What does a 125-year-old playbill tell us about the people who created it? What mysteries does it contain within its four corners? How did the show it memorialized impact audiences and actors alike?
Ephemeral Mysteries begins with a single item—from a long lost Victorian cabinet photo to a program without a geographic identifier—and follows its story wherever it leads. These objects come from my personal archive, collected over years of researching small-town and regional American theatre.
Some belonged to amateur troupes whose names have vanished. Others can be traced back to influential theaters when they were just fledgling ideas—like the Philadelphia Little Theatre (1914) or the Washington Square Players (1915).
Community Arts Uncovered 