Partner Paul Thek
Queer Places:
96 Perry St, New York, NY 10014
Peter
Francis Harvey (born January 2, 1933) is an American theatrical stage and costume designer. His work has appeared in Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and international theatre productions. During the late 1950s, Harvey designed sets for several regional theatres, including the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida and the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. The work of
Broadway's gay and lesbian artistic community went on display in 2007 when the
Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation Gallery presents "StageStruck: The Magic of
Theatre Design." The exhibit was conceived to highlight the achievements of
gay and lesbian designers who work in conjunction with fellow gay and lesbian
playwrights, directors, choreographers and composers. Original sketches,
props, set pieces and models — some from private collections — represent the
work of over 60 designers, including Peter Harvey.
Peter Francis Harvey was born on January 2, 1933, in Quirigua, Guatemala, the son of Francis William
Harvey and ZenaErica Henriquez. Harvey first stage work as set designer was
for the ballet Pantomime for Lovers at Dade County Auditorium, Miami, FL, in
1954.
Paul Thek moved to Miami and worked in several different occupations. Thek met set designer Peter Harvey in Miami Beach in 1954. He had been supporting himself as a hustler while developing his art.
Wilbur Pippin, a friend, introduced Thek and Harvey to the renowned mid-century photographer
George Platt Lynes. Thek formed a partnership with Harvey, who would design for
George Balanchine and who introduced him to artists, composers and writers, among them
Tennessee Williams.
Harvey graduated from the University of Miami in Coral Gables in the spring of 1955 and immediately secured work doing theatrical set design, earning enough money to support Thek and free him from having to hustle to support himself.
In 1956, on a trip to Key West, Thek and Harvey visited with Tennessee Williams, whose play Orpheus Descending was produced at the Coconut Grove Playhouse with sets by Peter Harvey.
Wilbur Pippin (1924-2003), Untitled (Peter Harvey and Paul Thek in NYC), 1956, Digital enlargement, 10.75 x 10.75 in., Collection of Peter Harvey
Theodore Newman (1933-1975), Peter and Two Pauls in Rhode Island (Peter Harvey, Paul Fisher, and Paul Thek) 1957, Contemporary gelatin silver print from original negative, 10.25 x 10.25 in., Collection of Peter Harvey, L2013.03.25
Paul Thek, Untitled (Albert Aleknavorich and Peter Harvey), 1956, Digital enlargement, 7.5 x 7.5 in, Collection of Peter Harvey
Intending to summer in Kennebunkport, Maine, Harvey was designing sets and Thek was to be the house manager of a summer stock theater, but quit after a few weeks. The campy Albert, a long time friend of Harvey’s, was beaten to death by a gay basher in San Francisco in the 1970s. L2013.10.14
George Black, Miami Photo (Richard Leavitt, Peter Harvey, Tennesee Williams, and Paul Thek), 1957 Gelatin silver print, Collection of Peter Harvey L2012.2.49
Wilbur Pippin, Untitled (Peter Harvey), 1956, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in., Collection of Peter Harvey, L2012.2.28
Wilbur Pippin, Paul Thek and Peter Harvey, NYC 1956, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in., Watermill Center Collection, L2013.06.16
Peter Hujar and
Joe Raffael visited
Paul Thek and Peter Harvey in Florida in 1956. Harvey was working when the three others decided to visit the Deering estate, Villa Vizcaya, in Miami’s Dade County. They entered the unrestored boat house and, handing the camera back and forth among themselves, produced a series of images never before publicly exhibited. Peter Harvey notes that even in 1956, they knew
James Deering, who built Villa Vizcaya, was queer and that the estate was therefore historically gay ground. These photographs anticipate Hujar’s developing interest in abandoned sites, such as the series done in conjunction with
David Wojnarowicz in New
Jersey in the 1980s.
Harvey and Thek moved to New York City, and they shared a house in Greenhill, Rhode Island. Peter Hujar probably met Joe Raffael at San Remo, a mixed queer/artist’s bar near Cooper Union. Before his involvement with Hujar, Raffael had been in a relationship with
Jules Perlmutter. After Thek’s return to New York in 1959, his artistic circle of friends included Hujar, as well as Raffaele, artist Eva Hesse and Ann Wilson, in addition to Gene Swenson and
Susan Sontag. During the 1970s, Thek lived in Italy, where he created many works in conjunction with Hujar. Both Hujar than Thek died due to AIDS complications, in 1987 and 1988 respectively.
