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George C. Wolfe papers
George C. Wolfe papers
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Collection Data
- Description
- George C. Wolfe is a Tony Award-winning director and playwright, who also served as the artistic director of New York City's Public Theater from 1993 until the 2004-2005 season. The George C. Wolfe papers, dated 1915 to 2022 (bulk dates 1962-2022), chronicle Wolfe's career through correspondence, photographs, scripts, moving image and audio recordings, programs, promotional materials, designs, and ephemera.
- Names
- Wolfe, George C. (Creator)
- Eisenhauer, Peggy (Contributor)
- Fisher, Jules (Contributor)
- Kushner, Tony (Contributor)
- Wagner, Robin, 1933- (Contributor)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1915 - 2022
- Library locations
- Billy Rose Theatre Division
- Shelf locator: *T-Mss 2022-005
- Topics
- Joseph Papp Public Theatre (Organization : New York, N.Y.)
- African American gay men
- African American motion picture producers and directors
- African American theatrical producers and directors
- African Americans in musical theater
- Gay dramatists
- Musical theater -- New York (State) -- New York
- Off-Broadway theater
- Scores
- Theater -- Production and direction -- United States
- Theater management -- New York (State) -- New York
- Broadway (New York, N.Y.)
- Genres
- Personal correspondence
- Photographs
- Posters
- Programs (Publications)
- Sound recordings
- Video recordings
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: George Costello Wolfe (born September 23, 1954) is a Tony Award-winning Black American playwright, director, and producer of theater and film. Wolfe was born in the then-segregated town of Frankfort, Kentucky, the son of a government clerk and a teacher. Prior to integration he attended an all-Black Rosenwald project school where his mother taught. It was at Frankfort High School where he developed his interest in drama, founding the school's drama club in 1971. He briefly attended Kentucky State University, a historically Black college, and transferred after a year to Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he received a Bachelor's degree in theater. Wolfe then taught for several years in Los Angeles at the Inner City Cultural Center before settling in New York City. In 1983, he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in dramatic writing and musical theater from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts The material Wolfe was drawn to often reflected his interests and experiences as a Black American and a gay man. His first theatrical success, the Off-Broadway production The Colored Museum (1986), was a satirical look at Black American culture that generated both controversy and praise, and was eventually aired as part of PBS' Great Performances. In 1990, Wolfe won an Obie Award for Best Director for his play Spunk, an adaptation of three stories by Zora Neale Hurston. Wolfe's first Broadway success came in 1992, with the musical Jelly's Last Jam, about the life and career of Jelly Roll Morton; Wolfe wrote the book and directed it. This production received eleven Tony nominations, winning three, and Wolfe also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. In 1993, Wolfe directed both parts of the Broadway debut of Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika and in doing so, Wolfe became the first Black director to direct a white playwright's work on Broadway. He won his first Tony Award, for Best Director of a Play, for Millennium Approaches in 1993. In 1996, Wolfe wrote and directed Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, a musical overview of Black history told through tap dance. The production was a massive success, leading to national praise, and was featured at the 1997 presidential inaugural gala. Wolfe won his second Tony Award for this production, for Best Director of a Musical. From 1993 to 2004, Wolfe served as artistic director and producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, where Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk first premiered before moving to Broadway. His connection to the Public Theater started with The Colored Museum, where Wolfe had been made the Theater's resident director by Joseph Papp in 1990. Wolfe continued to write and direct. He directed the Public's revival of On The Town (1998), which later transferred to Broadway; wrote the book and directed Michael John LaChiusa's adaptation of The Wild Party (2000); directed Elaine Strich's one-woman show Elaine Stritch At Liberty (2001), for which he won his third Tony Award; directed Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog (2001); and directed Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's Caroline, or Change (2003). Wolfe suffered kidney failure in the 1990s and during the production of On the Town he received a kidney transplant; the organ was donated by his brother. After the 2004-2005 season Wolfe left the Public Theater, intending to move toward film direction. His first film, Lackawanna Blues, aired on HBO in 2005. Other films Wolfe directed include the theatrical releases Nights in Rodanthe (2008) and You're Not You (2014). In 2017 he directed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for HBO, and followed it with two Netflix productions: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) about the blues singer, and Rustin (2023), about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Wolfe also has some acting credits, including cameo appearances in the films Garden State (2004) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as well as the television adaptation of She's Gotta Have It (2017-2019). He directed two Broadway fundraisers for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, as well as A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House, a 2010 revue that was performed live at the White House and aired on PBS. Wolfe did return to the theater, co-directing with Joel Grey the 2011 Broadway premiere of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart. In 2013, Wolfe directed Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, starring Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut. Wolfe both directed and wrote the book for Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016), based on the Harlem Renaissance musical revue. He directed the 2018 Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, starring Denzel Washington; and directed Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus(2019), starring Nathan Lane. During his career, Wolfe has received a total of twenty-three Tony Awards nominations. In 1995, the New York Landmarks Conservancy named him a "living landmark." In 2009 Wolfe became Artistic Director of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia and designed their permanent gallery dedicated to the American Civil Rights Movement. In 2013, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2021 he received a PEN/Mike Nichols Writing For Performance Award. Wolfe served on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama, until 2017 when the entire committee resigned in protest of President Donald Trump's remarks concerning the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Wolfe continues to live and work in New York City.
- Content: The George C. Wolfe papers, dated 1915 to 2022 (bulk dates 1962-2022), cover the whole of Wolfe's artistic career, from his college-era work to 2023. The majority of the content in this collection is dedicated to theatrical and film productions that Wolfe wrote, directed, and/or produced. For Wolfe's major works, often the whole life-span of the production, from casting to awards, is covered. Production materials include correspondence, audition evaluations, scripts (often with Wolfe's notes and edits), professional and candid photographs, designs, programs, press and promotional items, notes, opening night gifts, awards and award ceremony materials, and audio and moving image recordings. Programs, posters, and photographs are often signed by cast members. Clapperboards and the canvas backings of director's chairs are often found in the materials from films. Of Wolfe's productions, The Colored Museum; Jelly's Last Jam; Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk; and Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed are the most well-represented. Productions that were staged at the Public Theater during Wolfe's tenure, but that he did not direct or write, are also included. Productions that Wolfe appeared in or attended are represented by programs, posters, invitations, and promotional items. Materials related to unproduced productions include correspondence, research materials, scripts, and a recorded read-through of an unproduced musical. Wolfe's roles at the Public Theater, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities are represented through correspondence, posters, notes, photographs, and press. Of note, the Public Theater materials include filmed footage from Wolfe's farewell party and recorded interviews he did with Merle Debuskey and Peggy Papp. Wolfe's gallery designs for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights are present, as are numerous items from White House events. Wolfe received many awards and honors that were based on the whole of his career, not limited to one production. These physical awards are present, as are supporting items such as programs, press, and recordings. Wolfe also engaged in numerous speaking engagements, such as lectures, and was often invited to give remarks at events that honored others. Programs for these events, as well as recordings, can be found in the collection. Finally, a small amount of personal material is present. Given Wolfe's high-profile work in American theater during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, his collection features numerous prominent theatrical figures. This is reflected in Wolfe's correspondence, which often takes the form of congratulations from directors, actors, and writers. Wolfe's frequent collaborators included choreographer Savion Glover; playwrights Thulani Davis, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Tony Kushner, and Suzan-Lori Parks; lighting designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer; set designer Robin Wagner; and actors Keith David, Danitra Vance, and Jeffrey Wright, all of whom are represented in the collection.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 30.77 linear feet (75 boxes, 7 tubes, 2 oversize folders). 83 audio recordings. 53 video recordings. 675.3 megabytes (530 computer files)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: *T-Mss 2022-005
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b23488300
- MSS Unit ID: 186269
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 79ab36a0-0941-013e-0da2-0242ac110003