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Brandon Weber
Michael Warner
Meisner Technique
9 October 2014
The Sublimity Turn of Broadway Theatre
When an audience and theatre-people can feel that they are both the answer to one
another, and that both may act as leaders to one another, there we have Theatre in its truest form.
To create such a Theatre is our real purpose (Page 72). Harold Clurmans 1961 novel, The
Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, captured the revolutionary struggle of
creating a non-commercial theatre that will represent the current events on the Broadway theatre
scene. The Group Theatre was a New York City theatre collective formed by three directors
Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg in 1931. The idea of creating such a
theatre was initiated when Clurman, Strasberg, and Sanford Meisner were all in Richard Rodgers
and Lorenz Harts intimate revue Garrick Gaieties of 1925. During the rehearsals of Garrick
Gaieties Strasberg and Clurman hit off particularly well because Strasberg was more passionate
about theatre, while Clurman was interested in the lack of naturalistic literature in most plays. By
having various discussions on the quality of commercial theatre, the two colleagues appointed a
gathering of theatre innovators to enforce their refreshing take on modern theatre. Immanuel
Kants contribution to the aesthetic theory about art would constitute The Group Theatres
mission to be sublime. The mission of theatre would be considered sublime because the era of
the 1930s was closely to the Dionysian characteristics in which would be reflected in The Group
Theatres production.
One of the first people that were recruited in the selection of theatre innovators was
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Cheryl Crawford who worked with Harold Clurman, a play-reader at the time, as the
assistant stage manager with The Theatre Guild. Crawford willingly left her position at The
Theatre Guild because she was empathetic to Clurmans philosophical vision for a change in
theatre. By contributing not only her time, but also financial stability to the founding of this new
theatre she became one of the three directors. Before immersing herself into this theater project,
Cheryl Crawford was born in Akron, Ohio and majored in Drama at Smith College. After
receiving her bachelors degree, she moved to New York City and enrolled into The Theatre
Guilds School. Once Crawford completed her training, the admirable Theresa Helburn hired her
in 1927. Theresa Helburn was an influential figure in the 20
th
century due to being the literary
manager, casting director, and eventually a co-producer of The Theatre Guild. Crawford
maintained a valuable position in selecting, directing, and co-producing The Groups Theatre
plays, including their opening show The House of Connelly.
Lee Strasberg was born in Budaniv to Jewish parents who in 1909 the family reunited
after the slight separation from each other in Lower East Manhattan. Although being a straight-A
student, dropping out of high school became a loophole of opportunities for him. A close relative
introduce him into the world of theater by giving him a small part in a Yiddish-language
production performed with the Progressive Drama Club. Philip Loeb sensed that Strasberg had
the gift to act and encouraged him to continue with his undeniable talent. When Lee was twenty-
three years old, he enrolled into the Clare Tree Major School of Theater, but quickly left the
program in order to study with Constantine Stanislavskis students Maria Ouspenskaya and
Richard Boleslavsky. Stanislavski taught his intriguing technique at The Moscow Art Theatre in
which he built by using the wealth of his family in 1898. The venue was conceived for
naturalistic, in contrast to the melodramas that were becoming dominant in the theatre scene in
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Russia. The Stanislavski System is a progression of techniques to train actors to draw
believable emotions to their performances. The aim of the system was to enable the actor to use
himself more consciously as an instrument for the attainment of truth on stage. It was based off
the concept of emotional memory for which an actor focuses internally to portray a characters
emotion on stage. Lee Strasberg used many exercises and warm-ups from this technique while
training the actors for The Group Theatres performances. The Actors Committee for The
Group Theatre expressed some of their opinions of Strasberg in a resolution document. Lees
great courage, his doggedness, his arbitrariness, his need to be right, his cold scorn of artistic
compromise, his clannishness, his removal from life, his hysterical force (used as threat) and
above all brute domineering of his will. We believe that Lee under the new organization should
relieved for some time of all, but purely artistic tasks... (Page 194)
On September 18, 1901, Harold Clurman was born on the Lower East side of Manhattan.
His parents took him to see Yiddish theater at the age six; the performances by Jacob Adler
fascinated him. After attending Columbia, he would soon move to France to study at The
University of Paris. He shared an apartment with his friend Aaron Copland, a talented composer,
in Paris. In my eyes, the theatre seemed to become ever less important. I enjoyed seeing plays
but my mind was left dissatisfied (Page 5). Nonetheless, influenced by the work of Jacques
Copeau, Clurman returned to New York City and started working as an extra in plays. To expand
his knowledge he decided to play read and stage-manage for The Theatre Guild along side
Cheryl Crawford. By having the likelihoods of Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford on his side
they started changing the view of American Theatre with shows like Men in White, Waiting for
Lefty, Awake and Sing, and their biggest hit Golden Boy all produced under the rights of The
Group Theatre. The balance amongst the trio was set in stone and affected the ambiance of the
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theater. Lee Strasberg was the main director and acting technique trainer, Cheryl
Crawford was the second director and provided funding for most of the shows, and Harold
Clurman was dramaturgy management director due to the lack of directorial hits. Clurman also
manufactured himself to become the push over in the group. The amount of plays and
questionable directional approaches, he let them slide because he thought the audience would
appreciate the contrast of glamorized theatre. Some individuals like Stella Adler had her own
vibrant opinions about the way The Group Theatre seasons fell among the theater circuit.
Disregarding her opinions on the success of the theater company, Stella Adler fell in love with
Harold. The relationship was perceived as awkward, yet intriguing because Adler was interested
not only to be known as an overly diverse actress, but creating her own revolutionary acting
technique.
There were other actors who provided a substantial amount of significance in artistic
achievement, such as Elia Kazan. Elia Kazan was a Greek American director, producer, writer
and actor, described by The New York Times as one of the most honored and influential directors
in Broadway and Hollywood history. He joined The Group Theatre after attending two years at
The Yale School of Drama during the second summer production. Some of his notable works
include A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and East of Eden. Another great influence
was Clifford Odets, who is from Philly and after sitting through ten meetings with Harold
Clurman spewing lectures at him, understood what he was trying to contribute to theater. He
became the main playwright for The Group Theatre, yet his some of his earlier works were
considered inconceivable left-wing propagandas. Odets major hit play was Golden Boy due to
focus on interpersonal relationships affected by moral dilemmas. Last, but not least Sanford
Meisner had a large impact on theater due to his technique that evolved from Method Acting. He
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totally abandoned the use of affective memory and emphasized the art of doing. As
well as being apart of The Group Theatres productions as one of the main actors, he became the
head of the acting program at The Neighborhood Playhouse after the disbanding The Group
Theatre. Also he was one of the first teachers to teach at the renounce Actors Studio.