The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), a collection within the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, produces video recordings of New York and regional theater productions, and provides research access at its Lucille Lortel screening room. The core of the collection consists of live recordings of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, with some additional productions from professional regional theaters. The Archive also records interviews and dialogues with notable theater professionals.
The Archive was established in 1970 by Betty L. Corwin, who served as its Director until her retirement in 2000. Ms. Corwin and the Archive were subsequently awarded a Special Tony Award for "Excellence in the Theatre" at the 55th Annual Tony Awards. In 2001, Patrick Hoffman became TOFT Director.
The collection maintains contracts with all theatrical unions and guilds, thus enabling clearances for the non-commercial videotaping of live theater. The collection is housed on the third floor of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The recordings may be viewed by anyone with a professional or research interest, but may not be reproduced. Users consist of theater professionals, students, scholars, journalists, critics, and other researchers. The majority of the collection is cataloged online and searchable by visiting the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.
The collection is considered one of the most comprehensive collections of videotaped theater productions in the world. Archives modeled on TOFT include the Museum of Performance & Design in San Francisco, the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive established in Washington, D.C., and the National Video Archive of Performance in London.