Players Foundation for Theatre Education

10/29/2026

10/23/2026

Artwork at The Players — Volume II

Artwork at The Players, Volume II presents 50 selected works and stories from the remarkable collection of The Players, continuing the exploration begun in Volume I.

Featuring Michael Shane Neal’s portrait of legendary American soprano and Player Leontyne Price on the cover, the volume includes works by Emma Stebbins, Eric Pape, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and many more.

For more than a century, The Players has brought together actors, artists, writers, musicians, and patrons of the arts. Its collection reflects that extraordinary history. Volume II goes beyond traditional portraiture to reveal the stories behind paintings, sculpture, stained glass, theatrical memorabilia, and other treasures found throughout the clubhouse—works that illuminate the people, friendships, traditions, and artistic legacy of The Players.

Each featured work is accompanied by a short essay by Michael Gerbino, Chair of The Players Art Committee, providing historical background and insight into the artwork, its subject, and its connection to The Players.

This beautifully produced hardcover volume also includes, for the first time, a comprehensive index of the artists, Players, and subjects represented throughout the book.

Written by Michael Gerbino and designed by Michael Gerbino and Shannon Su of Archigrafika.

Yours with a $75 donation (or more) to The Players Foundation. QR Code in Comments.

Books must be picked up at The Players at:

Meet Your Fellow Players 11/11/26 from 6:30-8 p.m.

Book Signing with Michael Gerbino 11/17/26 from 6-7 p.m.

16 Gramercy Park, NY, NY 10003

10/21/2026

Behind the Scenes: A Little Summer Housekeeping at The Players

Even our most distinguished Players occasionally need to leave the room.
This summer, essential ceiling repairs in the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library meant temporarily relocating its paintings, sculptures and other treasures. The Burman Room became an impromptu gathering place for some of the theatre's most celebrated figures — all looking rather impatient to return home!

The project also provided an opportunity to upgrade the Library's picture lighting, giving new prominence to its remarkable collection of theatrical portraits, including works by John Neagle that Edwin Booth acquired for the Club more than a century ago.

Our thanks to Jim Eckerle, Raymond Ridore, Sara-Ann Rodgers, Pam Singleton, Linus Redmond and Tim Redmond, whose careful work behind the scenes helped return the Library and its treasures to their familiar splendor.
Preservation isn't always glamorous. Sometimes it's repairs, moving heavy objects, installing lights and carefully putting everything back where it belongs.

But this essential, behind-the-scenes work is what keeps our collection safe, accessible and ready to inspire future generations.

10/13/2026

Horrors! A Series of Unfortunate Artifacts

Just in time for Halloween, Up Close & Personal takes a turn toward the dark side…

Some of the strangest treasures in The Players' collection will emerge from the shadows for one night only.

Join Elizabeth Jackson for an evening of theatrical intrigue, macabre discoveries, and things that might be better left undisturbed.

Thursday, October 29, 6 PM, The Players Library.

10/05/2026

When The Players met Green-Wood

For our October Up Close & Personal, Player and Green-Wood Memorial Counselor Theresa Wozunk brought two extraordinary New York collections together—and revealed just how much they have to say to one another.
The evening traveled from the Brooklyn Theatre Fire of 1876 to the lives and afterlives of actors, artists, architects, photographers and assorted New York characters whose stories connect The Players and Green-Wood.

There was James Renwick Jr., architect of Edwin Booth’s magnificent Booth’s Theatre; actress and theatre manager Laura Keene; photographer Napoleon Sarony; actors Ada Rehan and Kate Claxton; Thomas Nast and Boss Tweed; and Player Pete Hamill—who deliberately chose a final resting place near Tweed because, he reasoned, eternity there would never be dull.

Along the way, photographs, archival records and treasures from The Players Foundation collection helped bring those stories back to life.

Our thanks to Theresa for a fascinating evening—and for reminding us that sometimes the best way to discover New York’s history is to follow its characters from Gramercy Park all the way to Green-Wood.

10/02/2026

A Little TLC for Edwin Booth's Furniture

Even the finest antiques need a little attention after a few centuries!
This summer, three historic pieces of furniture in Edwin Booth's preserved apartment at The Players received some much-deserved care from ECR Antique Conservation and Restoration.

The work included a beautifully carved 17th-century coffer, an oak table dating from the late 1600s, and an 18th-century mahogany chest of drawers. Each required its own careful attention, from stabilizing aging structures to addressing wear and preserving the character of the original finishes.
The results are beautiful — and the real achievement goes beyond appearances. These furnishings have been part of the Booth Room for generations. Thoughtful conservation helps ensure that they will remain part of Edwin Booth's world for generations to come.

Our thanks to the skilled team at ECR Antique Conservation and Restoration for their exceptional craftsmanship, and to the generous supporters who make this important preservation work possible.

Sometimes preserving theatrical history means caring for the very furniture that surrounded one of America's greatest actors.

09/27/2026

FROM ROOM 1…What can one book tell us about more than three centuries of theatre history?

On a shelf in Room 1 sits a copy of Romulus and Hersilia; or, The Sabine War, printed in London in 1683.

The book itself is remarkable enough. But open it, and its history begins to accumulate.

There are inscriptions and ownership marks. A Players bookplate. And evidence of later research into the volume and its journey before it reached Gramercy Park.

The pages include the play's prologue and epilogue — words printed for a theatrical world that existed more than two centuries before Edwin Booth founded The Players.

That is one of the pleasures of exploring Room 1. The books don't simply preserve what was printed on their pages. They preserve traces of the people who owned them, read them, investigated them and, ultimately, saved them.
Room 1 isn't merely a restored library. It is a room in which theatre history can still be opened.

09/23/2026

Some Players remain Players for life. Others, apparently, for considerably longer.

On Thursday, October 1, Up Close & Personal welcomes Theresa Wozunk of Green-Wood Cemetery — a woman whose unusual professional responsibilities include finding appropriate spots for Green-Wood's newest “permanent residents.”
Players may remember Theresa as the guide who led last year's friends of the Foundation tour through Green-Wood, introducing us to the graves — and stories — of figures including Frank Morgan, Laura Keene and Napoleon Sarony, as well as David and Marie Anderson, Edwin Booth's beloved “Uncle Davy” and “Aunt Marie.”

This time, Theresa is coming to us. Following an introduction by Elizabeth Jackson, she'll be in the Library exploring the remarkable intersections among Green-Wood, The Players and the theatre — with help from material in our own archives. Up Close & Personal Thursday, October 1 at 6:00 PM in The Library Come for the theatre history. Stay for the stories about Players who took “lifetime membership” seriously.