Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS."About Harold Clurman"
''American Masters'', PBS, 2 Dec 2003, accessed 15 Nov 2010 He was one of the three founders of New York City's Group Theatre (1931–1941). He directed more than 40 plays in his career and, during the 1950s, was nominated for a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

as director for several productions. In addition to his directing career, he was drama critic for ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' (1948–1952) and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' (1953–1980), helping shape American theater by writing about it. Clurman wrote seven books about the theatre, including his memoir ''The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties'' (1961).

Early life and education

Clurman was born on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

of New York City, the son of

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parents from Kamenets Podolsky, Russia now Ukraine, in Eastern Europe, Samuel, a doctor, and Bertha Clurman.1910 United States Federal Census He had three older brothers, Morris, Albert, and William. His parents took him at age six to

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; na ...

, and Jacob Adler's performances in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

translations of Karl Gutzkow's '' Uriel Acosta'' and

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...

's '' Nathan the Wise'' fascinated him, although he did not understand Yiddish. He attended Columbia and, at the age of 20, moved to France to study at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. There he shared an apartment with the young composer

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

. In Paris, he saw all sorts of theatrical productions. He was influenced especially by the work of Jacques Copeau and the

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...

, whose permanent company built a strong creative force. He wrote his thesis on the history of French drama from 1890 to 1914. Clurman returned to New York in 1924 and started working as an extra in plays, despite his lack of experience. He became a stage manager and play reader for the

Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of ...

. He briefly studied

Stanislavski's system Stanislavski's system is a systematic approach to training actors that the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski developed in the first half of the twentieth century. His system cultivates what he calls the "art of experiencing ...

under the tutelage of Richard Boleslavsky, and became Jacques Copeau's translator/assistant on his production of '' The Brothers Karamazov'', based on the novel by the Russian writer

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

Career

Clurman began work as an actor in New York. He felt that the standard American theater, though successful at the box office, was not culturally significant. 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." Together with the like-minded

Cheryl Crawford Cheryl Crawford (September 24, 1902 – October 7, 1986) was an American theatre producer and director. Biography Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation in 1925, she moved to New York City a ...

and

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American acting coach and actor. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed ...

, he began to create what would become the Group Theatre. In November 1930, Clurman led weekly lectures, in which they talked about founding a permanent theatrical company to produce plays dealing with important modern social issues. Together with 28 other young people, they formed a group that developed a groundbreaking style of theater that strongly influenced American productions, including such elements as Stanislavski-trained actors, realism based on American stories, and political content. By building a permanent company, they expected to increase the synergy and trust among the members, who included

Stella Adler Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. A member of Yiddish Theater's Adler dynasty, Adler began acting at a young age. She shifted to producing, directing, and teaching, founding the ...

, Morris Carnovsky,

Phoebe Brand Phoebe Brand (November 27, 1907 – July 3, 2004) was an American actress. Life Brand was born in Syracuse, New York in 1907 and raised in Ilion, New York, Ilion, Herkimer County, New York. Her father worked for E. Remington and Sons#Remington ...

Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withd ...

, and Sanford Meisner. In the summer of 1931, the first members of the Group Theatre rehearsed for several weeks in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut, at the Pine Brook Country Club. They were preparing ''The House of Connelly'' by Paul Green, their first production, directed by Strasberg. Clurman was the scholar of the group — he knew multiple languages, read widely, and listened to a broad array of music. Strasberg dealt with acting and directing, and Crawford dealt with the business. The first play which Clurman directed for the Group Theatre was '' Awake and Sing!'' by

in 1935. The play's success led Clurman to develop his directing style. He believed that all the elements of a play—text, acting, lighting, scenery and direction—needed to work together to convey a unified message. Clurman would read the script over and over, each time focusing on a different element or character. He tried to inspire, guide and constructively critique his designers rather than dictate to them. He also used Richard Boleslavsky's technique of identifying the "spine," or main action, of each character, then using those to determine the spine of the play. He encouraged his actors to find "active verbs" to describe what their characters were trying to accomplish. In 1937, tensions among Clurman, Crawford and Strasberg caused the latter two to resign from the Group; four years later, the Group Theatre permanently disbanded. Clurman went on to direct plays on Broadway, more than 40 in all, and write as a newspaper theatre critic.

