Producer and Founder of Primary Stages, Casey Childs talks about Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Interviewed in October 2020 via Zoom, for the Performing Arts Legacy Project, a project of The Actors Fund.
Pictured above are:
First row, left to right: Dick D. Zigun, Eleanor Reissa, Tina Howe, Baayork Lee and Rosalba Rolon.
Second row: Sharon Washington, Ilion Troya, Christopher Durang, Joan MacIntosh and Judith Malina
Third Row: William Ivey Long, Micki Grant, Tanya Berezin, Ping Chong and David Greenspan
I have always had a curiosity with the people who create theater out of pure passion and, like many artists, I have always been frustrated by the sad, ephemeral nature of producing plays. It seems inevitable that this curiosity would eventually lead to the creation of the Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project at PRIMARYSTAGESOFFCENTER.ORG.
During my years as a Vice President of the Directors Guild of America, I learned how invaluable a digital archive could be. There is a great dearth of first-hand information about the creation of Off-Broadway. There are plenty of recorded interviews with the likes of Joe Papp and Ellen Stewart, but little else (except printed interviews in newspapers and journals) with the hundreds of artists and managers who pioneered this movement. I originally approached several libraries and arts support groups with the idea for a digitally-recorded oral history project. They all saw the need for such an archive, but none of them would get involved in the creation of such. Finally Sally Plass, a longtime friend and collaborator, committed in 2014 to helping make this Off-Broadway Oral History Project a reality. Primary Stages agreed to host it.
What is important in oral history is getting interviewees to talk freely, to not self-censor too much, and to not just give succinct or rehearsed answers to the questions. By talking, they reveal themselves and the chaotic and vibrant world of early Off-Broadway. The power of every interview is in the richness of the details, in the atmosphere the subjects evoke and in their commitment to share their stories with every tiny nuance and shading. Many of our interviewees commented afterwards on how they had not thought about some of these events in years and were surprised that many of these memories still lived inside them. I found myself maturing as an interviewer with every history we recorded. I got much better about pulling myself back.
We recorded our first interview on June 11, 2014. Our first interviewee was my old friend, the actress Elizabeth Wilson, who had an extravagantly fruitful career Off-Broadway and has since passed away. The Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project is dedicated to paying tribute to Off-Broadway’s marvelous history.
The picture in the gallery above include photos taken on the day of the interviews with Sheldon Harnick, Richard Foreman, Willa Kim, Austin Pendleton, Barbara Dana, Eric Krebs, Steve Olsen, Merle Debuskey, Dorothy Olim, Paul Libin, Mary Louise Wilson, Patricia Birch, Sally Plass (Project Director) and Brian Murray.
Photos taken by Sally Plass or Casey Childs
