“All around me the painters and composers groped for ways to express contemporary society in their work. Where, I wondered, was this parallel activity in theater?”

Harold Clurman has been called the most influential figure in the history of the American theater. Between 1935 and 1980, he directed over forty plays, including Jean Giraudoux’s TIGER AT THE GATES, Eugene O’Neill’s TOUCH OF THE POET, and Arthur Miller’s INCIDENT AT VICHY. He authored seven books, and from 1953 until his death in 1980 he was a drama critic for THE NATION. As the passionate and talented leader of the Group Theatre, Clurman invigorated American theater with his political and artistic idealism.

Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1901, Harold Clurman had his first exposure to theater at the age of six, when his parents took him to see the great Yiddish actor Jacob Adler. Although the young boy knew no Yiddish, he later said of this first play, “…it was a transforming experience. I immediately had a passionate inclination toward the theater.” The vitality of the Yiddish Theater and the community of actors who made it up would long influence Clurman. After leaving home, he attended Columbia and later the University of Paris, where he wrote his thesis on the history of French drama from 1890 to 1914. It was then that Clurman first began to formulate his vision of a new American theater.

On his return to New York the following year, Clurman began a career that would last over half a century. Without any formal training, he made his stage debut as an extra at the Greenwich Village Theater. While acting he also worked as a play reader and involved himself in every aspect of theater. He said, “I was interested in what the theater was going to say…The theater must say something. It must relate to society. It must relate to the world we live in.” He believed that the new American theater would not simply be a place of entertainment, but an opportunity for artists to express their political and spiritual visions.

The dramatic community had reached a point of desperation after the stock market crash of 1929, with the number of new productions in decline and theaters closing by the dozens. Clurman suggested a theater with a permanent acting company. After seeing the Moscow Arts Theater, Clurman knew that if theater was going to succeed it must make radical changes in the acting process. Using Constantin Stanislavsky’s ensemble approach, the actors of the Moscow Arts Theater had presented a play more emotional and realistic than anything that had been on Broadway. Beginning in late 1930, Clurman gave weekly lectures on the benefits of a permanent acting company. He believed that once actors knew and trusted each other they could truly work together to create great theater. This new theater promised to exchange the opportunity of stardom and wealth for a lasting and meaningful community.

By 1931, together with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford, Clurman had gathered 28 others to form the Group Theatre. Among the young troupe’s members were such greats as Stella Adler, Morris Carnovsky, Phoebe Brand, Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets, and Sanford Meisner. The success of the Group Theatre prompted many other companies to embrace the ideas of Stanislavsky. The most successful of the Group Theatre’s plays were those written by Clifford Odets, such as AWAKE AND SING!, GOLDEN BOY, and WAITING FOR LEFTY. Though the Group Theatre lasted only ten years, it produced twenty plays and brought an excitement to the American stage that still remains.

After the closing of the Group Theatre, Clurman brought his vision to Broadway, where he was instrumental in teaching some of the most skilled and successful actors of the time. He worked to insure the theater’s growth by elevating its productions to the level of any other of the great arts. Working with writers such as Eugene O’Neill, Carson McCullers, and Arthur Miller, he created theater that was at once serious and popular, and uniquely American. In recognition of his great influence and commitment to the arts, he was awarded the rare honor of having a Broadway theater named after him. Today, twenty years after his death, Harold Clurman is considered one of the most respected and influential members of the American theater.

In the summer of 1931, three young idealists, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg, were inspired by a passionate dream of transforming the American theater. They recruited 28 actors to form a permanent ensemble dedicated to dramatizing the life of their times. They conceived The Group Theatre as a response to what they saw as the old-fashioned light entertainment that dominated the theater of the late 1920’s. Their vision was of a new theater that would mount original American plays to mirror — even change — the life of their troubled times. Over its ten years and twenty productions, they not only met these goals, but altered the course of American theater forever.

The Group Theatre was a company based on an ensemble approach to acting. First seen in the work of the Moscow Art Theater, the ensemble approach proposed a highly personal and cooperative method. That individual actors played individual parts was no longer important. The focus was on a cast that was familiar and believable as a whole. If the actors had relationships off-stage, then the relationships on stage would not only seem, but be more “real.” As the members of the ensemble grew to know each other, this familiarity was successfully reflected in their work.

Based on the innovative techniques of the Russian master Constantin Stanislavsky, Lee Strasberg came up with “the method.” The method, or “method acting”, as it has come to be known, proposed a series of physical and psychological exercises. It held, for example, that if a part called for fear, the actor must remember fear and bring this honest emotion to the stage. These exercises were meant to break down the actor’s barrier between life on and off the stage. By the time the curtain came down on their first production, “The House of Connelly”, the Group Theater knew they had succeeded. What was important was not simply the enthusiastic response, but that the audience and reviewers had recognized that this one performance signaled a shift in American theater.

The Group Theatre believed what they were doing to be of great political significance. While disregarding the calls for individual fame in an embrace of cooperation. It was not, however, until Clifford Odets, then an actor in the group, wrote “Awake and Sing!” that they found their full voice. His highly charged plays, which were often expressed in the language and circumstances of working-class characters, mirrored the essence of what the group wanted to be and do, fulfilling the dream of a theater speaking to and for its audience. Both audience and critics responded enthusiastically, and such works as “Awake and Sing!,” “Waiting for Lefty, ” and “Paradise Lost” were among the most memorable productions of the decade.

By the late 1930’s however, the cohesiveness of the group began to crumble. The chronic financial problems and long-simmering disputes about “the method” began to chip away at their solidarity. An attempt to solve their financial problems that sent many of the actors to Hollywood (where some stayed) ended in the resignation of both Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. As a last resort, Harold Clurman decided to take on Hollywood stars in an attempt to enhance box office appeal. To many long-time members this seemed a compromise of the fundamental ideals of the group. Even the financial success of Clifford Odets’ “Golden Boy” in 1937 was not enough to halt the decline, and in 1941 the group dissolved.

Despite its relatively short life span, The Group Theatre has been called the bravest and single most significant experiment in the history of American theater, and its impact continues to be felt. Many of the group’s members went on to become leading acting teachers and directors, passing on to subsequent generations the spirit and principles that motivated them. Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and Robert Lewis have counted among their students actors, directors, and playwrights such as Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Gregory Peck, and David Mamet. To this day institutions such as the Actors Studio, founded by Cheryl Crawford, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis continue the tradition of The Group Theatre.