Alice Lewisohn (1883–1972) was the founder of the

Neighborhood Playhouse A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

with her sister Irene Lewisohn. Alice was also an actress.

Biography

She was the daughter of Rosalie Jacobs and Leonard Lewisohn. In 1905 she and her sister, Irene Lewisohn, began classes and club work at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York. They produced performances with both dance and drama. In 1915, they opened the

on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets. There they offered training in both dance and drama to children and teenagers. Irene was in charge of the dance training and production, with the assistance of Blanche Talmud. Alice Lewisohn was in charge of the dramatic arts. In 1924 she married artist, cartoonist and designer Herbert E. Crowley. Her father is of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

background. She resided in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland for many years and was part of the

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

inner circle, along with Crowley. The notion of a hermaphroditic God, drawn from

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

, was suggested to Jung by Alice Lewisohn, and commented on by Jung in a dream analysis seminar. In 1927 Lewisohn closed the Neighborhood Playhouse after a dozen years of success, including landmark productions such as 1925's

The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; , ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by S. An-sky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yidd ...

. After the First World War, Lewisohn settled in Zurich with her husband. She died in Zurich 1972 as Alice Lewisohn Crowley.

Publications

The Neighborhood Playhouse
(1959)

Broadway

*Gertrude Kingston and a Visiting Company - The Queen's Enemies, performer: Alice Lewisohn as The Queen (1916) *Back to Methuselah, Part II (The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas), staged by Alice Lewisohn (1922) *The Dybbuk, staged in association with Alice Lewisohn (1925-1926) *Pinwheel, directed by Alice Lewisohn (1927)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewisohn, Alice 1883 births 1972 deaths American people of German-Jewish descent Lewisohn family 20th-century American philanthropists