Music Theatre North Records, 1979-1995
Collection Number: SC-90002
Collection Size: 10.4 cubic feet
The Music Theatre North records are open to all users and available in the reading room of the SUNY Potsdam College Archives & Special Collections. The collection is currently minimally processed.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply. Questions concerning rights should be addressed to the College Archivist.
Music Theatre North (MTN) was a non-profit musical theatre company established in the summer of 1979 in Potsdam, NY. The company utilized SUNY Potsdam's Snell Theatre’s stage for their summer season performances and employed the Crane school of Music’s director of musical theatre, T.K. Thompson, as its founding director. The company only performed in the summer months and brought professional talent from cities such as New York and Los Angles to the North Country. The college’s theatre program had internships and performance opportunities for students to take part in the company’s productions. The theatre company performed its last show in the summer of 1995.
The collection contains materials related to production and non-production aspects of MTN’s operation.
Series contains playbill booklets arranged according to the date of each performance. The materials came in boxes with the scrapbooks.
Series contains scrapbooks that include Xeroxed articles and press releases, along with promotional materials related to MTN’s productions. The scrapbook materials came arranged inside of binders and were kept in their original protective sleeves. In the 1981 and 1984 folders there are letters from the Aluminum Company of America that indicate substantial financial grants to MTN. Included in the 1984 folders are photos of Jazz musicians who performed alongside that summer’s productions. The assorted materials folder was already described as miscellaneous by the original collector and has been kept that way.
Series contains MTN’s Umatic cassettes thatare arranged by date and include full length recordings of nearly every performance. The numbers of each tape are according to time allotment on the Umatic cassette. Box eight contains assorted tapes with little to no identifiers and tapes that were arranged out of their assigned series.
Series contains images from just about every performance. These slides include not only images of on-stage performances, but also off-stage images of pre-production operations. The contact sheets and negatives were arranged according to original order and are also available either in a photographic medium or 35 mm slide. In the 35 mm slide collection there was a folder that included some large photos, presumably from the slide’s contact sheets, and was kept in that series instead of moved into the photographs box.
Series contains both production and non-production photographs. These photographs are an integral part to understanding the professional nature of MTN. Each folder has a mixture of professional and amateur photographs of performances. They have been ordered according to how it came inside the boxes. Certain photos came with dates either written on the back or were in a folder that had a particular date. There are photos of community events such as parades and performances at the local Potsdam Museum, including even a mural painting and cameo shots of some of the actors from years past. This part of the collection is mostly in black and white; see the 35mm slides for color photography.
Series mostly contains negative film paper that are processed into soluable photographs in the photos series. The contact sheets also have mostly photographic counterparts for better viewing.
Series contains a plaque that was given to MTN.
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-10 | Production booklets, | 1979-1995 |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Assorted Materials, | undated |
| 2-6 | Public Press Materials, | 1979-1983 | |
| 7 | Signed Yankee Photos, | 1984 | |
| 8 | Musician Photos, signed, | 1984 | |
| 9 | Cast Resumes, | 1907-1908 | |
| 10-12 | Public Press Materials, | 1984-1985 | |
| 13 | Artist David Chamberlain-Photos of artwork, | 1987 | |
| 14-17 | Public Press Materials, | 1987-1988 | |
| 18 | Actor Testimonials, | 1988 | |
| 19 | Public Press Materials, | 1989 | |
| 20 | News Articles, | 1991-1995 |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | "Damn Yankees" 1-2, | 1984 | |
| "No No Nanette" 1-2, | 1984 | ||
| "Dracula" 1-2, | 1985 | ||
| "1776" 1-2, | 1985 | ||
| "Jesus Christ Superstar" 1 (See box 8 for 2), | 1984 | ||
| "Mame" 1-3, | 1985 | ||
| 8 | "Bradley's Follies" 1-2, | 1985 | |
| 3 | "Evita" 1-4, | 1986 | |
| "Carnival" 1-3, | 1986 | ||
| "Oklahoma" 1-2, | 1986 | ||
| 4 | "Oklahoma" 3-4, | 1986 | |
| "Cole" 1-7, | 1986 | ||
| "Ain't Misbehavin" 1-4, | 1987 | ||
| "Little Shop of Horrors" 1-4, | 1987 | ||
| "South Pacific" 1-5, | 1987 | ||
| 5 | "Robber Bridegroom" 1-3, | 1987 | |
| "Grease" 1-4, | 1988 | ||
| "Chicago" 1-4, | 1988 | ||
| "A Chorus Line" 1-4, | 1988 | ||
| "The Music Man" 1-4, | 1988 | ||
| "Something's Afoot" 1-2, | 1989 | ||
| "Shenandoah" 1-2, | 1989 | ||
| 6 | "Bigadoon" 1-3, | 1989 | |
| "Nunsense" 1-4, | 1990 | ||
| "Fiddler on the Roof" 1-4,, | 1990 | ||
| "Annie" 1-4, | 1990 | ||
| "Once upon a Mattress" 1-3, | 1990 | ||
| "The King and I" 1-2, | 1990 | ||
| 7 | "The King and I" 3, | 1990 | |
| "Cabaret" 1-4, | 1991 | ||
| "Pump Boys and Dinnette" 1-3, | 1991 | ||
| "My One and Only" 1-5, | 1991 | ||
| "Gypsy" 1-4, | 1991 | ||
| "The Sound of Music" 1-4, | 1991 | ||
| AMPEX 197, 1-2-Contents unknown, | undated | ||
| 8 | "Backstage", | undated | |
| Bradley's Follies" 1-2, | 1985 | ||
| "Jesus Christ Superstar" 2, | 1985 | ||
| Snippets of 1986 Season-Note inside Case, | 1986 | ||
| Montage of MTN Season, | 1986 | ||
| 20th Century Fox, "Deadringers", | 1988 |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 1-2 | Non-production, | undated |
| 3-5 | Production, | undated | |
| 6 | Production Photos, | undated | |
| 7 | Contact Sheets, | undated | |
| 8 | Internship, | circa 1985 | |
| 9-26 | Production, | 1979-1992 | |
| 1 | Miscellaneous Slides, | undated |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Chorus Line (Oversized), | 1988 | |
| 10 | 1 | Headshots, | undated |
| 2 | Production and Promotion, | circa 1981 | |
| 3 | Production and Nonproduction, | 1983-1988 | |
| 4 | Large Black and White Photos, | 1984-1993 | |
| 5 | Mural Painting, | undated | |
| 6 | Board of Directors, | undated | |
| 7 | Shenandoah Civil War Reenactment, | 1989 | |
| 8 | Rehearsals, | circa 1982-1989 | |
| 9 | Nunsense Production, | undated | |
| 10 | Nunsense Production, | 1990 | |
| 11-12 | Nonproduction, | circa 1988-1990 | |
| 13 | "Annie", | 1990 | |
| 14 | Celebration of the Arts Sale, | 1991 | |
| 15-17 | Nonproduction, | undated | |
| 18 | Potsdam Museum Performance, | undated | |
| 19 | Local Performance, | undated | |
| 20 | Crane Rehearsal, | undated | |
| 21 | Parade, | undated | |
| 22 | Production, | 1992 | |
| 23-26 | Production, | undated | |
| 27 | Nursing Home Performance, | undated |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 28 | Duplicate Negatives, | undated |
| 29 | Nonproduction, | undated | |
| 30 | Production, | undated | |
| 31 | Headshots, | undated | |
| 32 | Production, | circa 1986 | |
| 33 | Production, | circa 1987 |
| Box | Folder | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Potsdam Chamber of Commerce Plaque, | 1992 |
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