Rita Katz Farrell collection related to dance

The Rita Katz Farrell Collection Related to Dance, spanning the dates 1920 -1993 (bulk dates 1950s - 1993), comprises 13.6 linear feet of newspaper clippings, press kits, printed materials, ephemera, magazines, playbills, programs, invitations, greeting cards, postcards, photographs, advertisements, press releases, and correspondence. The collection, which is housed in 15 boxes, represents the reference and research files that Rita Katz Farrell compiled during her career as a critic, freelance writer, and teacher.

Characteristically, Farrell's files are packed with articles from various publications and programs about ballet performances, dance companies, plays, and other performing arts events and venues. She was a prolific note taker, and folders overflow with handwritten comments and observations that Farrell made at performances. She used that documentation to write articles that were published in local, regional, and national magazines and newspapers. Her notes are found everywhere-on handbills, on programs, on reporter's pads, on tiny notebooks, and on the backs and fronts of press releases. Some of her drafts, interview notes, and published articles are interspersed throughout the folders, but mainly the collection is a resource about dance and theater,especially in Delaware and the greater Delaware Valley. The material is a treasure trove of information about dance and theater in the last half of the twentieth century. Farrell lived in Delaware at the time that she amassed these files. Most of the material is from performing arts centers and theaters on the East Coast. However, the representation of dance companies and performers is national and international.

Farrell's files have articles, printed materials, and her notes about some of the most famous dancers of the twentieth century, including Martha Graham, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bella Lewitzky, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Edward Villella, Eliot Feld, Isadora Duncan, Margot Fonteyn, Jose Limon, Natalie Makarova, Merce Cunningham, Murray Louis, and Anna Sokolow. Additionally, early performances of contemporary and past actors and musicians are documented in the collection. Some of the prominent people include Sam Waterson, Eartha Kitt, Geoffrey Holder, Melba Moore, Gilbert Price, Gilda Radner, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Chapin, Chuck Mangione, Lou Rawls, Marcel Marceau, Mary Martin, Anthony Quayle, Robert Reed, Elizabeth Allen, Lilly Tomlin, Sir Michael Redgrave, Dana Andrews, Howard Duff, Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, and Lana Turner.

In addition, the collection houses materials about highly successful people who were dedicated to the world of dance. For example, Ben Sommers, who became president ofCapezio shoes (the world-famous shoemakers for dancers) in the 1940s, built one of the most celebrated twentieth - century businesses associated with dance (Box 6, Fl64). In 1980 Walter Terry won the 29th Capezio Dance Award. Terry directed Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1973 and was a dance critic for the Saturday Review (Box 6, Fl 77).

One of the features of this collection is its handbills and playbills from performances that were previewed at the Playhouse Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware. This theatre was frequently the pre-Broadway stop for musicals and plays, and in the beginning of the twenty-first century continues to have six Broadway shows a year.

Other printed materials are from traditional performing arts centers and theaters, as well as colleges and universities (such as the University of Delaware and Wesley College in Delaware). The collection has playbills and programs from such noted films and plays as "Agnes of God," "Evita," "Sweeney Todd," ''Barnum," "A Chorus Line," "The Pirates of Penzance," "A Little Night Music," ''Bubbling Brown Sugar," ''Fiddler on the Root;" ''Nijinsky," and "The Turning Point."

The collection is arranged in five series: I. Biographical Materials, II. Dance, III. Performing Arts and Other Topics, IV. Playbills and Souvenir Programs, and V. Additional Printed Materials. Folders are alphabetical by title, closely following the original order of the material as received from Farrell. A typical folder has newspaper clippings, press releases, correspondence, photographs, and printed materials such as handbills and playbills. The collection has extensive news clippings, a variety of ephemera, and a considerable amount of playbills, press kits, and programs.

There are numerous photographs in the collection. When a photograph is housed in a folder, "p" is listed after the folder title in the finding aid. Many of the photographs were used for publicity and were sent to Farrell in press kits.

Series I has several versions of Farrell's biographical sketches and resumes (Box 1, Fl). The folder also has a three-page outline about the critic's job, which she defined as "one who engages, often professionally, in the analysis, evaluation, or appreciation of works of art" (Box 1, F 1).

Series II consists of extensive resource materials on dance from the 1940s - 1990s (Box 1- Box 9). It contains alphabetical files that cover such topics as criticism, dance companies, dancers, style of dance, film, television, teaching, education, arts councils, arts associations, and regional resources. Within this series are many files about various dance companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Danceteller, Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. In this series are thirty-five folders with press kits about dance companies as well as twenty folders of press clippings. Even though there are two separate subseries for the news clippings (II. C.) and press kits (11. B.), such material can be found within other folders throughout the collection.

Series ill . Performing Arts and Other Topics is arranged alphabetically by theater or topic (Box 10). Most of the folders have materials that relate to the performing arts scene in Delaware, especially New Castle County, the northern part of the state. The information centers on performances at The Playhouse and the Grand Opera House, which are located in Wilmington, Delaware. There are references to other concerts, musicals, and plays performed in Delaware and up and down the East Coast from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts. This series also houses documents about the arts-locally and nationally-including topics such as exhibitions, funding, and notes for potential stories.

Series IV contains 208 playbills and souvenir programs from performances seen at theaters on the East Coast (Boxes 11 - 12). The bulk of the materials is from Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Additional printed material is housed in Series V (Box 13 - 15). Dance-related publications are the majority of the printed materials. Examples are Ballet Review, Dance Life, Dance Scope, EDDY, About Dance, and On Point. Also in the collection are eight issues of the weekly show business publication Variety (1980 - 1987). Furthermore Farrell accumulated two dozen historic programs from 1920s- 1960s. They include materials on such noted dance companies as The Azuma Kabuki Dancers and Musicians, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, The Ballet Theatre, Jose Greco and his Company of Spanish Dancers, and Sadler Wells Ballet. The remainder of the series is two volumes of the Performing Arts Directory from 1987 and 1988.

Scattered throughout the collection are examples ofFarrell's drafts and published articles. For instance, there is a 1969 article with her byline that appeared in the Evening Journal's column "But for Them ... " titled "Bell, Jamieson Light a Candle" (Box 1, F3). An incomplete draft of a piece about the ballet dancer Leslie Browne, who gained instant fame in the film "The Turning Point," is housed in Box 5, Fl 48. A three-page article titled "Philadelphia Dance" appeared June 1982 in Ballet News (Box 5, Fl51). On October 3, 1976 an article by Farrell entitled "From 'Oh! Calcutta!' to the ballet" was published (Box 8, F24). Other drafts and published pieces can be found ( e.g., Box 9, F13; Box 11, F38; Box 11, F39, but the collection as a whole is not a comprehensive record of Farrell's work as a critic and journalist.