New York, New York – June 20, 2007 – “Showboat ‘Round the Bend!” is a one- of-a-kind exhibition about the American Showboat. The exhibition was created by The Theatre Museum  and Waterfront Museum. There will be a special summer reception on July 26, 2007 with refreshments and entertainment from 5:30-7:30 p.m. aboard the historic Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 

The exhibition, curated by Mary Hasbritt and Virginia Willets, explores the origin and development of the American Showboat on New York waterways and those across the country.  Showboats began bringing settlers entertainment in 1831. In the 19^th and into the 20^th century, these riverboats and their performers were for many their only source of entertainment -- from vaudeville to drama to moving pictures.

A grand Showboat Weekend will be held on October 20 - 21, featuring a panel of experts, including scholars, former showboat operators and family members, discussing life on the showboat, music and entertainment presented there, and the reality vs. representations of showboats.  Performances of vintage showboat entertainment, from vaudeville to calliope, under the artistic direction of vaudevillian Travis Stewart (a/k/a Trav S.D.), will be presented.

The exhibition will be on view through December 20 2007, and during the Waterfront Museum’s CIRCUS Sundays in June and SUNSET MUSIC SERIES in July.  Public viewing hours are Thursdays from 4 - 8 p.m.  Admission is free and donations are requested.  Directions to the museum may be obtained from http://waterfrontmuseum.org/gallery/2007/press.html.

The exhibition is sponsored in part by NY Council for the Humanities, Abraham & Lillian Rosenberg Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Hudson Scenic Studios, Walton Hauling and Warehouse Corp., Framerunner and the MetLife Volunteer Ventures Program.  Special thanks to Greg O’Connell.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony.  Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming. 

The Waterfront Museum was founded in 1986 to provide waterfront access and affordable programs in education and the arts aboard a historic vessel.  The Museum is housed aboard the only wooden barge of the “Lighterage era.” (1860-1960) and is still floating in America – which has earned it a listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

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New York, New York - May 9, 2007 - "Showboat 'Round the Bend!," an exhibition to be shown at the Waterfront Museum, will grace the deckhouse of the historic Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge for its 2007 season. Opening June 2, from noon to 6 p.m., the exhibition will depict the history and development of the showboat as an indigenous and popular form of entertainment - both along our nation's rivers and within New York harbor.

On the frontier of the 19th century, many settlers got all they needed from boats coming to their towns' river landings. Through the 20th century, showboats brought people in small river towns their entertainment, from vaudeville to drama to moving pictures. The exhibition, curated by Mary Hasbritt and Virginia Wiles, features informative panels, video clips, oral histories and two painted drop curtains donated by Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Hudson Scenic Studio. Opening day performances will be presented under the artistic direction of Travis Stewart (a/k/a Trav S.D.).

On October 20 - 21, a grand Showboat Weekend will bring history to life in a discussion by a panel of experts, including scholars, former showboat operators and family members. Performances of vintage showboat entertainment, from vaudeville to calliope, under the artistic direction of Travis Stewart, will be presented.

The exhibition will be on view from June through December 2007 and during the Waterfront Museum's CIRCUS Sundays in June and SUNSET MUSIC SERIES in July. Public viewing hours are Thursdays from 4 - 8 p.m. and admission is free, but donations are requested. Transportation may be obtained from http://waterfrontmuseum.org/gallery/2007/press.html . School and group tours are by appointment.

The exhibition is sponsored in part by NY Council for the Humanities, Abraham & Lillian Rosenberg Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Hudson Scenic Studios and the MetLife Volunteer Ventures Program.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

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New York, New York - April 18, 2007 - Tony Award winner Jim Dale has joined The Theatre Museum Advisory Committee, a group of professionals who provide advice in areas of expertise, assist with projects and lend their names to organizational endeavors. He joins fellow Broadway performers Theodore Bikel, Tovah Feldshuh and Jamie deRoy.

Mr. Dale will also once again serve as master of ceremonies for the Awards for Excellence Gala, at which The Theatre Museum honors individuals and organizations that have made special contributions in the areas of theatre arts educations and theatre history preservation. Mr. Dale was master of ceremonies for the 2006 Awards for Excellence Ceremony. This year's gala will be held on October 29, 2007, at the Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel in Times Square.

Jim Dale has had a varied career with auspicious beginnings. He was the youngest comedian in the British Music Halls at age seventeen-and-a-half. He was a successful pop singer under the wing of Sir George Martin, producer of the Beatles' records. And he joined the British National Theatre as a leading actor in 1970 at the request of Sir Lawrence Olivier.

