FREE online lecture - The Federal Theatre Project

The Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress announces the 63rd presentation in the Topics in Preservation Series (TOPS): "The Federal Theatre Project: Uncovering Changes in Playscripts of Popular Performances" Pickford Theater, Madison Building, 3rd floor Library of Congress 101 Independence Avenue SE Washington DC 20540 Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:00-3:30 p.m. Amy Brady will discuss the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), America's first and only nationally subsidized theater, and how hyperspectral imaging helped to elucidate the history of some of the FTP's most popular performances. With the support of a CLIR/Mellon fellowship, Amy Brady, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, spent nine months researching in the FTP archive at the Library of Congress. This archive houses more than 500,000 pieces of Federal Theatre-related ephemera, including playscripts that were marked up by directors and other FTP personnel. These markings have faded over time or were intentionally erased, but some of them were recovered via the Library's hyperspectral imaging unit housed in the Preservation and Testing Division. The recovery of these markings allows Amy and future scholars to learn more about the scripts' evolution from creation to final performance. Amy Brady is an instructor at Kean University and a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is completing a dissertation that combines textual analyses and performance reconstruction of plays performed for and written by the Federal Theatre Project. Much of her dissertation data was gathered at the Library of Congress thanks to a generous CLIR/Library of Congress Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources. Webcast opportunity: If you would like to participate via webcast, send email to mwilson@loc.gov no less than three days in advance of the event. Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-1076 or ADA@loc.gov. The Topics in Preservation Series lectures are free and open to the public. The next TOPS lecture, on November 19, 2012, will feature Father Justin, the librarian of St. Catherine's Monastery, and Michael B. Toth, the Sinai Palimpsest Project Program Manager, discussing how advanced spectral imaging is revealing ancient texts in the remote library of a Greek Orthodox monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert. For further details and updated information about the series, please visit Fenella G. France PhD, MBA, FAIC Chief, Preservation Research and Testing Division Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave SE Washington DC, 20540-4560 Tel: (202) 707-5525 Fax: (202) 707-1525 email: frfr@loc.gov