceived himself as an "orchestrator" or "sculptor" of the dramatic action. The freshness and immediacy achieved through this effort to evade the conventional strictures and formalities of theater was clearly felt by audiences, for whom O'Horgan's total theater thus had a wider meaning: it was theater constantly spilling over the edges of the stage, involving the audience directly in the emotion and action of the play.

This approach was at the heart of the successes of the Danish tours, of Futz! and Tom Paine, and O'Horgan returned to New York to apply the same principles to a string of hits. Futz! and Tom Paine both enjoyed long runs Off-Broadway; they were shortly joined by the epoch-making Hair, the "American Tribal Love Rock Musical," and the equally highly acclaimed Lenny, based on the life of Lenny Bruce, the controversial comedian (and friend of Tom O'Horgan's from his days on the nightclub circuit). A film of Futz! was shot in 1969; an experimental television production, Paul Foster's !Heimskringla! or The Stoned Angels, was shot later that year.

In the 1970s O'Horgan was presented with further opportunities to explore his manifold talents. In 1970 he led a new company on tour in the U.S. and abroad, the New Troupe, presenting two plays by Sam Shepard and O'Horgan's own Gurton's Apocalyptic Needle, an adaptation of medieval drama. Inner City and the rock opera Jesus Christ, Superstar! opened on Broadway in 1971. In 1972, O'Horgan led a U.S. tour of Tom Paine. In 1974, he directed Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Karen Black in a film version of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. In the same year, in Denmark, O'Horgan directed an Elsa Gress teleplay, Philoctetes Wounded, on Danish television. In 1976, O'Horgan broke into opera, designing sets for a Vienna State Theater production of Berlioz' The Trojans; in 1977 he directed Leon Kirchner's Lily at the New York City Opera. And even while engaged in other work on and off Broadway in the 1970s, O'Horgan was still active at La Mama E.T.C., where he directed Francisco Arrabal's The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria in 1976 (this production subsequently toured South America and Europe), Albert Camus' Caligula in 1977, and Bertold Brecht's The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui in 1978. Hair was revived in 1977; O'Horgan also continued his collaborations with Elsa Gress in Denmark, presenting Environment Theater in 1979 (a presentation of the paintings of Clifford Wright for which O'Horgan wrote music) and Memory of the Future for television in 1980.

In the years from 1980 through 1991, O'Horgan's work continued to explore new directions. In addition to more conventional (if never "traditional") works for stage, such as I Won't Dance (1981), Pal Joey (1983), Mowgli (1985), Senator Joe and Nimrod (1989) and Arrabal's The Body-builder's Book of Love (1990), O'Horgan contributed to experimental works such as The Light Opera (1983) and spectacles such as the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centennial show The Eighth Wonder and the Union Square experimental concert Sky Music. O'Horgan's attention increasingly turned to music; he staged Bernstein's Mass at the Kennedy Center (1981), Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale at Carnegie Hall (1982), Mozart's The Magic Flute (1991), and the music theater of Harry Partsch (at the Bang on a Can Festival, 1991), and continued to write and present music of his own.

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Scope and Content Note

The Tom O'Horgan Theatrical Papers, 4.3 cubic feet dating from 1965 to 1991, include a variety of materials saved by O'Horgan from productions in which he, and the actors and designers who worked with him, redefined the dominant modes of American theater. Substantial materials trace O'Horgan's work from the mid-1970s, with a few scattered items from his earlier work. Some significant items are scripts which belonged to Galen McKinley, who served O'Horgan as production stage manager in a number of productions; in these are recorded many of the technical details of O'Horgan's stagings─blocking, lights and music cues. Materials connected with the collaborations of O'Horgan with the Danish writer Elsa Gress are also noteworthy.