In the early 1970s Harvey was mainly living in a loft on Prince Street, across from a big painted billboard for pinking shears. His friend Richard David Flagg was subletting 96 Perry, and Richard in turn would have a series of flatmates using the bedroom at the south end of the apartment. Big living room, but everything was pretty bare and austere. When The Children's Mass folded after a week in May 1973,
Harvey and Flagg brought Tennessee Williams along to the big dinner. He was in town appearing in his "Small Craft Warnings." Tennessee told playwright Fred Combs that the problem with the "The Children's Mass" was that it didn't have a dog. "People lak dawgs." Flagg was a stage manager. He worked on several off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows, like as production assistant for Welcome to Andromeda/Variety Obit. He was assistant stage manager on the national tour of The Bob and Ray Show and served in the same capacity for Children's Mass at the Theater De Lys. He was also stage manager for The Faggot, his third production at Judson Theatre.
Other Harvey's credits, all in New York City unless indicated, are: The
Confederates, Theatre Marquee, 1959; Noontide, Theatre Marquee, 1961; The
Thracian Horses, Orpheum Theatre, 1961; One Way Pendulum, East 74th Street
Theatre, 1961; Plays for Bleecker Street, Circle in the Square, 1962; Put It
in Writing, Theatre de Lys, 1963; The Immoralist, Bouwerie Lane Theatre, 1963;
Baby Want a Kiss, Little Theatre, 1964; All Women Are One, Gate Theatre, 1965;
The Sweet Enemy, Actors Playhouse, 1965; All in Good Time, Royale Theatre,
1965; Good Day, Cherry Lane Theatre, 1965; The Exhaustion of Our Son's Love,
Cherry Lane Theatre, 1965; The Mad Show, New Theatre, 1966; Hooray! It's a
Glorious Day ... And All That, Theatre Four, 1966; The Death of the Well Loved
Boy, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1967; Walking to Waldheim, Happiness, both Forum
Theatre, 1967;
The Boys in the Band, Theatre Four, 1968; Red Cross, Muzeeka, both Provincetown Playhouse, 1968; Sweet Eros, Witness, both Gramercy Arts Theatre, 1968; Dames at Sea, Bouwerie Lane Theatre, 1968; The Boys in the Band, Wyndham Theatre, London, 1969; Dames at Sea, Duchess Theatre, London, 1969; Watercolor, Criss-Crossing both American National Theatre Academy (ANTA) Playhouse, 1970; Transfers, Village South Theatre, 1970; Park, John Golden Theatre, 1970; Exchange, Mercer-O'Casey Theatre, 1970; One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger, Actors Playhouse, 1970; The Nuns, Cherry Lane Theatre, 1970; The Survival of St. Joan, Anderson Theatre, 1971; Johnny Johnson, Edison Theatre, 1971;
Welcome to Andromeda, Variety Obit, both Cherry Lane Theatre, 1973; The Children's Mass, Theatre de Lys, 1973; Gloria and Esperanza, ANTA Playhouse, 1973; Sextet, Bijou Theatre, 1974; Kaboom!, Bottom Line Theatre, 1974; The Government Inspector, Hartman Theatre, Stamford, CT, 1975; Unsung Cole, Circle Repertory Theatre, 1977; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the- Moon Marigolds, Biltmore Theatre, 1978; Songs of Joy and Sorrow (ballet), Colorado Ballet, Denver,CO, 1980; Cyrano de Bergerac, Santa Fe Festival, Santa Fe, NM, 1981; Firebird 2006 (ballet), Colorado Ballet, 1981; Jane Avril, Provincetown Playhouse, 1982; a/k/a Tennessee, South Street Theatre, 1982; Rhinestone, Richard Allen Center, 1982; Dames at Sea, Asolo State Theatre, Sarasota, FL, 1984; PS 193, 1962;
Noye's Fludde (opera), 1964; Concerning Oracles (ballet), 1966; The Jewels (ballet), 1967; a dramatized anthology of Puerto Rican short stories, 1971; Black Picture Show, 1975; Straws in the Wind, 1975; The Sorrows of Frederick the Great, 1976; A Midsummer Night's Dream (ballet), Zurich, Switzerland, 1978; The Nutcracker (ballet), New Jersey Ballet, 1980; Who Cares? (ballet), Zurich, Switzerland, 1980; Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (ballet), Zurich, Switzerland, 1980; Boris Godunov(opera), 1986; Foggy Day, 1987.
He was also the set designer for four ballets, Dance in America, at PBS.
His last known work was as set designer for Foggy Day, 1987, in New York City.
Harvey Co-curated with Jonathan David Katz the exhibition "Paul Thek and
His Circle in the 1950s," April 12 - July 7, 2013: The storied homophobia of
the 1950s hardly reached the young Paul Thek or the young men in his circle.
His early work, arguably the gayest of his entire career, is filled with
images of his lovers and close friends, including other artists such as Peter
Harvey, Peter Hujar and Joseph Raffael.
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