Group Theatre (New York City)
The Group Theatre was a theater collective based in New York City and formed in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg.[1] It was intended as a base for the kind of theatre they and their colleagues believed in—a forceful, naturalistic and highly disciplined artistry. They were pioneers of what would become an "American acting technique", derived from the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski, but pushed beyond them as well. The company included actors, directors, playwrights, and producers. The name "Group" came from the idea of the actors as a pure ensemble; a reference to the company as "our group" led them to "accept the inevitable and call their company The Group Theatre."[2]
Formation
1931
1941
Theatre group
- Luther Adler
- Stella Adler
- Robert Ardrey
- Marc Blitzstein
- Roman Bohnen
- Phoebe Brand
- Joseph Bromberg
- Morris Carnovsky
- Lee J. Cobb
- Howard da Silva
- Leif Erickson
- Frances Farmer
- John Garfield
- Will Geer
- Michael Gordon
- Paul Green
- Elia Kazan
- Canada Lee
- Robert Lewis
- Eleanor Lynn
- Sanford Meisner
- Harry Morgan
- Ruth Nelson
- Clifford Odets
- John Randolph
- Don Richardson
- Irwin Shaw
- Anna Sokolow
- Paul Strand
- Franchot Tone
The New York–based Group Theatre had no connection with the identically named Group Theatre based in London and founded in 1932.
In the ten years of its existence, the Group Theatre produced works by many important American playwrights, including Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley, Paul Green, Robert Ardrey, and Irwin Shaw. Its most notable productions included Success Story starring Stella Adler and Luther Adler, Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing, Waiting for Lefty, Paradise Lost, and the 1937–38 Broadway hit Golden Boy, starring Luther Adler and Frances Farmer.
The Group Theatre included Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford, Stella Adler (a founding member), Morris Carnovsky, Clifford Odets, Sanford Meisner, Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan (billed as Harry Bratsburg), Robert Lewis, John Garfield (billed as Jules Garfield), Canada Lee, Franchot Tone, Frances Farmer, Phoebe Brand, Ruth Nelson, Will Geer, Howard da Silva, Sidney Lumet, John Randolph, Joseph Bromberg, Michael Gordon, Paul Green, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Strand, Anna Sokolow, Lee J. Cobb, Roman Bohnen, Jay Adler, Luther Adler, Robert Ardrey, Don Richardson and many others.
Influence[edit]
After the war, in 1947, Robert Lewis, Elia Kazan, and Cheryl Crawford founded the Actors Studio, where the techniques inspired by Stanislavski and developed in the Group Theatre were refined. Under the leadership of Lee Strasberg, who later joined the Actors Studio and became its director in 1951, what is now referred to as The Method emerged as a lasting force in modern drama.[20]
Institutionally, the Group Theatre influenced the Chelsea Theater Center, a later theater in New York (1960s and 1970s), born of idealism and destroyed by lack of funding and friction between its co-directors. Harold Prince invokes the group in his foreword to the book Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.[21]
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)[edit]
In the 1950s, many of the former members were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Those who appeared as friendly witnesses, such as Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets, and Lee J. Cobb, avoided the fate of their colleagues who refused to name Communist Party members and, as a result, were blacklisted. Elia Kazan would later state he abandoned his Communist views in part because of an agenda to transform the Group Theatre into a company devoted to promoting "Marxist ideology." Odets would share similar concerns after experiencing pressure from the party to change the direction of his writing.
Mark Kemble's play Names covers the relationship between HUAC and the former members of the Group Theatre.[22]
Notes
Further reading