Twelve thousand cassettes of the American Theatre Wing's popular seminar series are being distributed through a program funded by Visa.

ATW president Roy A. Somlyo tells Playbill On-Line that the Wing is "in the process of distributing 12,000 cassettes of our seminars through a grant from Visa."

Somlyo said, "We have edited 30 of the seminars down to one hour—instead of the original 90 minutes—and we are sending packages of 30 tapes to 400 libraries, colleges and theatre schools in all 50 states."

The Wing wrote to the educational organizations asking each if they could definitely make us of the materials and only three organizations, just one percent, said no. The edited seminars packaged for schools and universities feature panels dedicated to such typical ATW subjects as performance, design and direction.

"They really are a great educational tool," Somlyo said, "PBS is even putting them on its educational system where there are something like 1,400 colleges subscribing to it. -- By Murdoch McBride