There is an immediate problem in arranging the works of a director and dramaturge, especially one whose talents were as various, and whose works were so emphatically for the stage and the moment, as were Tom O'Horgan's. The materials are extremely various: they include scripts with notes, photographs, set designs, administrative records, press clippings, programs, posters, flyers, brochures and other publicity materials, and so forth; and almost all have actually been produced by O'Horgan's colleagues and assistants. The nature of O'Horgan's work emerges not from any single item so much as from the combination of this variety brought together. Therefore, in order to preserve the relations of these items to one another, they have not been sorted according to format or document type. Rather, the groupings of the documents as they were received (gathered together by production) has been retained and rationalized under the series heading DRAMATIC WORKS AND RELATED MATERIALS (2.6 cubic feet), and arranged chronologically. Folder headings, reflecting contents as succinctly and specifically as possible, were assigned in the repository. The term "Dramatic Works" is therefore very loose; the series includes, for example, programs to concerts of musical works staged or written by O'Horgan. In the few instances where materials have been separated (for example, materials connected to collaborations between O'Horgan and Elsa Gress which were found together), provenance information has been recorded in notes in the finding aid.

There are four additional series in the collection. PHOTOGRAPHS (0.5 cubic feet) and VIDEOTAPES (four videotapes in VHS format) comprise separate series. O'Horgan's music manuscripts, which are solely his work and which are readily separable from other materials, have been gathered in the series SCORES. Finally, the GENERAL FILE includes miscellaneous items not connected to any single production, including correspondence from Elsa Gress, materials connected to O'Horgan associates Galen McKinley and Kevin O'Connor, press coverage of O'Horgan, and the like.

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Related Collections

At other repositories: Additional Tom O'Horgan papers are held by the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

At Rutgers University Libraries: Documentation concerning Tom O'Horgan, or plays that he produced, is also represented in the Paul Foster Theatrical Papers (MC 865) and in the Jerry Cunliffe Theatrical Papers (MC 901).

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Restrictions

No restrictions.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation:

Tom O'Horgan Theatrical Papers. MC 927. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

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Container List

This section notes the name, size, and arrangement of the five record series, followed in each instance by a container list, which gives the titles of the folders and their locations in the numbered boxes that comprise this collection.

