NY Public Library's Assistant Curator Annemarie van Roessel on CAFFE CINO

BroadwayWorld.com continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Annemarie van Roessel, Assistant Curator for the Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on CAFFE CINO:

Imagine yourself walking down Sixth Avenue late on a May evening of 1965 and making a quick right onto 4th Street and then another quick left off the beaten track onto Cornelia Street. You see halfway down the street a curious halo of makeshift marquee lights above a modest little storefront at #31 and a large sign in a boarded up window announcing a new play, "With Creatures Make My Way" by H.M. Koutoukas. Hovering across the rest of the storefront, like moths to the flame, are the words "Caffe Cino." Spilling out into the night air you might hear the sounds of riotous applause, or the passionate voice of Maria Callas from a well-worn LP, or the rumbling of an enormous Italian espresso machine. Pull back the curtain at the front door and step inside. You see the walls of the narrow space are encrusted with photographs and posters and artwork. You look up to find the ceiling festooned with twinkle lights and mirror balls and glitter stars. You're surrounded by tiny little tables and chairs, but all the lights are focused on a man playing a Sewer Creature, rhapsodizing to pearl-colored lobster. What is this place? Who is Cino? And what is happening on that tiny stage at the back?

The answers to these questions help unlock one of the greatest troves of the Billy Rose Theatre Division at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. When I thought about which treasure I wanted to highlight in this column, my mind went immediately to the Caffe Cino, now recognized as the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway, not least because it was a moment in theatre history that could so easily have been lost--to the fire that nearly destroyed the Caffe in the late winter of 1965, to the dispersal of immense talent to other stages across the city and far beyond after it closed in 1968, and to the AIDS epidemic that took too many Cino alumni.

A tenacious and inventive retired dancer, Joe Cino opened his small coffeehouse and theatre in that small storefront in Greenwich Village in 1958. There he and a vitally courageous group of friends nurtured experimental and avant-garde theatre and the performing arts for an influential decade, especially providing a safe place for gay voices to be heard. War, sexuality, politics, gender identity, mythology, history, and high camp were all welcome subjects for a night at the Cino. The stage was impossibly small and the sets and costumes often wildly haphazard and inventive. The list of playwrights, actors, directors, artists, and designers who called the Cino home never fails to astound. Charles Stanley, Lanford Wilson, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Helen Hanft, Marshall Mason, Bernadette Peters, Tom Eyen, Doric Wilson, John Guare, Johnny Dodd, Robert Patrick, among many others, all found a welcoming stage and enthusiastic audience for their eclectic and inventive theatrical productions. La MaMa, Judson Poets Theatre, Circle Repertory Company, Playwrights' Workshop, and the lights of Broadway were all made brighter by intersections with the lives and creative expressions of the Caffe Cino family. Tony, Obie, and Pulitzer prizes nominations and awards have gone to many.

After serving as a springboard for so many writers, performers, and artists, Caffe Cino closed in 1968 following Cino's tragic suicide the previous year. The photographs and posters and glitter stars were taken down, the programs and scripts packed away, but so many of these physical items were saved by those who cherished that that small theatre. These men and women made sure the Caffe Cino survived beyond Cornelia Street. And for The New York Public Library, Caffe Cino lives on through the alumni's many astonishingly rich gifts. We now have papers, photographs, and ephemera from Magie Dominic, an actress and poet and core member of the Cino family. A collection of photographs even includes one interior image that bears the traces of the fire. We have pop-art posters created by the artist Ken Burgess to obscure the productions from city officials anxious to close the unlicensed theatre down. James Gossage's photographs document the everyday life of the Caffe. Robert Patrick's papers hold scripts and production files and photographs. And the world of Caffe Cino was even re-created in vibrant detail in an exhibition that opened at The Library for the Performing Arts in 1984, which is also recorded in this small ephemera collection. Beyond all that, the Library has collected writings and memoirs and recordings about the Caffe that tell the story though powerful voices. New York City's theatre history is always being made--and those moments of thrilling creativity are what the Billy Rose Theatre Division shares with anyone who wants to learn more.

Photo Credit: James A. Gossage