Mr. Dale's work on and off-Broadway includes Three Penny Opera, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Candide and Address Unknown. In addition to his Tony Award for Barnum, he has won five Tony Nominations, four Drama Desk Awards, four New York Critics Awards and the Lucille Lortel Award.

To millions of children, Jim Dale is the voice of Harry Potter, having recorded all six books in the series. As a result, he holds two Guinness Book of World Records - "Occupying the first six places in America's top ten Audio Books 2005" and "Creating a total of 134 different character voices for one audio book, Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix."

On The Theatre Museum Advisory Committee, Mr. Dale also joins designers William Ivey Long and Jeff Davis, directors Scott Ellis, Linda Masson-Kingsley, Ph.D. and Michael Kantor, producers Rocco Landesman and Bonnie Comley, stagehand John Lofgren, education consultants Linda B. Leff, Flora E.S, Kaplan Ph.D., and Louis Rachow, journalist Sherry Eaker, non-profit advisor Ted Berger, and attorneys Richard F. Bernstein, Andrew Levy and Tracy Reilly.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

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New York, New York - April 11, 2007 - MetLife Foundation has awarded The Theatre Museum a Volunteer Ventures grant in support of a project proposed by Mike Paleos, a MetLife employee who volunteers with The Theatre Museum. The grant will help support public programming to accompany the exhibition Showboat Round the Bend, being presented in collaboration with the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn, from June 2 through December, 2007.

Using video, oral history and live performance on a historic barge, the exhibition presents the history and development of the American showboat, adapted barges that brought theatre - comedy, melodrama, song and dance and vaudeville - to people along rivers throughout the country. The grant will be used to underwrite the cost of printing a brochure and educational materials for distribution.

The Volunteer Venture Program encourages and supports local employee involvement in nonprofit organizations that work to improve quality of life. Grants are made for specific projects in which employees have continuing involvement as volunteers.

Mike Paleos has volunteered with The Theatre Museum and its predecessor, Broadway Theatre Institute, for 15 years. At The Theatre Museum, he helps promote the arts in education and theatre preservation initiatives, recruit volunteers and fundraise. He also works on the annual awards ceremony, which honors excellence in theatre arts education and theatre history preservation, by nominating potential awardees and selling tickets and tables for the event.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

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New York, New York - March 21, 2007 -The Theatre Museum will hold its 2007 Awards For Excellence Gala on October 29, 2007. This year's festivities will include awards for excellence in theatre history preservation and in theatre arts education, entertainment by Broadway stars, cocktails, dinner, a silent auction and a keepsake journal.

At the 2006 event, held in the Hudson Theater at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, Master of Ceremonies Jim Dale entertained the audience with a wonderful rendition of four historical music hall jokes. Ventriloquist Jay Johnson performed segments from his Broadway show, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only, and Broadway actors from The Wedding Singer and the Off-Broadway show, Her Song, also delighted those attending. At the 2005 event, Gerald Schoenfeld, Kitty Carlyle Hart and David Hyde Pierce presented awards to honorees including Ten Chimneys Foundation for preserving the summer home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and the Millenium Broadway Hotel for restoring the Hudson Theater.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

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New York, New York - February 20, 2007 -The Theatre Museum and the Municipal Art Society will present a walking tour of Broadway theatres that spans the 20th century and traces theatres being constructed and stage moments as they were made. The tour will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, 2007, beginning at the New Victory Theatre on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

The walking tour is part of The Theatre Museum's inaugural exhibition, Times Square Theatres: A New Century/ A New Style, on view at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue near 51st Street. The tour costs $15 per person ($12 for MAS members). No reservations are required.

According to Urban Historian and Tour Guide Timothy White, "When Times Square was christened as the new theatre district in the early 20th century, architects abandoned Victorian traditions for a new Renaissance style. As the century progressed, architects changed design details, such as the number of balconies and boxes, to keep up with changing Broadway audiences. After WWII, a new generation of high-tech theatres arrived in Times Square, while older houses faced demolition or survived through preservation. The tour will follow these trends through the 20th century, with stops at the New Victory, New Amsterdam, Hudson, Lyceum, Shubert, Booth, Marriott Marquis and Palace Theatres."