GENERAL FILE, 1965-1991 (.2 cubic feet)
Arranged alphabetically by folder heading.
Box Folder
1 1 Arrabal, Fernando─Correspondence, 1975
New Year's note, June 1975, on tissue paper, with paper cut-out butterfly enclosed.
2 Award, 1971
Drama Desk Award, 1970-1971 (for direction of Lenny).
3 Award Nomination, 1969
1968-69 Tony Award nomination (Best Director, Musical Play, for Hair).
4 Gress, Elsa─Articles and Clippings from, 1969-1986 and undated
Articles and clippings [some photocopies], with translations, sent from Gress to O'Horgan.
5 Gress, Elsa─Correspondence, 1979-1982 and 1988
Includes enclosures such as photocopies and reviews; one letter is from Clifford Wright; there is also a typed manuscript libretto for an O'Horgan-Gress "mini-opera." Materials for the Gress-Wright-O'Horgan collaboration Environment Theater, 1979, have been removed to appropriate folders.
6 Gress, Elsa─Denmark scrapbook, 1965-1966
Press clippings from Danish and American papers, photocopied from scrapbook assembled by Elsa Gress. Inserted into the scrapbook was also a copy of The Nation, March 7, 1966 (no apparent relation to collection).
7 Lecture Announcement, 1981
8 Lists of Plays, circa 1980
Typed list of plays staged by O'Horgan, running from 1965 to circa 1980; another typed list of plays for which O'Horgan wrote incidental music.
9 McKinley, Galen─Miscellaneous, 1977
Items found enclosed with [Galen McKinley's] Hair script (1977): soundstage set design to Jerry Lewis telethon; program to Patty LaBelle concert.
10 McKinley, Galen─Resume and Poster, circa 1980 and undated
Two copies of resume of Galen McKinley, circa 1980; poster for Harvey Milk birthday celebration [San Francisco], undated, with "for Gayland" [sic] written on reverse.
11 O'Connor, Kevin─Press Clipping, 1982
12 Poetry [miscellaneous], undated
Author(s) unidentified; found enclosed with Aria to Ariel in Elsa Gress materials.
13 Press Coverage─Biographical, [1969] and 1983
Includes clipping from Playboy magazine, [April 1969], and photocopied clipping from Back Stage, 1983.
14 Press Coverage─Panel Discussion, 1991
Copy of The Journal of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation 5, no. 1 (Summer 1991); O'Horgan participated in the panel "Broadway, Then and Now─'Directing the Musical'" (p. 34-60).
DRAMATIC WORKS AND RELATED MATERIALS, circa 1968-1991 (2.6 cubic feet)
Grouped chronologically by year and thereunder arranged alphabetically by production title; oversize items filed separately.
Box Folder
1 15 Futz! screen treatment [by Tom O'Horgan and Ben Schapiro, based on the play by Rochelle Owens], circa 1968
Photocopied typescript in maroon binder.
16 Lenny [by Julian Barry] handbill, circa 1968
17 !Heimskringla! or, The Stoned Angels [by Paul Foster] program guide, 1969
Program guide to KQED (San Francisco), November 1969.
18 Gurton's Apocalyptic Needle [by Tom O'Horgan] program, 1970
Two copies of program from Vienna Festival production [with two plays by Sam Shepard].
19 Hair program, 1970
Program for Hair at the Royal Alexandra Theater, Toronto.
20 Inner City: A Street Cantata [lyrics by Eve Merriam] script, Act I, [1971]
Original typescript with emendations in pen [highly acidic paper]; first page has note "Property of Eve Merriam"; formerly in black binder embossed "Nicholas Russiyan."
21 Inner City: A Street Cantata script, Act II, [1971]
Formerly bound with preceding.
22 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road [adapted by O'Horgan and Robin Wagner] script [earlier version], 1974
Photocopied typescript of Robert Stigwood production in tan binder, with pencil emendations and production materials inserted (cast lists, contact sheets, etc.).
23 Unidentified script set in Asbury Park, New Jersey, undated
Found inserted with production material in preceding.
24 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road script [later version], 1974
Photocopied typescript in maroon binder [transcribed version without stage directions].
25 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road script [stage manager's copy], 1974
Photocopy of later version, with lighting cues interleaved [Galen McKinley's script].
26 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road program guide, 1974
Box Folder
2 1 Philoctetes Wounded [by Elsa Gress] script, [1974]
Photocopied script for television play assembled from print, typescript, and photocopied artworks. A cast sheet is enclosed.
