Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre, from "American Masters"

PBS American Masters presents Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Season 3, Episode 8
This edition, hosted by Joanne Woodward, examines the Group Theatre with the help of archival photographs, readings, performance clips, and interviews with individuals associated with the group. Woodward begins with a brief history of the Group Theatre, an ensemble founded by Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, and Cheryl Crawford in 1931, and reads from Clurman's book about that period explaining his theories of acting based on real life. Strasberg, Clurman, Crawford, and original members Eunice Stoddard and Ruth Nelson describe its founding and the influence of the Moscow Art Theatre. Robert Lewis, Stella Adler, and Margaret Barker recall being invited to join the group, and Katharine Hepburn remembers dismissing the Group as contrary to her plan of becoming a star. Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand then explain the Group's method of working together and developing technique. The program's second segment focuses on the Group's summer camp program in Brookfield Center, CT. The original members share memories about the communal living arrangements, and Maria Tucci, James Naughton, and Paul Newman read aloud from writings chronicling those days. In the next segment dealing with "Method Acting" and Strasberg's development of Constantin Stanislavsky's theories, Lewis begins by explaining Strasberg's theories about recalling past lived events and emotions in order to make the acting process more real. Strasberg then leads actress Ellen Burstyn through an emotional memory exercise to demonstrate this process, and Lewis leads a master class to illustrate Strasberg's process of relaxation and energizing. The third segment looks at the Group's rehearsals. Nelson reveals the process used to prepare for a play, Barker and Michael Gordon praise the ensemble attitude, and Lewis, Stoddard, and Gerrit Tony Kraber recall living together in a group apartment during the Depression. The next segment deals with internal strife within the Group when Stella Adler repeats to Strasberg some criticisms of him made by Stanislavsky; and Nelson, Barker, and Lewis remember rebelling against Strasberg for his berating attitude toward actors. Next, the program looks at the Clifford Odets play "Awake and Sing," with parts written specifically for members of the company. Footage is then shown of the original production featuring Luther Adler and Phoebe Brand. Carnovsky also recreates his signature role of the grandfather in this drama. Clurman, Crawford, and Nelson discuss the importance of Odets's plays and his use of street language in the theater. Tucci, Naughton, Newman, and Kate Burton read from his "Waiting for Lefty"; Nelson, Lewis, and Shelley Winters talk about the original production and its tremendous influence on the union movement of the 1930s; and Woodward introduces the subject of how members' careers were ruined by the blacklisting of the McCarthy era. In the segment on Hollywood, Crawford explains how she arranged for Walter Wanger to hire the company to appear in films until they could get back on their feet financially, and the disagreement about this move within the Group. Examples of work from this period are seen with Stella Adler in "Love on Toast," John Garfield in "Four Daughters," and Elia Kazan's screen test. "Golden Boy," the first of their plays to hire "star" talent from outside of the company, is shown in rehearsal with Dylan McDermott, as well as in the 1939 movie version. Sylvia Sidney, another star, who along with Franchot Tone, was convinced to work with the Group, discusses her experiences there, and Woodward reads from Clurman's 1941 New York Times article about the closing of the Group Theatre. The program's final scene features Shelley Winters speaking about the Group Theatre's commitment to the idea of acting with a view to social consciousness.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Rosalind P. Walter, 1999.

[@strangersname]

Lee was a monster. Look how he treats the actress at 23:00. I've seen teachers like that and Lee was the epitome. In fact, many of the actors that became famous after "studying" with Strasberg at the Actors Studio had _already_ studied with Sanford Meisner at Neighborhood Playhouse. Meisner could be irritable and impatient but never treated actors like Strasberg.

[@theexpresidents]

Monster? You are from the snowflake generation, clearly.

[@brit888]

Academy Award winning actress and Actors Studio member Lee Grant has said many times in interviews that she didn't feel comfortable with Strasberg's more regimented approach, that it was like he was up on a pedestal and you had to treat him as a god who you had to depend on. She said Meisner on the other hand (who was her first and most influential acting teacher) wanted his actors to always be searching and trying new things, and that he always encouraged them to fly. So many of the Meisner trained actors have the greatest things to say about him.

[@p_nk7279]

Brando even delivers his ‘I’m Marlon Brando’ line with full Brandoisms.

[@spiritproductions5213]

I am a former drama teacher turned educational theatre consultant. A VHS copy of the original PBS showing was an essential part of my advanced theatre courses, and my students found it riveting and so inspirational. I have tried for 15 years to find this program on DVD or in PBS archives in order to share it with the students and teachers I work with--to no avail. I am so grateful it has been posted. I had to immediately click to Shelley Winters' speech and watch it. I'm sitting here with a giant smile on my face and tears in my eyes. I can't wait to share this piece of history with other actors and directors.

[@stellaadlerstudio]

It truly is a wonderful documentary! Be sure to also watch the Harold Clurman and Stella Adler docs we also posted.

[@theexpresidents]

The speech at the end? With the Shaw quote?

