Tartuffe: A Hypocritical Holy Man

Authored by Kelly Blabolil

Covers of programs of production for Tartuffe that were found in a folder of the William Harris papers at Marymount Manhattan College.

Tartuffe by Molière was originally written in French and first performed on May 12, 1664. It was performed at Palace of Versailles in France. Being that it was Molière’s most famous theatrical comedy, it was adapted and performed all over the world throughout the last four centuries. 

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Androcles and the Lion: How Theater Made an Identity for the Deaf

Authored by Kylie Feiring

Androcles and the Lion program
Marymount Manhattan College and St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf, Androcles and the Lion, 1971, Marymount Manhattan College, Collection #009, Box 2.

In 1971, Marymount Manhattan College and the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf united forces to present “Androcles and the Lion,” written by Aurand Harris and adapted by Dorothy Dodd. Harris’ plays for children are remarkable, as he had a deep and real understanding of children’s interests and concerns, what they find funny, and what they find important (McCaslin 1984, 115).

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Marcel Marceau-William Harris Papers

Authored by Joann M White

Playbill featuring Marcel Marceau from the William Harris Papers

Playbill featuring Marcel Marceau from the William Harris Papers

The William B. Harris Papers are a collection of theater ephemera collected over a period of 30 years. After graduating from college William Harris moved to New York to become a writer. He would eventually be the theater editor for SoHo Weekly News and managing editor of Theatre Crafts Magazine. In the process of doing this work he would accumulate his theater collection. Mr. Harris would die of a massive coronary at the age of 49 on July 27, 2000. His brother John would donate the collection to Marymount Manhattan College, which has a dance and theater program.

 Mr. Harris’s papers are divided into eight separate genres; three are not in the archives at Marymount Manhattan College. The remaining five include unpublished scripts, photographs, posters, one videocassette and the largest part of the collection is in series #2. Series #2 contains 4,450 folders primarily newspaper clipping of reviews, playbills, photographs, postcards, advertisements for performances, as well as personal correspondence. This playbill from 1958 of Marcel Marceau is part of the collection. Continue reading

William B. Harris Papers Collection

Authored by Emma Kelly

Peter Pan Playbill

Playbill for a production of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” from the William Harris Papers.

William B. Harris collected this playbill, along with many other theater-related items.  The collection is titled “The William Harris Papers,” and is located at Marymount Manhattan College in their library’s archives.  “This collection has been completely processed and consists of 96 scripts, 4,450 folders of clippings and a collection of photographs gathered by Mr. Harris during the decades of the 1960s to the 1990s, to support his work as a critic of avant-garde theater and dance in downtown Manhattan.”[1]  The collection is alphabetically organized within eight genres, (unpublished scripts, clippings, a videocassette, photographs, books, ephemera, periodicals, and recordings) three of which are not preserved in the archives, and are titled as Series 1-8.[2]

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