![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
The New York Public Library HELP SAVE THE THEATRE! The New York Public Library's world-famous Theatre Collection will have to shut its doors to public service on January 1, 1972 if sufficient funds are not forthcoming. To help this situation, a Gala Benefit, Auction and Preview of the exhibit "Treasurers from the Theatre Collection", in honor of the collection's 40th anniversary, will be held on Thursday October 7, from 6-8 p.m. in the Main Lobby of the Library, 5th Avenue at 42nd Street. Many theatrical luminaries will be on hand, and duplicate materials of all kinds from the Theatre Collection will be auctioned at 7:00. For tickets at $15 per person, please call 790-6556. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 5th AVE at 42nd ST, MAIN LOBBY, THURSDAY OCTOBER 7, 1971, 6-8 P.M., AUCTION AT 7:00. [[next column]] song "Company" "because it's the most personal thing I've ever written." He got the idea for its structure when he began making notes on the word "company." "Phone rings/ door chimes/ in comes/ company...good times/ late nights/ deep talk/ company..." He isn't partial to any one number in Follies although he singled out "I'm Here" as an example of "what I can do under pressure." He composed the show-stopping number in one afternoon. Since Follies opened Sondheim has been relaxing. Although he is quick to admit he'll go back to work as soon as a writer--any writer--comes up with an original idea for a musical. "I don't want to adapt from an old novel or a 1950's movie. I want something fresh." Did he plan to work later in films? "Not unless I have complete artistic control. Which is still impossible in Hollywood. Look at what happened to Elaine May. That's why I love the theatre. The writer's work is protected contractually. When we were out of town in Philly with Gypsy Jerry Robbins wanted to take out the song 'Little Lamb.' He hated that number. He and Jule and I argued. One matinee he just took it out. Jule and I phoned the Guild and a lawyer came down to the theatre that evening and talked to Merrick very nicely. He just said that if the song wasn't put back in for the evening performance the show would be closed. The song was put back in." Sondheim smiled. "The theatre is still the only place where the writer can be protected and nurtured. Yes, Broadway is a glorious invalid and the costs of production are staggering and it is harder for any talent to be developed let alone survive. "But someone once told me the essential difference between the theatre and movies is that theatre acknowledges the audience. That's the element I cling to. I draw from audience energy--audience response. A feeling of connection between people is terribly important in this day and age when there is so much to isolate us." [[page number]] 30 [[next page]] PORTRAIT OF AN ISRAELI ACTRESS An American who had lived for a number of years on a Kibbutz in Israel told me once that his wife hadn't really been happy there. "You see," he stated matter-of-factly, "she's the kind of woman who relates to people more than ideas." After a visit to Israel last spring I began to understand what he meant. Israel, after all, was founded on an ideal. Abstraction and argument are national pastimes. So perhaps it isn't too surprising when even the people one meets there begin to take on a symbolic quality. That is what happened with Gila Almagor. In my mind Gila is mysteriously entwined with Israel and her story as I tell it here is often not only hers but Israel's as well. I met Gila for the first time in the lobby of the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv only a few hours after I arrived. Gila Almagor is an important Israeli actress and the wife of Yaakov Agmon, one of the country's independent producers--Boys in the Band, Jacques Brel, Once There Was a Hassid (the last is set for a New York production this season). She looked much as I had pictured her--early thirties, small, compact, loose black pony tail, stylish pants suit. Not beautiful, but striking. Gila, I expect, was well on her way to being symbolized when she described her early childhood. She was a "sabra" who [[next column]] [[image: black & white photograph of Gila Almagor]] grew up with Israel. Her father was killed by snipers in World War II, when Gila's mother was pregnant with her. Consequently when Gila was very young she was sent to live in one of the Children's Villages which had been organized in Israel after the war to care for "the children of the disaster." Now one of the cultural aspects of Israel that is immediately confronting to an American is the success the country has had in raising young children without parents or with limited parental influence (as is the case in the Kibbutz where children see their mothers and fathers for a few hours each evening, but live in a house with 6 or 7 of their peers). Like it or not mos tof us have accepted the Freudian dilemma that though you may not be able to live with your parents, you certainly can't live without them. Perhaps that's why it was a little unsettling to hear Gila say of her childhood--"It was beautiful. We were taught such a feeling by joan alleman rubin [[page number]] 31
Transcription Notes:
Some titles in the original which were italicized have not been italicized here. Otherwise, fine except for a minor typo near end where the "t" from "most" is spaced from the rest of the word.