[@jwelch5742]

This program won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special.

[@dontizzle125]

Amazing! I'm so grateful for this group! The group only lasted for ten years, but this group legacy lives on well past those years!

[@lifeandfaith]

Morris Carnovsky's reading of Awake and Sing brought tears to my eyes.

[@ADDIDASSSSSSSSSSSSSS]

All the great and moving acting in film, television and theater all has its roots and is thanks to the Group Theater. I only wish more people knew of the enormous contribution of the Group Theater and their profound contribution and impact on the craft of acting. Thank you for posting this magnificent documentary.

[@principeturandot4593]

There are no words to express my gratitude! Along with many others online, I've been looking for this documentary for years. Thank you. 🙏🏼It’s an illuminating documentary about our theatre history; it complements the Adler and Clurman films in this series so well. And what a pleasure to get a few more magical glimpses of Stella!!!Best wishes! ★♥★♥★♥★

[@spiritproductions5213]

Jonathan, I have also!! So excited to find this!!!

[@alineonthewall]

thank you for posting this. I'm fascinated by the Group.

[@HUMOURLOGIST]

Brilliant!! Wish I was born in that era and was member of that great group. They were all so devoted and driven to create, create something great.

[@lynnturman8157]

Just read Joan Kramer's and David Heeley's account of this (they were the filmmakers) in their book IN THE COMPANY OF LEGENDS. Fascinating. I wish somebody would upload their documentary on Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman that they made for 20/20.

[@p_nk7279]

The question re the Classics is interesting too - with Odets and then shortly Arthur Miller, there will soon be American classics to do in the theatre!

[@MarkMezadourian]

Thank you so much for posting this.

[@CelioMancias]

Love all the information. Thank you for sharing.

[@michaelzacariasbenjamingla4651]

56:56 ... The dream was reality... and reality is the dream.

[@p_nk7279]

Brando touts Stella Adler and pretty much rejects Strasberg’s approach. I recommend the recentish book ‘The Method’ - it’s fascinating and detailed about the beginnings of the group, Stanislavsky, the Moscow Theatre. It doesn’t do as well on the recent dudes (DeNiro, Pacino, etc.) but it covers the origins really well.

[@armenbenson4519]

At 19 minutes into this documentary, you come to the point where Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler diverge, and very profoundly so, but, a thing going unrecognized, until some time into the future. The separation being where: Strasberg, and his "Method" asks the actor to go back, in time, and immerse himself into some older memory, in order to recall, drum up, its situation, its surroundings, its depth or lack of, its sounds and colors, finally, exactly, itself and its feeling, again...Stella would call that wrong. She anticipated it would lead to a certain sickness, in the actor...as he or she tries to duplicate a past association with an older, once real, now by-gone, feeling...but more importantly, within the acting, and finally, in the theatre, itself. I never studied the Strasberg-ian "method", but I have seen, witnessed, its results, its consequences, in people who have studied this type of technique. Stella was right. You witness performances lacking in the purity of imagination, replaced by a "thing" that Robert Lewis said, in this documentary, that Lee Strasberg condemned as wrong, abhorred, and said was born of the old fashioned Broadway-style of acting, as "indicating". You, the actor, aim for a feeling, instead of a "doing"...the latter being the one essential ingredient in truthful acting. Also being the foundation of the Stanislavsky "system" of acting. By aiming for, reproducing merely an old feeling, through what Strasberg entitles "sense memory", the actor puts himself inside the corral of that sense memory, which tries to lead him to a feeling. And, by this one, overbearing process, curtails any entrance into the newer, real-er world of the more creative imagination...by replacing it with a duplication of an old sense of the "truth". The faker feeling, rather than the real truth, the objective. Yes, this is a long analysis, to a short theme. Stella insisted the modern American theatre has replaced the mind with the feelings. See her own UTube videos and documentary of her biography. There is no mind in the American, possibly all, theatre, now and, perhaps, into the future. The mind and thinking, for Stella, was, is, the gateway to the feelings. Without that pathway, to lead you to your higher feelings, you are stuck on the lowest levels of our animal natures...those that take you round and round, but lead you nowhere significant. Yes, I know. Having studied, and been an intimate friend of, this greatest of all persons in the modern theatre.

[@valdeswright8069]

This is an excellent analysis of the flaw in Strasberg's "Method".

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

How do you account for all the great actors who had nothing to do with Strasberg or Adler?

[@stevenfrasier5718]

GOLD!!!

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

The self-importance of this group rankles when one considers the amount of fine, legendary acting that went on outside the group.

[@dioncampbell2393]

What do you mean self-importance? These are the greatest American theatre artists of the twentieth century. They were and continue to be important today.

[@marisolpadillasanchez656]

How about Richard Boloslovsky! Haven’t got to hear about him yet? …..?

[@JaimitoAzteca281]

👌👍👏

[@Will-kv6es]

I would love to be able to study online with people from this school. Via Skype or something similar.