2 Philoctetes Wounded bilingual script, [1974]
Mimeographed bilingual typescript, emended in pen and pencil.
3 Philoctetes Wounded article and inserts, [1974]
Magazine article by Elsa Gress about N.A. Abildgaard [Danish painter, 18th century], with cast sheet from Danish television production, and book cover to Daemoniske Damer, with picture from Philoctetes Wounded on back side. Items found enclosed with photographs from the production.
4 Hair [by Gerome Ragni and James Rado] script, 1975
Photocopy of typescript with stage manager's notes, 1975 sign-in sheet and prop list.
5 The Leaf People [by Dennis J. Reardon] script, 1975
Mimeographed typescript in white binder; title page reads "Third R-W" [rewrite].
6 The Leaf People script [defective], 1975
Another copy of preceding in white binder, lacking p. 111-155; signed "Galen McKinley."
7 The Leaf People script [production copy?], 1975
Another copy of preceding.
8 The Leaf People inserts, 1975
Songbook and note to Galen McKinley found inserted in [preceding] script.
Box Folder
3 1 Spring Rites [various authors] scripts, [1975]
Collected scripts to La Mama benefit show.
2 Spring Rites program, broadside, [1975]
Mimeographed program and broadside found enclosed with preceding.
3 The Trojans [by Hector Berlioz] program, [1976]
Program to Wiener Staatsoper production.
4 Warren G. for President script, [1976]
Photocopied typescript in ring binder; Galen McKinley's copy [stage manager], with marginal notes in pencil.
5 Warren G. for President inserts, [1976]
Lighting hook-ups, program notes and two copies of program.
6 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria [by Fernando Arrabal] miscellaneous, 1977
Includes a note from Nelly Vivas (producer) to Galen McKinley (production stage manager); a poster; diagrams of stage layout and prop presets; a publicity flyer from 1977 production in New York; also two programs from Philadelphia engagement.
7 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (Amsterdam) publicity, 1977
A brochure, calendar, program, March 1977 theater schedule, photocopied review, and poster for Mickery Theater production.
8 Caligula [by Albert Camus] script, 1977?
Stapled photocopy of print edition of Camus script [marked "Galen"], with emendations.
9 Caligula program, 1977?
Program from La Mama E.T.C. production.
10 Hair script, 1977
Mostly clean copy of mimeographed typescript [some differences from 1975 version]; 1977 production schedule enclosed.
11 Hair script [stage manager's copy], 1977
Mimeographed typescript with notes in pencil.
12 Hair inserts, 1977
Copious production materials found inserted in binder with stage manager's script, including three resumes (not of cast members?), two with photographs.
13 Hair program, 1977
Playbill to production at the Biltmore Theatre, New York, October 1977.
14-15 Hair script, year uncertain
Clean copy of a different typescript, with exercises, stage directions and lighting cues specified.
Box Folder
4 1 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (Caracas) publicity, 1978
Publicity materials from Nelly Vivas production at the 4th World Season of the Theater of Nations [Caracas Festival]: festival program; program from performance; program notes; three [photocopied] theater reviews.
2 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (Taormina) miscellaneous, 1978
Programs and photocopies of set design for presentation of Nelly Vivas production in Taormina, Sicily.
3 Crossing the Crab Nebula [by Lewis Black] script, 1978
Photocopied typescript with emendations in pencil and red pencil. Appended are three pages of collage: illustrations of figures in 17th-18th century costume with musical instruments, photocopied and pasted.
4 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui [by Bertold Brecht] original script, 1978
Original typescript of edited version by Ralph Mannheim and John Willett; front matter includes unused calendar and track sheets.
5 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui photocopied script, 1978
Photocopied typescript of La Mama production, bound in red.
6 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui script [stage manager's copy], 1978
Galen McKinley's script, formerly in ring binder, with penciled notes and some pages inserted with contact sheets, etc.
7 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui script [lighting prompt copy], 1978