The exhibition, which will run through March 7, 2007, focuses on the architectural trends in 20th century Broadway theatres. It displays these trends with 8-foot panels presenting photographs, architectural plans, artifacts from some of the 13 theatres highlighted and historical data. Many of these panels demonstrate the transformation theatres went through during this time period.

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New York, New York - February 6, 2007 - The Nederlander Organization has joined the sponsors of The Theatre Museum's inaugural exhibition, Times Square Theatres: A New Century/A New Style. The exhibition runs through March 7, 2007, at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue near 51st Street in New York City.

The Nederlander Organization owns and/or operates 6 Broadway theatres, 17 theatres nationwide and 3 theatres in London. It presents musicians such as Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and U2 and books, co-produces or produces theatrical productions, most recently including Wicked, Disney's Tarzan and Disney's The Lion King. The Nederlander Organization presents the Bolshoi Ballet, The Peking Opera and Ballet Folklorico, among others.

The exhibition focuses on architectural trends in 20th century Broadway theatres. Showcasing 13 theatres, it begins at the turn of the century, when the New Amsterdam Theatre brought the rare Art Nouveau style to the emerging district, and travels to the 1930s when Renaissance style was highly popular. It then registers Broadway's reaction to the movie industry, in things like planning techniques and the evocative romantic themes inspired by movie palaces. The exhibition notes the hiatus caused by the Depression as well as World War II and explores the new Broadway, where modern design and technology merged with a changing audience. It then proceeds toward the future, when historic restoration and cutting-edge creativity will co-exist for Times Square theatres.

Sponsors of the exhibition include Jujamcyn Theaters, Millennium Broadway Hotel, New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, New York Marriott Marquis, The 42nd Street Fund, The Times Square Alliance, New Amsterdam Theatre and The Rockefeller Group. This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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New York, New York - February 5, 2007 - The Theatre Museum is holding a lecture on the architectural history of New York theatres, including Times Square, as part of its inaugural exhibition, "Times Square Theatres: A New Century/A New Style."

The lecture, "Another Op'nin', Another Theatre - Broadway's Evolution," will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue near 51st Street in New York City. A reception will follow.

Exhibition curator Craig Morrison will speak about the changing 20th century theatre audience from male, working class, to families, to those remaining as radio and television took over popular entertainment, and beyond. The lecture will speak to "how the architectural form has evolved to suit these changing audiences," he said. Mr. Morrison is a theatre restoration architect, historian and author of Theatres, a recent Library of Congress book about theatres in America since the country's founding.

The exhibition, which will run through March 7, 2007, focuses on the architectural trends in 20th Century Broadway theatres. It displays these trends with 8-foot panels presenting photographs, architectural plans, artifacts from some of the 13 theatres highlighted and historical data. These panels demonstrate the transformation many of these theatres went through during the 20th century.

Those sponsoring the exhibition include Jujamcyn Theaters, Millennium Broadway Hotel Nederland Organization, New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, New York Marriott Marquis, The 42nd Street Fund, The Times Square Alliance, New Amsterdam Theatre and The Rockefeller Group. This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

The Municipal Art Society of New York is a private, non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote a more livable city. Since 1893, the MAS has worked to enrich the culture, neighborhoods and physical design of New York City. It advocates for excellence in urban design and planning, contemporary architecture, historic preservation and public art.

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New York, New York - January 29, 2007 - The Theatre Museum received a grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, half of which is helping to fund Times Square Theatres: A New Century/A New Style, an exhibition focusing on the architectural trends in 20th century Broadway theatres. The exhibition runs through March 7, 2007, at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue near 51st Street in New York City.

The other sponsors of this exhibition are The 42nd Street Fund, The Times Square Alliance, New Amsterdam Theatre, Jujamcyn Theaters, New York Marriott Marquis, Millennium Broadway Hotel, The Rockefeller Group and New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This exhibition, a display of 8-foot panels covered with photographs, architectural plans, theatre history and artifacts from some of the 13 theatres highlighted, explores the changing architectural styles of Broadway theatres from the time the Broadway theatre district emerged.

A portion of this grant will help to defray the cost of identifying, cataloguing and storing The Theatre Museum's archive of 35,000 photographs from In Theatre Magazine donated by Basil Hero, a board member.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large presenting exhibitions in collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Awards for Excellence ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

The Municipal Art Society of New York is a private, non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote a more livable city. Since 1893, the MAS has worked to enrich the culture, neighborhoods and physical design of New York City. It advocates for excellence in urban design and planning, contemporary architecture, historic preservation and public art.

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