Oral history interview with Lewis Lloyd, 2016

Biographical Note

Lewis Lloyd was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He graduated with a B.A. from Yale University in 1960. In 1974, he earned his master's in public administration from Harvard University's JFK School of Government. From 1962-1974, Lloyd was the owner and operator of Off-Broadway theater, The Pocket Theater, and manager of the international tours for Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He went on to work in arts management roles at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the New York State Council for the Arts, WGBH in Boston and the New England Conservatory. In addition, Lloyd sat on the boards of the Boston Ballet, the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art. He was a founding member of the Foundation for Performance Arts (formerly the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts)

Scope and Contents

Lloyd recounts his childhood spent in Atlantic City. He talks about how his mother was a theater person so he grew up attending performances and being encouraged to think about theater and music. Lloyd details how, upon leaving a job at CBS, he got together with fellow Yale grads to produce musicals. Lloyd describes being introduced to Merce Cunningham by his then girlfriend Barbara Dilley and meeting John Cage at Cunningham's studio. Lloyd reminisces about how Cage sought out his assistance in putting together a season for Cunningham on Broadway. He gives an account of how a series of events caused Cunningham's plans to change, leading to the evolution of the company's European Tour in 1964. Lloyd describes how earlier planning by Alan Soloman led to a hole in the budget, which would have seen dancers go unpaid, and how Rauschenberg lent the production money from his Venice Bienalle prize and saved the tour. Lloyd details the physical challenges preparing for a tour in which Merce wanted to show all 18 works in his repertoire and he recalls arriving in London and the palpable change in the reception of the company upon the shock of receiving such positive reviews there. He also provides an account of the tension in the company around Rauschenberg's growing fame

Subjects

• Arts--Management.
• Arts administrators--Interviews.
• Cage, John.
• Cunningham, Merce.
• Dance--United States--New York.
• Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.
• Interviews.
• Lloyd, Lewis L.--Interviews.
• Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
• Nicifero, Alessandra, 1968- interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Pocket Theater (New York, N.Y.)
• Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008.
• Theater--United States--New York.
• Theatrical producers and directors--20th century.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2016