Another copy of the script, found enclosed in ring binder with preceding; lighting prompts and other stage directions marked in pencil and pen.
8 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui cross-overs, 1978
Papers enclosed in a file labeled "cross-overs" and inserted in ring binder with [preceding] scripts.
9 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui track sheets, 1978
Papers enclosed in a file labeled "Track Sheets" and inserted in ring binder with [preceding] scripts.
10 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui inserts, 1978
Miscellaneous papers inserted loose into ring binder [with preceding items]. Includes notes; Equity [actors' guild] negotiation letters; actors' information cards; contract for Galen McKinley; photocopies of production budget; stage set blueprints; and the like.
11 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui correspondence, 1978
Photocopy of page 1 of a [two-page] letter to Tom O'Horgan [from Elsa Gress], about Hitler [handed out to cast]. Found with preceding materials.
12 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui handbills, 1978
Found with materials in preceding folders.
13 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui script [Samuel French print edition], copyright 1972
Samuel French paperback edition of the Brecht play, found [with preceding materials] inserted into ring binder.
14 Atina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy [by Steve Brown] script, 1979
Mimeographed typescript, with cover letter.
15 Environment Theater [by Elsa Gress] script, 1979
Drafts of text for mixed media show in Copenhagen [?], Denmark. Materials were found with Elsa Gress correspondence.
16 Environment Theater program and reviews, 1979
Found with Elsa Gress correspondence.
17 The Tempest [by William Shakespeare] script, 1979
Photocopied typescript in ring binder with emendations by Galen McKinley [production stage manager].
18 The Tempest program, 1979
19 Battle of the Giants [by Steve Brown], 1980
Photocopied typescript, apparently an expanded version of Atina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy, with contact sheets and program inserted.
Box Folder
5 1 I Won't Dance [by Oliver Hailey] script, 1980
Mimeographed typescript in tan binder, with inserts and some emendations.
2 I Won't Dance script [revised], 1980
A different mimeographed typescript incorporating revisions [from preceding], with some further emendations in pencil, in green binder. Loose duplicate pages and a publicity sheet are inserted.
3 I Won't Dance broadside and program, 1980
4 I Won't Dance correspondence, 1980
Two notes thanking O'Horgan (on cards).
5 Memory of the Future [by Elsa Gress] script [draft], 1980
Photocopied typescript of an English version [found enclosed in its own clip binder and inserted into binder with following materials], with emendations in pen by Elsa Gress; two pages of revisions are also appended.
6 Memory of the Future Danish script, 1980
Photocopy of Danish script of the teleplay.
7 Memory of the Future English script, 1980
Photocopy of English script, found with preceding and paginated to match page by page.
8 American Heroes script, [1981]
Loose-leaf photocopy of emended original typescript.
9 Hurrah for the Bridge [by Paul Foster] program, 1981
Program for La Mama E.T.C. 20th Anniversary production.
10 I Won't Dance [by Oliver Hailey] program, 1981
11 Mass [composed by Leonard Bernstein] program, 1981
12 Aria to Ariel [by Elsa Gress] drafts, circa 1982
Several drafts of an unfinished opera by Elsa Gress about Karen Blixen, with photocopied source material. Found with Elsa Gress correspondence.
13 Hair documentary proposal, [1982]
14 The Soldier's Tale [music by Igor Stravinsky; text by C.F. Ramuz; translation by Sheldon Harnick] script, [1982]
Photocopied typescript in clear plastic binder.
15 The Soldier's Tale program, 1982
16 The Eighth Wonder script [draft], 1983
Stapled copy of draft typescript, dated 11/12/82.
17 The Eighth Wonder script [final], 1983
Stapled photocopy of script with music, sound and lighting effects in parallel columns. The show was for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial.
18 The Light Opera [composed by Charlie Morgan] materials, 1983
Stapled text, "Materials for a Light Opera," a compilation of photocopies to be used as script and source material for "A Ritual of Healing with Tools and Weapons."
19 The Light Opera program, broadsides, 1983