Marriage and family

In 1943 Clurman married

, a charismatic theatre actress and later a renowned New York acting coach. A member of the Group Theatre since its founding, Adler was the daughter of the notable Yiddish actor Jacob Adler. Clurman was her second husband. They divorced in 1960. Clurman's second marriage was to the independent filmmaker Juleen Compton.

Director and drama critic

Clurman had an active career as a director, over the decades leading more than 40 productions, and helping bring many new works to the stage. He is considered "one of the most influential theater directors in America". In addition, Clurman helped shape American theater by writing about it, as drama critic for ''

'' (1948–1952), ''

'' (1953–1980), and '' New York'' (1968). He encouraged new styles of production, such as that of the Living Theater, and championed contemporary plays and playwrights.

Author

He wrote a memoir about the Group Theatre's beginning and their making art within American culture, called ''The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties''. His six other books about the theater include ''On Directing'' (1972); his autobiography, ''All People are Famous'' (1974); ''The Divine Pastime'' (1974); ''Ibsen'' (1977); and ''Nine Plays of the Modern Theater'' (1981). Most of his essays and reviews can be found in ''The Collected Works of Harold Clurman''.

On acting

Uta Hagen in '' Respect for Acting'' credits Clurman with a new perspective on acting. She summarized his approach as demanding the human being within the character:

In 1947, I worked in a play under the direction of Harold Clurman. He opened a new world in the professional theatre for me. He took away my 'tricks.' He imposed no line readings, no gestures, no positions on the actors. At first I floundered badly because for many years I had become accustomed to using specific outer directions as the material from which to construct the mask for my character, the mask behind which I would hide throughout the performance. Mr. Clurman refused to accept a mask. He demanded ME in the role. My love of acting was slowly reawakened as I began to deal with a strange new technique of evolving in the character. I was not allowed to begin with, or concern myself at any time with, a preconceived form. I was assured that a form would result from the work we were doing.

Clurman died a week before what would have been his 79th birthday, on September 9, 1980, in New York City of cancer. He is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens.

Works on Broadway

Note: All works are plays and are the original productions unless otherwise noted. *'' Caesar and Cleopatra'' (1925) ( revival) - actor *''The Goat Song'' (1926) - actor *''The Chief Thing'' (1926) - actor *''Juarez and Maximilian'' (1926) - actor *''Night Over Taos'' (1932) - produced by the Group Theater *''Big Night'' (1933) - produced by the Group Theater *''Men in White'' (1934) - produced by the Group Theater *'' Awake and Sing!'' (1935) - director, produced by the Group Theater *'' Waiting for Lefty'' (1935) - produced by the Group Theater *''Till the Day I Die'' (1935) - produced by the Group Theater *''Weep for the Virgins'' (1935) - produced by the Group Theater *''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'' (1935) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''Case of Clyde Griffiths'' (1936) - co-produced by the Group Theater *'' Johnny Johnson'' (1936) - produced by the Group Theater *'' Golden Boy'' (1937) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''Casey Jones'' (1938) - produced by the Group Theater *''Rocket to the Moon'' (1938) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''The Gentle People'' (1939) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''Awake and Sing!'' (1939) (revival) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''My Heart's in the Highlands'' (1939) - produced by the Group Theater *'' Thunder Rock'' (1939) - produced by the Group Theater *''Night Music'' (1940) - director, produced by the Group Theater *''Retreat to Pleasure'' (1940) - director *''The Russian People'' (1942) - director *'' Deadline at Dawn'' (1945) - movie, director *''Beggars Are Coming to Town'' (1945) - director *''

Truckline Cafe ''Truckline Cafe'' was the title of a 1946 Broadway play written by Maxwell Anderson, directed by Harold Clurman, produced by Elia Kazan, and starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. The short-lived play ran only 10 performances and is best ...

'' (1946) - director and co-producer *'' All My Sons'' (1947) - co-producer *''The Whole World Over'' (1947) - director *''The Young and Fair'' (1948) - director *''

The Member of the Wedding ''The Member of the Wedding'' is a 1946 novel by Southern writer Carson McCullers. It took McCullers five years to complete, although she interrupted the work for a few months to write the novella '' The Ballad of the Sad Café''.McDowell, Mar ...

'' (1950) - director *''The Bird Cage'' (1950) - director *''

The Autumn Garden ''The Autumn Garden'' is a 1951 Play (theatre), play by Lillian Hellman. The play is set in September, 1949 in a summer home in a resort on the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles from New Orleans. The play is a study of the defeats, disappointments ...

