Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Robert C. Schnitzer papers, Collection #C0043, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University.

Acquisition Information

Collection donated by Robert Schnitzer in 1995-1996.

Processing Information

Processed by Special Collections and Archives staff. EAD markup completed by Eron Ackerman and Jordan Patty in March 2009.

Biographical Information

Robert C. Schnitzer is a former actor, producer, educator, and theater administrator. As a young actor in New York City, Schnitzer appeared in or stage managed The Brothers Karamazov, Hamlet, An Enemy of the People, Richelieu, Henry V, Richard III, Caponsacchi, Macbeth, and Cyrano de Bergerac. From 1936 to 1939, Schnitzer was Delaware's State Director and Deputy National Director of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project.

Schnitzer later joined the American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) as general manager for the Experimental Theater in New York, which returned to the New York theater scene under the auspices of ANTA in 1947. The ANTA-sponsored performances managed by Mr. Schnitzer included the first American production of Hamlet to be presented at Elsinore, Denmark; the first European tour of the American Ballet Theatre in 1950; and from 1951 to 1953, three Berlin festivals that showcased American talent such as the Theatre Guild's Oklahoma, the Hall Johnson Choir, and the Julliard String Quartet.

In 1954, Mr. Schnitzer took over as general manager for the International Exchange Program through which ANTA helped promote and sponsor cultural exchanges in cooperation with the U.S. State Department. The hundreds of overseas productions arranged by Mr. Schnitzer ran the gamut from college choirs and athletes to notables such as Marian Anderson, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Berstein. Many of these performers played to audiences in Berlin, Moscow, and other locations behind the Iron Curtain.

In 1960, Mr. Schnitzer became the general manager for the American Repertory Company, set up by the Theatre Guild at the request of the U.S. Government to export the best in American theater. He arranged for three plays - The Skin of Our Teeth, The Miracle Worker, and The Glass Menagerie - to tour 28 countries in Europe and South America in 1961. The company included the famous actress Helen Hayes. During the 1970s he was head of the University of Michigan's Professional Theatre Program.

Scope and Content

Included in the Robert C. Schnitzer Papers are textual materials (subject files, correspondence, memoranda) about ANTA overseas productions, photographs of ANTA theater troupe and other ANTA personnel in Europe 1951 and 1955, 1950s and 1960s promotional posters for ANTA overseas productions, newspaper clippings about ANTA performances in Europe, prompt script to the play "Skin of Our Teeth" starring Helen Hayes, and working papers and other materials about Schnitzer's work with the University of Michigan Professional Theatre Program.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged according to subject.

Related Material

Special Collections and Archives also holds many other theatre collections

Index Terms

Persons:

• Schnitzer, Robert C.

Corporate Names:

• ANTA (Organization)
• University of Michigan--Professional Theatre Program.

Subjects:

• Theater.

Adjunct Descriptive Data