New York City Center's MACHINAL to Be Filmed for NYPL Theatre on Film and Tape Archive

New York Theatre Company has announced that its current off-Broadway production of Machinal will be professionally filmed on Friday, July 11, 2025, for inclusion in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at Lincoln Center. The archival recording ensures that this movement-driven, expressionist staging of Sophie Treadwell’s landmark play will be available to future generations of artists, scholars, and researchers.

Presented at New York City Center Stage (ii), this production marks NYTC’s off-Broadway debut and represents a bold reimagining of Treadwell’s 1928 work. Directed by Amy Marie Seidel (Here There Are Blueberries, The Great Gatsby), the staging integrates tap dance, live foley, and an expanded physical vocabulary created by choreographer Madison Hilligoss to underscore the play’s rhythmic and mechanized structure.

The cast features Katherine Winter, Temidayo Amay, Sam Im, Kimberly Immanuel, Soph Metcalf, Shelley Mitchell, Alice Reys, Veronica Simpson, Hannah Snow, Michael Verre, Alex Lauren, and Annaliese Wilbur.

The production’s creative team includes Colleen Doherty (lighting design), Hahnji Jang (costume design), Brittany Harris (sound design), Rochele Mac (scenic design), Asha Devi (dramaturg), Kimberly Immanuel (associate choreographer), and Grace Cutler (associate director).

Machinal is loosely inspired by the 1927 trial of Ruth Snyder and explores one woman’s rebellion against societal constraint and patriarchal control. Through an expressionist lens, Treadwell’s play examines the psychological toll of conformity and remains a powerful indictment of gendered expectation—resonating with contemporary audiences nearly a century after its premiere.

The filming of Machinal joins a legacy of groundbreaking productions preserved by the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), which has documented live performances since 1970. The archive is housed at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, one of the world’s largest collections dedicated to the performing arts. Now celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Library continues to provide free public access to more than eight million items, including film, audio, manuscripts, and historical ephemera.