Portrait of the Theatre

When I discovered this book shortly after it came out in the early 1980's I was thrillled. I was MORE than thrilled. I knew then that I had a treasure in my possession...the kind of special treasure which can only increase in value through the years. What IS this book? This is NOT a book very many will be crazy about. Not at all. It is a photography book---black and white photographs---portraits to be exact. Of who? Theatre people. Anyone and everyone who had anything to do with theatre in New York City during the 1970's...actually, with the Public Theatre of New York...the wonderful theatre founded by that theatre giant, Joseph Papp. Many of these represented here were just starting out in their careers, and are now well known in the entertainment industry, such as Barry Bostwick, Maureen Stapleton, Swoozie Kurtz, Meryl Streep, Stacy Keach, Neil Simon, John Lithgow, Sam Waterston, James Earl Jones, and others. Many well known individuals here sadly have since passed away too, such as Joseph Papp, Yul Brynner, Jessica Tandy, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Colleen Dewhurst, Raul Julia, Bob Fosse, Jason Robards, Robert Shaw, Tennessee Williams, Henry Fonda, Zero Mostel, Robert Preston, and others. There are approximately 125 portraits here, and at the back of the book, a brief biographical piece about each person and their career. By the way, though these are "portraits," they are not your usual studio "posed" portraits. Each person is naturally represented here. Again, this book is not for everyone. Not even all theatre lovers will delight in this book, because if they are YOUNG theatre lovers, they may very well not even be familiar with many of these who are represented here, so would not be interested in this book at all. But IF you ARE a theatre lover, and you ARE aware of WHO all the people are in these portraits, and you love black and white photography, you WILL THOROUGHLY DELIGHT IN THIS BOOK. Why, I think you may even come to cherish it as much as I do.