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Sponsored by...
The Department of History
History Graduate
The New York State Archives Partnership Trust
with additional support from...
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M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, University at Albany Libraries The Office of the Vice The College of Arts & Sciences University at Albany, University in the High Schools University Auxiliary Services
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Researching New York 2008
These events are free and open to the public whether attending the conference or not. For further information about the Researching New York Conference, the complete program, and registration information, visit the Researching New York Web site.
Screening New York History: Three ApproachesFeatured Events Thursday, November 20, 2008, 7 PM Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center University at Albany, Uptown Campus This special event with acclaimed filmmakers Muffie Meyer and Ronald Blumer is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the UAlbany Documentary Studies Program and The New York State Writers Institute with support from the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Poor Soldier, a Comic Opera Received with Great Applause… ….a History of the 1783 Opera with music and commentary Friday, November 21, 2008, 4 PM Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center University at Albany, Uptown Campus Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz discusses her historical research and recreation of this 18th century opera, George Washington's favorite theatrical piece, and, with the production team for this event, performs several musical excerpts. See details below for these featured events. Screening New York History:
Since 1978, Middlemarch Films in New York has produced more than 100 award-winning and widely-distributed films and videos. Director/producer Muffie Meyer and writer/co-producer Ron Blumer will present some of the company's unique approaches to New York history:
Three Approaches Muffie Meyer and Ronald Blumer Middlemarch Films  Alexander Hamilton, recently seen on American Experience, uses dramatizations, interviews with scholars, and digital recreations of 18th century life to present a compelling portrait of Hamilton.
The Crash of 1929, also seen on American Experience, uses archival footage, including Hollywood features, to capture the optimism of the 1920s and the aftermath when the Wall Street boom ended.  An Empire of Reason, with Walter Cronkite anchoring the "Continental Television Network," asks how television cameras might have covered the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
The discussion will be moderated by Sheila Curran Bernard, Associate Director of the UAlbany Documentary Studies Program, Director of Media Programs at the New York State Writers Institute, and a member of the History Department faculty.
Muffie Meyer co-founded Middlemarch Films in 1978, and over the next three decades has directed and produced more than 100 award-winning films and videos,  including LIBERTY! THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, and AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY - A CENTURY OF IMAGES (PBS), as well as documentaries for the PBS series NOVA AND NATURE. Middlemarch's film and television work has received more than 50 major awards, including six Emmys and an Academy Award nomination. After studying at New York University, Meyer began her professional career as an editor on films including The Lords of Flatbush and Groove Tube, before co-directing Grey Gardens with pioneering cinema vérité documentarians David and Albert Maysles and Ellen Hovde, with whom she also edited the film.
 Working with Middlemarch Films and independently, Ronald Blumer has written and co-produced 60 documentary films, including three series with Bill Moyers: CREATIVITY, A WALK THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, and THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. He wrote and co-produced the PBS specials LIBERTY! THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, and AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY. He also co-wrote episode five of Ric Burns' series NEW YORK. He wrote a film on the 1929 stock market crash for THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (PBS). For Turner Broadcasting, he wrote the one-hour dramatic film Empire of Reason on the ratification of the Constitution and was writer and co-director on their series PORTRAIT OF AMERICA. His work has received 30 major awards, including four Emmys.
This featured event, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the University at Albany Documentary Studies Program and The New York State Writers Institute and is made possible, in part, with support from the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Friday November 2lst, 10:45 AM
 For Conference Registrants..... Please join the filmmakers for an informal seminar about the award-winning programs they have created on a wide range of subjects--including The New Medicine, Benjamin Franklin, Liberty!, and Saving the National Treasures. Consider how filmmakers create documentaries on subjects that predate photography? Why go all the way to Lithuania to re-create colonial Pennsylvania---and what does it take to turn a modern Alexandria Virgina street into a circa 1776 New York City street scene. For further information about registering for the Researching New York Conference and complete information about the program, visit the Researching New York Web site.
The Poor Soldier, a Comic Opera Received with Great Applause....a History of the 1783 Opera
with music and commentary Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz & The Musicians of Ma'alwyck  In 1783 English composer William Shield and Irish playwright John O'Keeffe collaborated to produce a work for the London Theater titled The Poor Soldier. The story concerned a British soldier who had fought in the Revolutionary War and returned to England only to find his sweetheart promised to another by her less than scrupulous guardian. The Poor Soldier was a huge success in England and quickly made it across the ocean to American stages where it was performed hundreds of times during the 1780s and 90s all over the eastern seaboard. The opera was George Washington's favorite theatrical piece.
 Albany enjoyed many productions of this work, including at the Albany Theater in 1809. Newspaper advertisements, cast lists, letters to the editor, and prompter's books survive from these early Albany performances. This presentation will include descriptions of the productions of the early 1800s specific to Albany, as well as an exploration of why this work was so appealing to Americans, even as we geared up to fight the war of 1812. Select scenes from the opera will be performed.
Led by Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, for this special event, the production team includes stage director Sandra Boynton, music director Brett Wery and four members of the cast of the opera---soprano, Emalie Savoy; baritone, E. Philip Schneider
and actors Byron Nilsson and Brian Massman.
Watch for announcements about of the forthcoming full production of The Poor Soldier taking place in January 2009.
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Researching New York | Department of History | New York State Archives Partnership Trust
This page last updated November 15, 2008