The Library Project · 2012
The Library Project was an after-hours, choose-your-own-adventure style, original theatrical experience celebrating 125 years of the New Haven Free Public Library. From puppetry to song to dance, new stories and spectacles await you around every corner. Travel with performers from room to room and see the public library like you have never seen her before!
“It takes full advantage of both A Broken Umbrella’s talents as masters of site-specific theater and the library’s history and expansive Cass Gilbert-designed building.””
Experiences Within The Library Project
Building Facade (Projections)
Prologue (Featuring book puppetry and figures instrumental in the library's founding)
A Suitable Site (for the Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library)
Balance a Dime (A conversation among the Institute Library, the New Haven Free Public Library, the City of New Haven, and Willis K. Stetson)
R.I.P. (Uncovering the story behind the W.P.A. murals in the library)
In Circulation (Dance piece in the periodical room)
Branching Out (The branches of the New Haven Free Public Library are an integral part of the experience of public libraries)
Noah & Sam (Imagining an encounter between Noah Webster, creator of the eponymous dictionary, and Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph)
Echoes (Epilogue with the whole cast)
“By exploring the notion or entity of the library in relation to the past and present, A Broken Umbrella plans to spin some sly and scandalous secrets that many in the city haven’t been privy to just yet.””
Community Partners
The New Haven Free Public Library
First Niagara · Sponsor of the NHFPL's 125th anniversary
Start Community Bank · Sponsor of Branching Out
City of New Haven Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism
CT Humanities
Tremaine Foundation
Marcum Accountants + Advisors
NewAlliance Foundation
Additional Sponsors
L. Suzio/York Hill Company
The Beckerman Foundation
Norman & Caron Alderman
Marvin & Helaine Lenders
Judy & Mark Sklarz