Box Folder
6 1 Mrs. Farmer's Daughter lyrics, [1983]
Lyrics and fragmentary pages of script to musical about the actress Frances Farmer.
2 Mrs. Farmer's Daughter program, 1983
3 Pal Joey [by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart] program, 1983
4 Plagues for Our Time [by Eve Merriam] programs and inserts, [1983]
Programs, lyrics book, two pages of doodles, one page of draft lyrics; note from Merriam to O'Horgan.
5 Mowgli [adaptation by O'Horgan; lyrics by C.J. Ellis] script, 1985
Photocopied typescript bound in green; dated January 1982.
6 Mowgli production script, 1985
Photocopied printout of revised script, formerly enclosed in ring binder, with emendations in pencil; front matter includes production calendar and contact sheets.
7 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (New York) publicity, 1986
Photocopied review; transcript of radio review; poster for La Mama E.T.C. 25th Anniversary production.
8 Ballad of Carl Th. Dreyer recording schedule, 1988
9 Backstage with Warren G. program, 1989
10 Senator Joe; Nimrod publicity, 1989
Program and press clipping.
11 The Body-builder's Book of Love [by Fernando Arrabal] publicity, 1990
Program, review [photocopy] and broadside.
12 Capitol Cakewalk postcard, 1990
New version of Backstage with Warren G.?
13 Cloud Walking brochure, 1990
Publicity brochure for show by Jean Kopperud, clarinetist.
14 Musecology program, 1990
Program for concert, autographed for O'Horgan.
15 "Beauty and the Beast" program, 1991
Program from New Music for Clarinet concert, including "Beauty and the Beast" by Tom O'Horgan.
16 Futz! program, handbill, 1991
Two copies of program and handbill for La Mama E.T.C. 30th Anniversary production.
17 The Magic Flute brochure, 1991
Subscription information brochure for Connecticut Grand Opera, 1991-1992.
18 Bang on a Can Festival [music of Harry Partch] program and broadside, 1991
Program and broadside for O'Horgan staging of "The Wayward" and "11 Intrusions" by Harry Partch.
19 Mozart Gala program, 1991
20 Jack's Back program, undated
21 Little Mighty program, undated
22 M.I.M.I.R. [by Elsa Gress and Tom O'Horgan] script, undated
Photocopied typescript bound with green cover, bilingual Danish and English. Some emendations in pen by Elsa Gress; note inserted from Gress to O'Horgan: "This script should be kept as a memorandum of what 'Trojans' should be leading up to." Circa early 1980s?
23 St. Hydro Clemency program, undated
Two copies.
24 Scapegoat; or, Donny Johnny [by Elsa Gress] script, undated
Printed script with green cover.
25 Sky Music program, undated
26 Y program, undated
27 Unidentified musical in French [lacking title], undated
Characters include "Marie Jeanne" and "Johnny Rockfort"; musical numbers include "Travesti" and "Starmania."
28 Song lyrics [unidentified], undated
Song entitled "Confiteor─Easy."
Box Folder
9 [oversize] 1 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band On the Road set designs [3 sheets], 1974
Box Folder
9 2 Hurrah for the Bridge poster [3 copies] and Futz! poster, 1981 and 1991
3 The Soldier's Tale poster and The Eighth Wonder poster, [1982] and 1983
Box Folder
Map Drawer 1 The Trojans poster, 1976
Weekly plan for Vienna Theaters, October 15-24, 1976.
2 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria set design blueprints, 1977
Designs for Annex Theatre [two sheets] and Zellerbach Theatre [one sheet].
[2] Lily set design blueprints, 1977
Production of the New York City Opera at the New York State Theater.
SCORES, circa 1968-1988 and undated (.8 cubic feet)
Grouped chronologically by year and thereunder arranged alphabetically by title; oversize items filed separately.
Box Folder
7 1-2 Futz! [film?], circa 1968
Photocopy of score, on legal size paper.
3 The Leaf People, 1975
Music manuscript fragments found inserted in Galen McKinley's production copy of the script.
4 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria, 1977?
Photocopies of manuscript music for three songs.
5 Caligula, 1977?
Score in spiral-bound music notebook.
6-7 [Environment Theater], [1979]
Five folders with instrumental scores for Clifford Wright retrospective.
8 Spring Rites, [1979]
Loose manuscript scores enclosed in spiral-bound music notebook, also with scoring.
9 The Tempest, [1979]
Score, found in two file folders.
10 The Tempest music, 1979
Photocopied music manuscripts from production typescript; removed from the script's ring binder.
