|
The Group Theatre was a New York City theatre collective formed in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. 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; there were to be no "stars". The New York-based Group Theatre had no connection with the identically-named London-based Group Theatre founded in 1932. In the ten years of its existence, the Group Theatre produced works by many important American playwrights, most notably Clifford Odets and Irwin Shaw. Its most successful production was the 1937-38 Broadway hit ''Golden Boy'', starring Luther Adler and Frances Farmer. The Group included Elia Kazan, Harold Clurman, Harry Morgan (billed as Harry Bratsburg), Stella Adler (a founding member), Robert Lewis, John Garfield (billed as Jules Garfield), Canada Lee, Franchot Tone, Frances Farmer, Phoebe Brand, Ruth Nelson, Will Geer, Howard Da Silva, John Randolph, Joseph Bromberg, Michael Gordon, Oscar Saul, Paul Green, Clifford Odets, Paul Strand, Morris Carnovsky, Sanford Meisner, Marc Blitzstein, Anna Sokolow, Lee J. Cobb, Roman Bohnen, Jay Adler, Luther Adler, Robert Ardrey, Don Richardson and many others. ==Early productions== The company's first production was Paul Green's ''The House of Connelly'' on September 23, 1931, at the Martin Beck Theatre. It was an immediate critical success and was recognized for the special ensemble performances which the Group would further develop. Playwright Green, however, was not happy with the more hopeful, upbeat ending that the Group had imposed on his brooding work. The Group's production of John Howard Lawson's ''Success Story,'' which chronicled the rise of a youthful idealist who sacrifices his principles as he rises to the top of the advertising business, won generally favorable reviews for its script, and enthusiastic praise for Luther Adler's starring performance. Later, during the first full season (1933–34), ''Men in White'', written by Sidney Kingsley and directed by Lee Strasberg, became the Group's first financial success and also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Group took on novelist Dawn Powell's dark comedy ''Big Night'', rehearsed it for close to six months and asked for extensive revisions from the playwright. The result was a critical and box-office disaster that ran a scant nine performances. Harold Clurman, who took over the production late in the rehearsal period, later admitted the Group's role in the fiasco. "The play should have been done in four swift weeks — or not at all. We worried it and harried our actors with it for months." On the night of January 5, 1935, some members of the Group participated in a benefit performance for the ''New Theatre Magazine'' (Oscar Saul, editor). Written by Clifford Odets and directed by Odets and Sanford Meisner, the performance of Odets' one-act play ''Waiting for Lefty'', at the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City, became a theatrical legend.〔Clurman, p. 138〕 The play reflects a kind of street poetry that brought great acclaim to the Group, and to Odets as the new voice of social drama in the 'thirties. Odets became the playwright most strongly identified with the Group, and its productions of ''Awake and Sing!'' and ''Paradise Lost'', both directed in 1935 by Harold Clurman, proved to be excellent vehicles for the Group's Stanislavskian aesthetic. The following year they produced the Paul Green-Kurt Weill anti-war musical ''Johnny Johnson'', directed by Strasberg. Elia Kazan directed Robert Ardrey's plays ''Casey Jones'' and ''Thunder Rock'' in 1938 and 1939-40 for the Group Theatre. Oscar Saul wrote "Flight," "Revolt of the Beavers", and "Medicine Show," among others. 〔(Wesleyan Cinema Archives: The Elia Kazan Collection. ) Wesleyan University〕 The Group gathered at different summer locations to rehearse and train intensively for six of its ten years in existence. They spent the summer of 1936 at Pine Brook Country Club, located on a natural lake in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut.〔Images of America, Trumbull Historical Society, 1997, p. 123〕〔The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, Don Wilmeth, p. 21〕 Other summer venues included Brookfield Center, Connecticut (1931);〔Clurman, p. 36〕 Dover Furnace in Dutchess County, New York (1932);〔Smith, Wendy. ''Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America, 1931-1940'' New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, p. 84;〕 Green Mansions in Warrensburg, New York in 1933;〔Smith, p. 139〕 a large house in Ellenville, New York (1934);〔Smith, p. 180〕 and Lake Grove in Smithtown, New York in 1939.〔Smith, p. 364〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Group Theatre (New York)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|