Broadway’s Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre

This edition of PBS' American Masters, 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 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. Sylvia Sidney, 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.