TRI has strong connections with the OSU Theatre Department which we support through our collections and our activities. We also have periodic announcements of local interest to scholars and TRI users, and then we have the annual Margo Jones Awards.

CURRENT NEWS

WINTER QUARTER 2012

JANUARY EVENTS

$6 Million Gift to Create Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise

Ohio State alumnus and entertainment industry leader Lawrence Barnett has committed $6 million to the College of Arts and Sciences to establish the multi-disciplinary Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise and to support extensive renovations to Sullivant Hall. Contingent upon trustees' approval, this gift from the Barnett family will create a collaborative center in Sullivant Hall, scheduled to open in fall 2013, including the Barnett Conference Room and the Barnett Theatre.  Isabel Bigley Barnett donated her papers documenting her illustrious career as Laurey in the London cast of Oklahoma , as the first Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls for which she received the Tony Award, and in Me and Juliet, a show created especially for her, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, to the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.   > Read more >

Year of Shakespeare: The Exhibition, Thompson Library Gallery, through April 29

This showcase consists of Shakespeare-related holdings from the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute and the Rare Books and Manuscripts collections. It also features materials from The Ohio State University’s partnership with the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company and their “STAND UP FOR SHAKESPEARE” program. The Ohio State University Libraries, in association with The Arts Initiative (shakespeare.osu.edu). Beth Kattelman, Curator; Geoffrey Wilson, Assistant to the Curator.

Photograph of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth in the 1888 Lyceum Theatre production of MACBETH. [spec.tri.arp.28.13.13] Artist Photograph Collection. The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute. The Ohio State University

FALL QUARTER 2011

OCTOBER EVENTS

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute Lecture, “Interactive Shakespeare: Processes and Provocations,” Struan Leslie, Head of Movement for the RSC, Tuesday, October 18, 4:30 p.m., Thompson Library 11th Floor:

Struan Leslie, Head of Movement at the Royal Shakespeare Company, will deliver the annual Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute Lecture. Leslie has performed, directed, and devised work in theatre, opera, dance, and live art. His practice draws on a wide range of contexts of application, experimentation, and exploration of movement including choreography, architecture, music, and fine art. His work has been presented extensively in the repertoires of theatre companies throughout Europe and in the US, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, English and Welsh National Opera, Geneva Opera, Berkeley Rep, and American Repertory Theatre to name but a few. Struan choreographed the BBC's highly acclaimed television series Casanova.

He has directed, choreographed, as well as taught and led workshops at dance and drama schools, and leads workshops for directors and actors. Struan has held teaching appointments at the Universities of Greenwich and South Bank, London, and a visiting professorship at the University of Illinois.

Struan will direct Song of Songs for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre in the spring of 2012 and co-direct English Skies, a staged song cycle for international touring in 2012 and 2013.

Introducing Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute Fellow Sharon Marcus:

Sharon Marcus, the first Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute Fellow, is now in residence, exploring what she characterizes as TRI’s “exceptionally rich collection” of scrapbooks from the second half of the nineteenth through the first third of the twentieth centuries. The Orlando Harriman Professor at Columbia University, Professor Marcus was the keynote speaker at last year’s British Women Writers Conference here at OSU, and is a leading scholar in 19th- and 20th-century literary and cultural studies. Currently she is doing research for a book on the legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt, examining her understanding of celebrity, her skill at combining acting and authorship, and her ability to unite live presence with visual and written representations. Noting that the TRI scrapbooks reveal the passions of ordinary theatregoers, Professor Marcus has so far found within them records of Bernhardt’s many visits to Ohio theatres, as well as insights into the scrapbookers themselves -- an aficionado whose album juxtaposed Bernhardt with several other actresses of her day; a tourist who attended an astounding variety of performances during a season in Europe; and a Philadelphia music teacher who recorded over ten years of theatre attendance.

The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute Visiting Research Fellowship is awarded annually, and is supported through the Jerome Lawrence Endowed Fund.

TRI RADIO INTERVIEW

Curator Nena Couch and Associate Curator Beth Kattelman were recently interviewed on the radio program Writers Talk by Doug Dangler about the treasures of the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute. 

Please follow this link to listen to the broadcast: https://mediamanager.osu.edu/lMFiUNU0a

INTRODUCING TRI'S NEWEST ADDITIONS TO STAFF

Emily S. Davis, MA
Ph. D. Candidate, ABD
Graduate Teaching Associate
The Ohio State University
Department of Theatre

Emily Davis

Emily is currently writing her dissertation on Sidney Kingsley, utilizing the extensive and well-preserved Kingsley Collection at the TRI.  During her tenure here she has curated an exhibit of art and artifacts from the Kingsley Collection and organized a symposium in conjunction with the Department of Theatre's 2010 production of Men in White; she has created several displays for TRI in the Drake Performance and Event Center and she has assisted visiting scholars and students from various disciplines in locating materials of interest for their research.  Emily is currently involved in preparations for a 2012 dance exhibition.

Allison Brogan
Graduate Teaching Associate
Theatre Department

Allison Brogan

Allison Brogan is in the Theatre Master's program (History, Literature, and Criticism). She is an Arts Initiative and TRI Graduate Associate. Allison is also an intern for WOSU Public Media.

Spring 2011

GOOD-BYE KATHLEEN

We said goodbye to Kathleen Koop when she retired this year. Kathleen was the Assistant Curator responsible for the care and handling of most of TRI's artifacts: the many flat artworks consisting of costume drawings/paintings; set designs/paintings; and many of the actual costume materials present in the collection, as well the set models.

JANUARY 2011

INSTITUTE DIRECTOR EMERITUS ALAN WOODS HONORED

Alan Woods accepting the Central Ohio Theater Critics Circle Roy Bowen Award for Lifetime Achievement. Photo by Ann Alaia Woods.

On 30 January 2011, the Central Ohio Theater Critics Circle presented the Roy Bowen Award for Lifetime Achievement to Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute director emeritus Alan Woods, in recognition of the outstanding contributions that he has made to his many students, to developing playwrights, and to researchers over many decades.  The text of the award, presented by Department of Theatre faculty colleague and theatre critic Joy Reilly reads:

 The Central Ohio Theater Critics Circle presents a Roy Bowen Award for Lifetime Achievement to Alan Woods, an Ohio State University professor who stepped down in 2010 as director of OSU's Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute, for his decades of work as a teacher, dramaturge, director, playwright, actor and audio description pioneer; for launching the Eileen Heckart playwriting competition to provide new works for older actors; and for mentoring generations of students who have gone on to work in every realm of theater.

For coverage by Columbus Dispatch critic Michael Grossberg and Joy's remarks, check out Michael's blog at http://blog.dispatch.com/mgrossberg/2011/02/what_central_ohio_theatergoers.shtml#more.

Alan Woods listening to colleague and theatre critic Joy Reilly reading the Roy Bowen Award Citation, with Jay Weitz of Columbus Alive in the background. Photo by Ann Alaia Woods.

"Theatre is the universal means of expression. It embraces all of the arts through which human minds seek to reach one another."
Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee - November, 1986