'' (1951) - director *'' Desire Under the Elms'' (1952) (revival) - director *''

The Time of the Cuckoo ''The Time of the Cuckoo'' is a play by Arthur Laurents. It focuses on the bittersweet romance between Leona Samish ( Shirley Booth), a single American executive secretary vacationing in Europe and Renato Di Rossi, a shopkeeper she meets in Venic ...

'' (1953) - director *''The Emperor's Clothes'' (1953) - director *''The Ladies of the Corridor'' (1953) - director *''Mademoiselle Colombe'' (1954) - director *''

Bus Stop A bus stop is a place where Public transport bus service, buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelter (building), shelters ...

'' (1955) - director, Tony nomination for Best Director *'' Tiger at the Gates'' (1955) - director, Tony nomination for Best Director *'' Pipe Dream'' (1955) - director, Tony nomination for Best Director *''The Waltz of the Toreadors'' (1957) - director, Tony nomination for Best Director *'' Orpheus Descending'' (1957) - director *''The Day the Money Stopped'' (1958) - director *''The Waltz of the Toreadors'' (1958) (revival) - director *'' A Touch of the Poet'' (1958) - director *'' The Cold Wind And The Warm'' (1958) - director *''

Heartbreak House ''Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes'' is a play written by Bernard Shaw during the First World War, published in 1919 and first performed in November 1920 at the Garrick Theatre, New York, followed by a West ...

'' (1959) (revival) - director *'' A Shot in the Dark'' (1961) - director *'' After the Fall'', '' The Changeling'', '' Incident at Vichy'' - director, and '' Tartuffe'' (all played in

repertory A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom ...

) (1964–1965) - executive consultant to the producer, Repertory Theater of

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

*''Where's Daddy?'' (1966) - director

Legacy and honors

Clurman's legacy is his contribution to the creation of a uniquely American theater. The Harold Clurman Theatre, within the

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

Theatre Row Building The Theatre Row Building is a complex of five Off-Broadway theatres at 410 West 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street on Theatre Row (New York City), Theatre Row in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The building is owned by the 501(c)(3) o ...

complex, was named for him; it has since been renamed Theatre Five, after all theatres in the complex were renamed in a numbered format. Ronald Rand brought Harold Clurman to life in his acclaimed solo play, LET IT BE ART!, which has been performed for 22 years in 26 countries, 20 U.S. states, and at the Theatre Olympics in New Delhi and Kerala. Harold Clurman was awarded the Republic of France's Legion d'Honneur. The Stella Adler and Harold Clurman Collection came to the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 2003. The collection includes original and reproduced materials gathered by Marjorie Loggia. Of particular interest are a handwritten draft of ''The Fervent Years'', a photocopy typescript of "Plans for a First Studio," handwritten and typescript drafts of ''Lies Like Truth'', and an edited typescript of ''Reminiscences: An Oral History''. Among other noteworthy Clurman material are his correspondence (with Stella Adler and others), contracts and royalties, a diary, and theater programs he collected from 1926 to 1930. Clurman is a character in ''Names'', Mark Kemble's play about former Group Theatre members' struggles with the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

Notes

References

Harold Clurman
on Spartacus Educational, retrieved February 26, 2005. * Adler, Jacob, ''A Life on the Stage: A Memoir'', translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, . * *Carnicke, Sharon. ''Stanislavsky in Focus'', Cornwall: TJ International Ltd, 2003. *Clurman, Harold. ''All People Are Famous'' (instead of an autobiography). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974. *Clurman, Harold. ''The Fervent Years''. USA: The Colonial Press Inc., 1961 *Clurman, Harold. ''Ibsen''. Hong Kong: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1978. *Clurman, Harold. ''On Directing'', New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1974. *"Clurman, Harold." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007
Encyclopædia Britannica Online
2 October 2007 *Smith, Wendy. ''Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America, 1931-1940'', New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990.

External links

American Masters,

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...

PBS
Harold Clurman papers, 1938-1978
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

Harold Clurman Collection

, University of Texas at Austin

''Wall Street Journal'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clurman, Harold 1901 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American Jews American theater critics American theatre directors Columbia University alumni Donaldson Award winners University of Paris alumni The Nation (U.S. magazine) people The New Republic people People from the Lower East Side American expatriates in France