Players Foundation for Theatre Education

Players Foundation for Theatre Education The Players Foundation fosters understanding and appreciation of American theatre through education and conservation activities.

“Emancipation.” Maryland. 1845.“Emancipation.”Written carefully, repeatedly, by an eight-year-old boy in Maryland.The da...
06/19/2026

“Emancipation.” Maryland. 1845.

“Emancipation.”

Written carefully, repeatedly, by an eight-year-old boy in Maryland.
The date in the front of this copybook reads 10 July 1845.
The name: Edwin Booth.

Maryland was a slave state in 1845.

Copybooks of the period often included elevated vocabulary drawn from civic philosophy and moral instruction. Words like “Democratically,” “Emancipation,” and phrases such as “Governments are maintained by rewards” were part penmanship drill, part formation of mind.

But the resonance is impossible to ignore.

A child in Maryland, forming the word “Emancipation” decades before the Civil War would define his generation.

We cannot know whether the selection was standard curriculum or influenced by family instruction. Edwin’s father, Junius Brutus Booth, was English-born and widely read, with complex political views. Edwin’s schooling was brief — perhaps this very book reflects a period of home study.

This Juneteenth, we reflect on a word written long before it reshaped the nation.

Help Preserve Edwin Booth's WorldThe Booth Room at The Players offers a rare glimpse into the life and surroundings of E...
06/15/2026

Help Preserve Edwin Booth's World

The Booth Room at The Players offers a rare glimpse into the life and surroundings of Edwin Booth. Among its furnishings are remarkable pieces that have survived for centuries before finding a home in the Clubhouse Booth created in 1888.

Today, three of these historic furnishings require conservation:
• Mahogany Chest of Drawers (c. 1760–1770) — $2,400
• Oak Drop-Leaf Table (c. 1675–1700) — $1,800
• Jacobean Carved Coffer (c. 1620–1690) — $1,800

These pieces have already passed through generations of caretakers before reaching us. Our responsibility is to preserve them long enough to reach the next.

By sponsoring one of these projects, you will help ensure that future visitors, scholars, and theatre lovers can continue to experience the Booth Room and better understand the world Edwin Booth inhabited.

To sponsor a conservation project or learn more, click links in comments.

Those quiet acts of preservation are often how history survives.

William Gillette: The Man Who Became Sherlock Holmes June 25th, 6 p.m. Library, The Players, 16 Gramercy ParkBefore Basi...
06/08/2026

William Gillette: The Man Who Became Sherlock Holmes
June 25th, 6 p.m. Library, The Players, 16 Gramercy Park

Before Basil Rathbone. Before Benedict Cumberbatch. Before Jeremy Brett.

To audiences of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, William Gillette was Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur Conan Doyle himself praised Gillette’s “lean, sinewy figure and keen visage,” calling him the perfect realization of the detective on stage. Booth Tarkington said he would rather see Gillette play Holmes “than be a child again on Christmas morning.”
The story behind the role is just as theatrical.

When Conan Doyle reluctantly agreed to revive Holmes for the stage, Gillette was brought in to reshape the script. While touring America, the manuscript was lost in a hotel fire — so Gillette simply rewrote it from memory.

Then came perhaps the most famous telegram in Sherlock Holmes history:
“May I marry Holmes?”

Doyle replied:
“You may marry him, or murder him, or do what you like with him.”

Gillette ultimately played Holmes more than 1,300 times over three decades — helping define one of literature’s most enduring characters.

A Pillow Returns HomeThis week, one of the most personal objects in Edwin Booth's bedroom returned to its place.Resting ...
06/07/2026

A Pillow Returns Home

This week, one of the most personal objects in Edwin Booth's bedroom returned to its place.

Resting once again on Booth's daybed is the recently conserved "Slumber Pillow," bearing a hand-painted verse inspired by Macbeth:
"O slumber gentle as the summer air
Knit up the raveled sleeve of care..."

The words seem especially fitting for Booth, who often struggled with sleeplessness and referred to his late-night hours of wakefulness as his "vulture hours." Throughout the clubhouse he incorporated quotations reflecting his lifelong search for rest and peace.

