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The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties (Da Capo Paperback)

The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties (Da Capo Paperback)
By Harold Clurman

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Product Description

The Group Theatre was perhaps the most significant experiment in the history of American theater. Producing plays that reflected topical issues of the decade and giving a creative chance to actors, directors, and playwrights who were either fed up with or shut out of commercial theater, the ”Group” remains a permanent influence on American drama despite its brief ten-year life. It was here that method acting, native realism, and political language had their tryouts in front of audiences who anticipated—indeed demanded—a departure from the Broadway ”show-biz” tradition. In this now classic account, Harold Clurman, founder of the Group Theatre and a dynamic force as producer-director-critic for fifty years, here re-creates history he helped make with Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Irwin Shaw, Clifford Odets, Cheryl Crawford, Morris Carnovsky, and William Saroyan. Stella Adler contributed a new introduction to this edition which remembers Clurman, the thirties, and the heady atmosphere of a tumultuous decade.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #366788 in Books
  • Published on: 1983-03-21
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 352 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The lateHarold Clurman was the author of Lies Like Truth, The Naked Image, On Directing, The Divine Pastime, and All People Are Famous, and was the editor of numerous theater anthologies.

Customer Reviews

A magnificent and inspiring historical document5
The Group Theatre, modeled off of the equally influencial Moscow Art Theatre, was an artistic organization that completely and drastically revolutionized not only American Theatre, but World Theatre as well.

Formed in the 1930's and comprised of what has become a literal who's who of Theatre: Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan, Harold Clurman, Robert Lewis, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford, John Garfield, Sanford Meisner and many others, The Group Theatre sought to create a vibrant and organic native theatre that sought to not only mirror the times but also instigate radical social change.

At no other time in American history has an artistic group been comprised of so many talented individuals focused on one aesthetic and political goal. Despite one's political leanings (make no mistake, The Group Theatre were extreme leftest liberals), The Fervent Years provides and endless and bountiful amount of inspiration and stimulation for any theatre artist.

Clurman writes in a fine dramatic style that boils with passion, wit and insight. The Fervent Years is required reading for all devotees of The Theatre. But don't let that scare you, it is a most entertaining read at the same time.

A wonderful book about a passionate endeavor.5
This book is a beautiful account of the struggles and events surrounding Harold Clurman during his time with the Group Theater. Harold starts off by revealing how his life brought him to establish the Group along with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. It then continues and describes the significant struggles and events encountered by the Group and its members along with some beautiful and extremely important observations Harold made, not only regarding the theater community and its participants, but also about our society in general and its effect on art in general.

This book is an absolute must for any serious actor or director. For that matter, anyone serious about life would gain from reading this book. The Group Theater was a wonderful "experiment" fostered by some very passionate people who not only helped to shape theater in America, but they also played a significant role in laying the groundwork from which some of the best acting and directing has emerged as seen in films and theater since that time.

I stand in disbelief when folks in the "business" don't know about Harold Clurman or the Group Theater and it members.

A Motivating, Historical Piece5
Admittedly, I read this under duress in my "Theatre History Seminar" course in college. However, it turned out to be one of the most inspiring pieces I have ever read.

_The Fervent Years_ chronicles the birth and triumph of The Group Theater. This group of actors, directors, producers, and theater enthusiasts sacrificed time, money, and easy fame to explore the roots of drama. The product of their efforts was the creation of a truly American style of theater.

Although the book has a decidedly theatrical spin, I think that all readers (from all backgrounds and interests) can benefit from reading this excellent piece. Right before I have to face a major challenge, I whip out my copy and give it another read.

Also, Clurman's self-centered, self-celebrating anecdotes never cease to amuse.