11 Memory of the Future, 1980
Typed list of percussion instruments for television production and draft score.
Box Folder
8 1-2 Plagues for Our Time, [1983]
Manuscript of score [fair copy].
3 Ballad of Carl Th. Dreyer [?], [1988]
Photocopy of score.
4-6 Unidentified music manuscripts, undated
Box Folder
9 [oversize] 4 ’Tis Pity [incomplete], undated
5 Nimrod [incomplete], undated
6 Senator Joe, undated
VIDEOTAPES, 1966, 1969 and undated (.2 cubic feet)
Grouped chronologically by year.
Box Folder
8 [none] 3 from La Mama: Pavane [by Jean-Claude Van Ittalie], Fourteen Hundred Thousand [by Sam Shepard], The Recluse [by Paul Foster], NET Playhouse, 1966
[none] Boxiganga [by Elsa Gress], 1966
[none] Futz! [by Rochelle Owens], [1969]
[none] Birdbath [by Leonard Melfi] and Hurrah for the Bridge [by Paul Foster], undated
PHOTOGRAPHS, 1965-1980 and undated (.5 cubic feet)
Bulk grouped chronologically by year and thereunder arranged alphabetically by name of play or other production; oversize items filed separately.
Box Folder
10 [photo box] 1 All Men Are Apes, 1965
2 Boxiganga [by Elsa Gress], 1965
3 The Maids[by Jean Genet], [1965]
La Mama E.T.C. production; photograph found with Elsa Gress materials.
4 The La Mama Troupe in Denmark, 1965
Photographs from The Recluse, by Paul Foster; Circus by Gerald Schoenwolf; and This Is the Rill Speaking, by Lanford Wilson. Found with Elsa Gress materials.
5 The Recluse [by Paul Foster], [1966]
In Three from La Mama [PBS broadcast of January 1967]; photograph found with Elsa Gress materials.
6 The La Mama Troupe in Denmark, 1965-1967
Photographs from several productions found in folder labeled "La Mama Co." [Photographs of Boxiganga removed to appropriate folder.] A photograph of Tom Paine in New York (1967) is also included.
7 Futz!, 1968
Found with Elsa Gress materials.
8 Futz! [stage play and film], 1968
Photographs of New York production and filming on location.
Box Folder
11 [photo box] 1 !Heimskringla! [by Paul Foster], 1969
From a folder labeled "Heimskringla / Rehearsal Photos."
2 Tom Paine, Denmark, 1969
4"x6" photographs were found with Elsa Gress materials; larger photographs also have Gress's notes on reverse.
3 Philoctetes Wounded, [1974]
Box Folder
12 [photo box] 1 Rhinoceros, [1974]
2 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, 1974
Photographs found with Elsa Gress materials.
3 The Leaf People, 1975
4 The Trojans, 1976
5 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria, 1977
6 Lily, [1977]
Reverse reads "Leon Kirchner's opera Lily" (New York City Opera production).
7 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria, 1978
Photographs of Nelly Vivas Company production.
8 The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, 1978
Photographs of actors, many with resumes attached to reverse [found enclosed with script]; another photograph (of this show?) found separately.
9 The Tempest, 1979?
One photograph is dated 1978; show ran in February-March 1979.
Box Folder
13 [photo box] 1 The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria, 1979
An unidentified production: one photograph is dated 1979, others unidentified, including photographs of O'Horgan with Fernando Arrabal, Nelly Vivas.
2 Memory of the Future, 1980
3 Hair, undated
Philip M. Thomas in the role of "Hud."
4 Jesus Christ Superstar [different productions?], undated
5 "Hibiscus and Angel Jack," undated
Drag queens; found with Elsa Gress materials.
Box Folder
14 [photo box] 1 Divine, [1974] and undated
Publicity photographs and snapshots of the actor, two with autographs.
2 Tom O'Horgan; Elsa Gress; the La Mama Troupe, [1966], [1974] and undated
Includes a photograph of O'Horgan with Tennessee Williams. Photographs found with Elsa Gress materials.
3 Tom O'Horgan and Elsa Gress [1965], [1973] and undated
4 The New Troupe, 1970
Found with Elsa Gress materials.
5 Miscellaneous unidentified photographs, undated
Box Folder
15 [photo box] [none] The La Mama Troupe with the Gress-Wright family, Denmark, 1966
[none] The New Troupe in Rehearsal, 1970
Five photographs: "probably Gurton's Ap[ocalyptic] Needle."
[none] Tom O'Horgan with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, [undated]
[none] Zero Mostel in Rhinoceros, [1974]
[none] Rehearsals of Philoctetes Wounded, [1974]
Four photographs.
[none] Tom O'Horgan with Joseph Papp, undated
[none] Three additional unidentified photographs, undated