Time had not been kind to the pillow. Fragile, stained, and deteriorating, it required professional conservation before it could safely return to the Booth Room.

Through the generosity and stewardship of Gifford Booth, the pillow has now been carefully conserved and restored. Recently, Gifford and Chuck Vassallo put it back in its place on the daybed where Booth sought comfort, reflection, and perhaps the sleep that often escaped him.

While visitors are often drawn to famous artifacts, it is objects like this that help us understand the people behind the history. A pillow, a handwritten verse, a sleepless night—small details that bring Edwin Booth the man into sharper focus alongside Edwin Booth the legend.

The Players Foundation is deeply grateful to Gifford for helping preserve this intimate piece of theatrical history for future generations.

Quiet acts of preservation are often how theatre history survives.
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From the Stickney File: “You’re Not the Type.”In the Dorothy Stickney file in The Players Foundation archive rests a cli...
06/03/2026

From the Stickney File: “You’re Not the Type.”

In the Dorothy Stickney file in The Players Foundation archive rests a clipping of her poem “You’re Not the Type.” The copy is marked Variety, 1964.

Yet the voice in the poem belongs unmistakably to a much younger woman.

Written early in her New York career — when auditions were frequent and roles elusive — the poem captures the familiar verdict delivered to generations of actors:
“You’re not the type.”

Stickney catalogues the objections with wit and precision:
“Too fat, too thin, too short, too tall,
Too blonde, too dark, too large, too small…”

Biographical sources suggest the poem dates to her early years in the 1920s and may have first appeared in popular press of the period, later resurfacing in print decades afterward. What remains in our file is evidence of its continued life — preserved, reprinted, remembered.

Before she became Vinnie in Life With Father and Life With Mother —before the honors and the long partnership with Howard Lindsay —there was this young actress putting rejection into verse.

The photograph inscribed “Anita in The Squall — 1928” shows her at the beginning of that journey.

Archives rarely tell a single, tidy story. They reveal layers — drafts, clippings, reprints — traces of a career unfolding over time.

In this case, a sentence meant to diminish became part of theatrical history.

“You’re not the type.”

And still, she was.

The Men Who Taught America How to LookAmong the fascinating items in May's Up Close & Personal Thomas Nast presentation ...
05/27/2026

The Men Who Taught America How to Look

Among the fascinating items in May's Up Close & Personal Thomas Nast presentation were caricature cartes de visite of two men whose images defined an era: photographer Matthew Brady and portrait photographer Napoleon Sarony.

Today we tend to focus on the famous faces in 19th-century photographs. But Brady and Sarony shaped how Americans saw public life itself.

Brady documented presidents, generals, and the Civil War, helping establish photography as historical witness. Sarony became the great theatrical portraitist of the late 19th century, capturing actors, celebrities, and performers with extraordinary flair.

Both worked in the orbit of Madison Square and Union Square — not far from where The Players would later rise.

Nast’s caricatures gently remind us that even the image-makers became celebrities themselves.

The spotlight, briefly, turns toward the cameraman.

Thomas Nast’s New York, One Card at a TimeMay's Up Close & Personal, presented by The Players Foundation, transformed th...
05/18/2026

Thomas Nast’s New York, One Card at a Time

May's Up Close & Personal, presented by The Players Foundation, transformed the Library into a Victorian cabinet of curiosities.
Introduced by Elizabeth Jackson and presented by Mitch Paluszek, the evening explored the work of Player Thomas Nast — the German-born American artist and political cartoonist whose images helped shape how Americans saw the Civil War, New York politics, Santa Claus, and even the symbols of the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant.

Drawing from a remarkable collection of Nast cartes de visite and sketches in the Foundation archives, the program brought to life the politicians, performers, generals, photographers, saloon keepers, and personalities who filled Nast’s New York.
One of the recurring themes: the carte de visite as a kind of Victorian “social media” — collectible images traded, displayed, and circulated through American culture in the decades after the Civil War.

