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Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Sorbonne, Sorbona, Parigi, Francia
207 Boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris, Francia
Villa d'Alésia, 75014 Paris, Francia
66 Boulevard Pasteur, 75015 Paris, Francia
Mount Carmel Cemetery, 83-45 Cypress Hills St, Glendale, NY 11385, Stati Uniti
Harold
Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American
theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United
States".[1]
He was most notable as one of the three founders of New York City's
Group Theatre (1931–1941). He directed more than 40 plays in his career[1]
and, during the 1950s, was nominated for a
Tony
Award as director for several productions. In addition to his directing
career, he was drama critic for
The New Republic (1948–52) and
The Nation (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).
Clurman was born on the
Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Jewish parents from eastern
Europe,[2]
Samuel, a doctor, and Bertha Clurman.[3]
He had three older brothers, Morris, Albert, and William.[4]
His parents took him at age six to
Yiddish theater, and
Jacob Adler's performances in
Yiddish
translations of
Karl
Gutzkow's
Uriel Acosta and
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing'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. There he shared an apartment with the young composer
Aaron Copland. In Paris, he saw all sorts of theatrical productions. He
was influenced especially by the work of
Jacques Copeau and the
Moscow Art Theatre, whose permanent company built a strong creative force.
He wrote his thesis on the history of French drama from 1890 to 1914.[1]
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. He briefly studied
Stanislavski's system under the tutelage of
Richard Boleslavsky (Carnickle 39), and became
Jacques Copeau's translator/assistant on his production of
The Brothers Karamazov, based on the novel by the Russian writer
Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Clurman began work as an actor in New York. He felt that the standard
American theater, though successful at the box office, was not providing the
experience which he wanted. 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.”[1]
Together with the like-minded
Cheryl Crawford and
Lee Strasberg, 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,
Morris Carnovsky,
Phoebe Brand,
Elia
Kazan,
Clifford Odets, 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.[5][6][7]
The first play which Clurman directed for the Group Theatre was
Awake and Sing! by
Clifford Odets 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.
In 1940 Clurman married
Stella Adler, 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.
[8]
Clurman died on September 9, 1980 in New York City of cancer. He is buried
in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens.
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