Produced by the Rosenbach Museum & Library to commemorate the museum's 50th anniversary, The Rosenbach Company: A Tragicomedy is a rousing interpretation of the eccentric and passionate lives of the museum's founders, created by Obie award-winning artist Ben Katchor and singer/songwriter Mark Mulcahy.
Performances:
Friday, September 10: 8pm
Saturday, September 11: 2pm*, 8pm
Sunday, September 12: 8pm
*2pm matinee on Saturday will include a post-show conversation with the artists
Venue: The Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom Street
Box Office: 215.413.1318 (opens August 23)
Online: www.livearts-fringe.org (tickets available August 9)
Exhibition of Ben Katchor's original drawings:
October 2004 at the Rosenbach
Details:
The Rosenbach Company: A Tragicomedy explores the legendary lives, legacy, and collections of Dr. Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach, an internationally known dealer and collector of rare books and manuscripts, and his brother and business partner Philip, purveyor of fine art and antiquities. Born and based in Philadelphia, the brothers established a lucrative business, and spent much of their lives co-residing in a stately townhouse on DeLancey Place. Often the subject of international controversy stemming from their purchases of the most beloved and well known works of literature, including the original manuscripts of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and James Joyce's Ulysses, the Rosenbach brothers' names became as widely recognized as the prestigious collections they helped to build, which include some of the most significant libraries of the last century (the Morgan, Widener, Huntington, and Folger libraries, among others). The brothers' own extensive collection of rare books, manuscripts, and fine and decorative arts has survived and today serves as the core of the museum's holdings. The Rosenbach Company offers a story full of chutzpah, back-room deals, and family drama.
Using projected works of animation enhanced by live actors, singers, and musicians, The Rosenbach Company: A Tragicomedy - the first of its kind for the Rosenbach Museum - is a concert-style performance celebrating the brothers and a slice of Philadelphia history. The story follows Philip and Abe Rosenbach from childhood, to the establishment of a business partnership as adults, to the dissolution of the partnership upon the death of one brother. The musical explores the complexity of a relationship between two brothers with differing aesthetic values, and portrays the strange dynamic that led to one of the most successful and influential partnerships in the city's history. The Rosenbach Company reveals how Abe's brilliant efforts in bookselling financed Philip's aesthetic adventures and business schemes, and how Philip's commercial ambitions spurred Abe toward greater feats of salesmanship. The story touches upon a number of issues: the nature of collecting as a passionate, sometimes obsessive act; the intricacies of running a family business; cultural pursuits versus commercial ambition; and, above all, the significance of two men in the history of some of the world's greatest literary and artistic treasures.
About the Artists:
Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy first began working together on the rock music theater piece The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, or The Friends of Dr. Rushtower. The New York Times has described Katchor as "the most poetic, deeply layered artist ever to draw a comic strip." Katchor's work has been featured in several newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker. Collections of his cartoons have been published both here and abroad; they include Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer (1996, Little, Brown & Co.), and The Jew of New York (2000, Pantheon Books). He has also created and produced radio and theater pieces based on his works, including Carbon Copy Building, an Obie award-winning collaboration with New York composers Bang on a Can. Katchor has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim, the American Academy in Berlin, and the prestigious MacArthur "genius" grant. Mark Mulcahy has been on the rock music scene for nearly 20 years. As the front man of Miracle Legion, he toured the United States and Europe with the Sugarcubes, 10,000 Maniacs, and Aztec Camera. As a solo artist, he toured with Jeff Buckley, Oasis, Seal, and Elliot Smith. His work is featured on CDs and music television stations, as well as on television and film soundtracks, including The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Spring Forward, The Crush, and A Matter of Degrees. At a recent concert, the band Radiohead dedicated a song to him, and Mojo Magazine says of him: "Mulcahy not only plays all the instruments but overlays his own vocal harmonies and counterparts in a set of emotionally involving, highly personal songs. This man is very much a singer-songwriter to be filed alongside Tim Buckley, Neil Young or Jackson Browne."
About the Rosenbach Museum & Library
The Rosenbach Museum & Library was the home of two brothers, Dr. A.S.W. and Philip Rosenbach. A.S.W. Rosenbach was a legendary dealer and collector of rare books and manuscripts, while Philip's expertise encompassed the fine and decorative arts. Founded in 1954 to preserve the two brothers' personal collections and company archive, the Rosenbach's holdings have continued to grow. The Rosenbach is a major cultural destination--a research center that is home to one of the nation's great collections of rare books and manuscripts, as well as a beautiful, historic townhouse filled with fine art and antiques. The eclectic treasures include:
Manuscripts for such outstanding literary works as James Joyce's Ulysses, Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers, and Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim
Fine 18th- and 19th-century British and American furniture
Items associated with important authors, including Herman Melville's bookcase and Nathaniel Hawthorne's personal copy of Melville's Moby Dick
The world's largest collection of portrait miniatures painted in oil on metal
A selection of John Tenniel's original illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
The only surviving example of the first printing of Yankee Doodle
A complete recreation—with the original contents—of poet Marianne Moore's Greenwich Village living room (designated as a national Literary Landmark by Friends of Libraries USA)
Over 10,000 drawings and manuscripts by acclaimed children's book author/illustrator Maurice Sendak
Rosenbach Brothers
Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952) was the greatest dealer in rare books and manuscripts of modern times. His brother and business partner Philip Rosenbach (1863-1953) was a dealer in fine art and antiques. Their Rosenbach Company, with offices in Philadelphia and New York City, was recognized as the nation's premier business trading in rare books and manuscripts.
Some of the greatest rare book collections in the United States were built with Dr. Rosenbach's aid--including those of Henry Folger (now in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.), Henry Huntington (Huntington Library, San Marino, California), Lessing Rosenwald (Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and Harry Elkins Widener (Harvard University's Widener Library).
Dr. Rosenbach also donated entire collections to other institutions, thus helping to create the preeminent Library of American Judaica at the American Jewish Historical Society (Waltham, Massachusetts) and the holdings of early American children's literature--the nation's largest--at the Free Library of Philadelphia. While Dr. Rosenbach dealt in books and manuscripts, his brother Philip obtained prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, furniture, and other items for a distinguished clientele.
The brothers were themselves collectors, and they kept many of the finest works that came into the Rosenbach Company. Their personal collections form the core of today's Rosenbach Museum & Library. The Museum & Library is maintained in the Rosenbachs' former home, an 1860s townhouse just off of historic Rittenhouse Square in Center City Philadelphia.
Contact :
Rosenbach Museum & Library
2008-2010 DeLancey Place
Philadelphia PA 19103
Tel: (215) 732-1600
Fax: (215) 545-7529
Email: info@rosenbach.org
Web : http://www.rosenbach.org/home/home.html
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