A small card. A large personality. And, through Nast’s eyes, an entire era.

A Marriage in the RoomsIn the cabinet in the Kinstler Room stands a delicate sculpture labeled:“Dorothy Stickney as Moth...
05/13/2026

A Marriage in the Rooms

In the cabinet in the Kinstler Room stands a delicate sculpture labeled:
“Dorothy Stickney as Mother in Life With Mother.”*

Dorothy Stickney (1896–1998) created the role of Mother in Life With Mother, written by the celebrated team of Lindsay and Crouse. One half of that partnership was Howard Lindsay — playwright, director, and beloved President of The Players.
He wrote the role.....She made it unforgettable.

In both Life with Father and Life with Mother, they stood opposite one another onstage.

She played Mother.....He played Father.

For years, Broadway audiences watched a married couple portray a married couple in two of America’s most cherished comedies. The partnership was theatrical — and real.
Lindsay’s portrait hangs in the Great Hall. Here, just a room away, stands the woman who gave breath to his words — and matched him as his equal.

At The Players Foundation, objects speak across spaces.
A portrait.
A sculpture.
A marriage.
Pause when you pass the cabinet.
You are looking at a love story in three dimensions.

Turquoise & the Touring Star: Julia MarloweShe carried Shakespeare across America.Julia Marlowe (1865–1950) was one of t...
05/08/2026

Turquoise & the Touring Star: Julia Marlowe

She carried Shakespeare across America.

Julia Marlowe (1865–1950) was one of the great touring stars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — a commanding presence in Shakespeare, romantic drama, and historical spectacle. Long before Broadway centralized American theatre, Marlowe brought the classics city to city, shaping audiences nationwide.

The cabinet cards shown here capture her in the 1890s at the height of her early fame. In the Players Foundation collection, they are joined by something even more personal: a turquoise necklace and bracelet, preserved together with a handwritten note that accompanies the jewelry:
“Necklace and bracelet worn by Julia Marlowe with Otis Skinner 1899 — gift of Clara McEntee, 1989.”

The inscription is not attached to the photographs but travels with the jewelry itself — part of its recorded history within our collection.

In 1899, Marlowe toured opposite Otis Skinner, another distinguished Player. While the specific production is not named in the note, it is possible (though not confirmed) that the pieces were worn in one of their romantic historical dramas of that season — perhaps When Knighthood Was in Flower or Barbara Frietchie — both productions known for their period costuming.
In 1900, Marlowe married E. H. Sothern, one of The Players’ most prominent members. Together they became one of America’s most celebrated Shakespearean partnerships, touring Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and more — elevating classical theatre for a new century.

The Players Foundation preserves not only the faces of greatness — but the objects that traveled with them.

History, worn.

The Plume, The Nose, The Legend: Walter Hampden’s CyranoSome roles define an actor.For Walter Hampden, that role was Cyr...
04/16/2026

The Plume, The Nose, The Legend: Walter Hampden’s Cyrano
Some roles define an actor.

For Walter Hampden, that role was Cyrano de Bergerac.
Shown here: a white-plumed helmet with embossed fleur-de-lis, worn by Hampden in his celebrated portrayals of Cyrano. The helmet was Hampden’s personal gift to Robert C. Schnitzer — his stage manager in the 1920s — who later presented it to The Players in 1984 on the occasion of a club “Cyrano Night.”
Even more thrilling: we have the photograph of Hampden wearing it.

Hampden returned to Cyrano again and again throughout his career, refining the role across decades. (Other photographs show him in alternate headgear — but this plume is heartstopping.) To imagine the sweep of that feather under stage lights is to feel the romance of Rostand’s hero.

Today, the helmet rests in the cabinet of the Kinstler Room — one of many treasures from Hampden’s personal collection.
Indeed, Hampden’s bequest forms a substantial portion of The Players Foundation holdings — costumes, papers, photographs, and properties that help define our 20th-century theatrical archive.
From stage to stage manager to Club to Foundation — the plume still rises.

History, worn.

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Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm

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