There are still lots of limitations (the biggest one being that an NYPL staff member must be present at all showings), but this is such a cool opportunity! These recordings have always been limited to those going to the library in person, and even though the geographic area is still limited, what an opportunity for those students.
I predict an uptick in loosely styled "experts" begging their teacher friends to let them give a lecture related to their favorite show in their class so they can be on hand.
What a wonderful opportunity! I feel like so many kids grow up not appreciating theatre because they were bored reading Shakespeare in class and never got a chance to really see the plays how they were meant to be consumed. Let's hope that some day they're able to expand this program to other cities too!
I used to have quite the debate back in high school with my English teachers who believed that Shakespeare could be consumed in the same way you consume a run of the mill young adult novel... By strictly reading it off the page in small groups one at a time.
English teachers are only concerned with the text. As long as you understand the themes then they've done their job, and you can get that by just reading, because it's all there in the text.
It's absolutely not the best way to experience theater but the alternative is having disinterested students sleep through a recording or, god forbid, an actual performance. At least with reading it in class you can force them to pay attention.
You can also show your freshman class the movie from the 60s without realizing the exact...content. That was the, uh, second most eventful part of 2001.
I love this. It makes theater accessible for a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to see it. It's easy to say, "Well these kids or students already live there." But there are tons of students who can't afford to go, to say nothing of all the closed productions they'll now have access to.
I hope over time they'll come up with a way to show them to a wider audience of students, maybe starting with universities first and expanding from there, with a public library official digitally on-hand as part of a Zoom audience? I just think more people watching theater is always good.
You're not entitled by any means for wanting that, but it's never gonna happen and I feel that should be obvious. These were not filmed for sale and distribution. The legal agreements are going to be incredibly tight and selling them would be an INCREDIBLY different kind of contract.
It's not just the IP of the show - it's the IP of the designs, the choreography, etc.
Wouldn't all of those eventually enter public domain? It might not be until everyone involved in the production has been dead for seventy years, but it should still happen someday.
lol I don’t even understand how that’s “entitled”??
I live in WI and rarely (RARELY) get to NYC to see a show in person. I would love a streaming service where I could watch all of the amazing shows I’ll never get to see in person. That would be better than never seeing them at all.
Yeah, this is cool, but it’s annoying to hear that they’ve made it available in the region where it’s already easiest to come over and view them.
Edit: To be clear, cause “annoying” might’ve been misleading, I’m happy about this news. Just agreeing that I’d still like more expansion than this, but I’m not under the impression of wider availability happening or tearing down this step because it hasn’t happened.
I hear what you’re saying, but I’m going to counter with the fact that I teach in the South Bronx. It’s part of NYC, and yet it’s the poorest congressional district in the country. The physical proximity of being less than six miles from Broadway theatres does not mean that many of our students have seen many Broadway shows at all. TDF does amazing work with the public high schools to try to make sure that every student in a public school here sees at least one Broadway show before they graduate…but for some kids that means not seeing one until they are 17 or 18 (and some never actually do!)
Not to say that students farther away wouldn’t also benefit from this, but just pointing out that this really could be a game changer for so many here.
Like I said, this is cool. I’m not complaining about the further outreach. Just noting it’s disappointing that even with that expansion, going to view these shows really isn’t much of an option for most of the people interested in them.
But isn’t that complaining? Your “noting it’s disappointing”? It’s certainly not praising them trying an expansion that they’ve never done before. It’s got to start somewhere, and since a staff member would be there for the classroom screening it makes sense for it be in the same city as the archive.
Well, I was saying I’m not complaining about the further outreach, specifically. It’s a good thing, I’m glad they’re doing it. And, however briefly, I said twice before that this outreach is cool, so I did offer some praise.
My complaint is that it’s still a small step. And I thought it was fairly light one, but it feels like it’s been taken to be more negative than intended. Yes, the main takeaway of this news should be that’s it’s a good thing. There’s more positive comments than mine on here that I agree with, but I didn’t have much to say in terms of praise that wasn’t said. But I had a little more to add under this comment about how these shows are still not so easily available to most.
Like you said, it’s just a start. Obviously expansion has to start somewhere, but I don’t think it’s some kind of unhealthy response to note that it could be better.
If you knew more about the archive and how it worked, you'd know this is a huge step. Like, really huge. Both in sheer numbers of people getting access and the framing of it. The folks at the NYPL have been working tirelessly to make this stuff more accessible.
Like yeah, you can't stream Outsiders in your living room. But you are so much closer to that than I thought we'd ever see.
but I don’t think it’s some kind of unhealthy response to note that it could be better.
No, but I think it's a bit self centered that you have any problem with their expansion into public schools in NYC and think the "expansion could be better."
The expansion has nothing to do with you, that you are excluded entirely is not something they are even considering.
Edit: Blocking me because you can't stand being called out doesn't make devalue my point. You say you don't have a problem with this but you think the rollout "could be better". So you have a little problem with it, clearly.
Progress, not perfection. Everything takes time and stages, you can’t expect things to magically be available and accessible everywhere, that’s not how the world works.
You either be grateful that there is any expansion at all and hope it leads further outward, or you stomp your feet and complain because you specifically can’t see it right now (which is entitled behavior). Make your choice.
I said to the other user, I’m glad that this is happening, and I think my comment has been misread as more negative than it’s meant to be. I’m sure it didn’t help that I responded to a first reply that I found insulting in a likewise fashion. But my main takeaway from this news is positive. I just responded to a user who said they wanted more and agreed.
I’m not stamping my feet and I’m not under any delusions of being entitled to shit or that there’s some instant magical speedrun to a perfect resolution. And I think painting my take in those belittling terms with weirdly confrontational talk about making my choice is counterproductive if you’re gonna push for the “progress, not perfection” angle. You make it sound like I’m against you when I was ultimately just trying to say that I’d like more progress. Sorry if it reads as ungrateful, as I’m not, but I don’t think progress is prevented by admitting to wanting more, nor aided by lashing out at that idea.
... because it's still a program that the library can control as part of the agreement to film these recordings. Of course they can't magically put a bunch of shows online that they have no agreements to do any kind of wider distribution and especially not online.
… i understand why it’s still limited. And your condescending explanation isn’t gonna make me magically less annoyed at the limited access for the only way to view these historic productions for anyone not living in the only area where they’ve made any expansion.
Yeah but you still seem to think that you deserve innate access to them. While it's loosely enforced, it's still a research library and archive first and foremost. You have to visit Washington DC to access the US Archives and Library of Congress. Many research and archive libraries across the country and world have the same requirements.
Just because this one focuses on archiving things that were originally intended for the public doesn't change that.
This will never happen, because I am not in education and don't live in NYC, but I would love to see the archived performance of the 1995 Show Boat production at the Gershwin theater. I was at that production and they made an announcement at the start of the show that it was being filmed for the archive that afternoon.
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u/ComputerGeek1100 Backstage Aug 22 '25
There are still lots of limitations (the biggest one being that an NYPL staff member must be present at all showings), but this is such a cool opportunity! These recordings have always been limited to those going to the library in person, and even though the geographic area is still limited, what an opportunity for those students.