The League of Professional Theatre Women will celebrate the legacy of Betty Corwin with a Special Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the American theatre next month. Corwin is the founder and former director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, a program which has preserved generations of live theatre.
The LPTW event will take place at Sardi’s in New York City November 8.
After working as a production assistant and script reader for theatrical producers, Corwin first proposed the idea of a theatrical recordings archive to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1969. TOFT was founded the following year.
Since 1970, TOFT has worked with Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre productions to preserve performances and document the contributions of artists in the theatre. The recordings are available to theatre professionals, students, or researchers, and viewed in NYPL’s screening room.
Corwin is the recipient of a 2001 Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Special Award (1996), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Broadway Theatre Institute (1996), a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of New York (1993), an Obie Award (1993), awards from the Drama Desk (1988), Women in Communications (1984), the Villager (1982), and a Westport, Connecticut Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement (2001).
A list of available TOFT titles can be found online here. Advance appointments can be made by calling (212) 870-1642.
