Twenty-six oversized posters for productions at the Caffe Cino; many designed by Ken Burgess, but others by the playwrights themselves.Includes mixed media works of collage using pieces of glass, photos, paper cut-outs, newsprint, stickers, paint and aluminum foil. Productions represented include plays by Soren Agenoux, Diane Di Prima, Tom Eyen, Robert Heide, H.M. Koutoukas, David Starkweather and Lanford Wilson, among others.
Acquisition: These posters were donated to the New York Public Library by the artists and other figures associated with the Caffe Cino. Most, if not all, were donated between 1982 and 1985, in advance of a major exhibition at the Library for the Performing Arts on the Caffe Cino, co-curated by Magie Dominic and Dorothy Swerdlove.
Biographical/historical: Caffe Cino, a coffee house at 31 Cornelia Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, was at the center of the nascent Off Off-Broadway movement. Founded by Joe Cino in 1958, the Cino staged hundreds of plays, poetry readings, and musical revues. It closed in 1968, a year after the death of Joe Cino.
Physical Description
Extent: 26 posters in 22 folders : color ; 76 cm. x 100 cm. and smaller