On the occasion of the legendary Group Theatre’s 75th anniversary, this is a day of readings, panels, rarely-heard recordings and screenings of unseen footage all dedicated to understanding “The Group Theatre and How it Changed American Culture.”
Schedule:
2:00pm: LEE STRASBERG, presented by Mel Gordon and John Strasberg. A screening of a 1982 interview with Lee Strasberg, a reading of a 1932 affective memory exercise with Robert Ellerman, slide presentations of exercises conducted by the Group and the 1933 performance Men in White.
3:00pm: STELLA ADLER, presented by Mel Gordon and Ellen Adler. A screening of a 1985 interview with Stella Adler, actual recordings of Adler in Success Story (1932) and Awake and Sing (1935), a reading from Adler’s 1934 notes to Constantin Stanislavsky (and Stanislavsky’s response), and a radio broadcast of The Group in Clifford Odets’s Sarah Bernhardt,
4:00pm: HAROLD CLURMAN, presented by Ronald Rand and Mel Gordon. Video interviews on Clurman from Karl Malden and Lee Strasberg, a slide presentation and stage recording of Golden Boy (starring Luther Adler and Frances Farmer,) and rare footage of Group actors reprising their Golden Boy roles
6:30pm: PERFORMANCES AND REPERFORMANCES Readings from the original 1931 Group Theatre Diary, a reading from Ronald Rand’s play “The Group!” with Fritz Weaver, and screenings of the Group Theatre on Film (including 1936 screen tests for Success Story, Awake and Sing and others)
7:00pm: PANEL DISCUSSION: The Group Theatre and How it Changed American Culture with Wendy Smith, Lee Grant, Ellen Adler, Mel Gordon, Ronald Rand, and John Strasberg
New York City, NY; NYC