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Collection Data
- Description
- Isaiah Sheffer (1935-2012) was a creative force in the New York theatre scene for many years. He co-founded Symphony Space in New York City and served as the organization's artistic director until 2010 and founding artistic director thereafter. His papers range from writings, scripts, scores, professional correspondence, and other production-related materials to administrative records concerning his work at Symphony Space.
- Names
- Sheffer, Isaiah (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1891 - 2013
- Library locations
- Billy Rose Theatre Division
- Shelf locator: *T-Mss 2014-186
- Topics
- Bentley, Eric, 1916-
- Symphony Space (Firm)
- Actors
- Arts administrators
- Directors
- Producers and directors
- Writers
- Arts administrators -- New York (State)
- Concerts -- Production and direction
- Off Off-Broadway theater
- Political plays
- Radio programs
- Short stories
- Theater -- New York (State) -- New York
- Theater -- Production and direction -- United States
- Genres
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Programs
- Scores
- scripts (documents)
- Sound recordings
- Video recordings
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Isaiah Sheffer was born in 1935 into a theatrical family in the Bronx, New York. His mother and his uncle, Zvee Scooler, both performed in New York's Yiddish theatre. Isaiah Sheffer had already begun performing in Yiddish theatre by the time he was a teenager, appearing at such theatres as the Henry Street Playhouse on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and on the radio. He studied theater at both Brooklyn College, where he got his bachelor's degree in 1956, and at Michigan State University, where he earned his master's degree in 1958.
Sheffer continued acting as an adult, performing in summer stock and in New York. Although he would continue to perform throughout his career, he shifted his focus to writing, directing, and producing Off-Broadway plays. In 1963, he wrote and directed The Theatre of Peretz, an adaptation of the stories of I. L. Peretz, at the Gate Theatre. In 1965 he directed Eric Bentley's adaptation of Brecht's The Exception and the Rule and Langston Hughes' The Prodigal Son at the Greenwich Mews Theatre.
Sheffer's best known writings are two Off-Broadway musicals for which he wrote the book and lyrics: The Rise of David Levinsky, a collaboration with composer Bobby Paul, which was produced at the John Houseman Theater in 1987; and Yiddle with a Fiddle, written with composer Abraham Ellstein, which was produced at the American Jewish Theatre in 1997. Sheffer's other plays and musicals include Columbus Circle, Dreamers and Demons: The Three Worlds of Isaac Bashevis Singer, It's Hard to Be a Jew, The Last Chapter, and The Sheik of Avenue B. In 1978, Sheffer and his friend and neighbor Allan Miller co-founded an Upper West Side cultural institution: Symphony Space. Sheffer's wife, urban planner and community leader Ethel Sheffer, had suggested a venue at 95th Street and Broadway, a dilapidated building that had once housed a public market, an ice skating rink, a boxing arena and a movie theatre. They launched the new organization with Wall-to-Wall Bach, the first of many free twelve-hour music marathons that would become a signature event, covering the works of composers from all musical genres, including classical, jazz, musical theatre, pop, and rock.
In 1981, Sheffer launched another signature event at Symphony Space, Bloomsday on Broadway. This annual reading of James Joyce's Ulysses takes place on June 16th, the day in 1904 on which the action of the novel takes place. More than 100 actors and other notables take part in readings that last seven hours or more. The format of Bloomsday on Broadway inspired Sheffer and Kay Cattarulla, the producer of Literary Programs, to create Selected Shorts. Since its launch in 1985, Selected Shorts has been a popular weekly series of readings of short stories by a variety of actors and actresses. The event takes place live at Symphony Space and is broadcast on over 130 radio stations across the country, and via a popular podcast. Selected Shorts also went on several tours, performing in other cities in the United States. Sheffer served as the host of Selected Shorts, and often read a story himself.
Sheffer's interest in politics inspired him to produce his first political cabaret in 1968, The DMZ, a collaboration with Sheffer's Columbia University colleague, the critic and Brecht scholar, Eric Bentley. In the years that followed, Sheffer conceived and directed cabarets that poked fun at contemporary urban life: Urban Blight (1970) and Late City Edition (1981). He contributed material to Yale Repertory Theatre's political revue, Watergate Classics (1973). Sheffer continued this trend at Symphony Space, with the Thalia Follies, an annual political cabaret, produced from 2004 to 2013.
Isaiah Sheffer served as the artistic director of Symphony Space until 2010 and founding artistic director until his death. He also taught Theatre Arts at Columbia University's School of the Arts during the 1960s and 1970s. Sheffer was married to Ethel Shatunoff, from 1956 until his death. They had one daughter, Susannah Sheffer. Isaiah Sheffer died of a stroke on November 9, 2012.
- Content: The Isaiah Sheffer papers (1891-2013, bulk dates: 1937-2012) consist of professional files created during his career as a writer, director, producer, actor, and administrator at Symphony Space. Although the collection has been arranged in four series, there is considerable overlap among the files. The chronological files have the broadest scope since they span all aspects of his career. The files contain professional correspondence with colleagues and collaborators, administrative files concerning his work as artistic director of Symphony Space, and production materials. Sheffer's work as a writer, producer, and director is most evident in the Productions series which primarily contains scripts and scores from his plays and musicals. Symphony Space Office Files document the day-to-day running of a non-profit arts organization and contain mainly administrative files, such as publicity material for events held there, meeting minutes, and financial records. Within the small amount of personal files, there is family correspondence, photographs, early academic records, and writings.
- Support for the processing of this collection was generously provided by Gina Boonshoft.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 27.9 linear feet 70 boxes, 1 oversized folder, 2 tubes 483.9 mb (1943 computer files)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: *T-Mss 2014-186
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20758453
- MSS Unit ID: 23016
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 725d3240-dca9-0133-7641-00505686d14e
