Harold Clurman

Early life and education

Clurman was born on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Jewish immigrant parents from eastern Europe, Samuel, a doctor, and Bertha Clurman. He had three older brothers, Morris, Albert, and William. His parents took him at age six to Yiddish theater, here 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. [Adler, 1999, p. 333 (commentary)].

He attended Columbia and, at the age of twenty, 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 especially influenced 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.

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 the 'system' of Konstantin Stanislavski 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 1880 novel by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Career

Clurman began work as an actor in New York. He felt that the standard American theater, though successful at the box office (Smith 4), was not providing the experience which he wanted (Smith 11). 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 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 their first production, The House of Connelly by Paul Green, directed by Strasberg. Clurman was the scholar of the group — he knew multiple languages, read widely, and listened to a broad array of music (Smith 16), while Strasberg dealt with acting and directing, and Crawford dealt with the business side of things.

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 ("On Directing 74"). He tried to inspire, guide and constructively critique his designers, rather than dictate to them (“On Directing” 54). He would also use Richard Boleslavsky's technique of identifying the "spine," or main action, of each character, then using those to determine the spine of the play ("On Directing" 74). He encouraged his actors to find "active verbs" to describe what their characters were trying to accomplish ("On Directing 28"). He believed that Stanislavski's system was good to know and study, but too time-consuming to use fully.

In 1937, tensions between 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 (Smith 422).

Marriage and family

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 actress Juleen Compton. This marriage, too, ended in divorce, though Clurman and Compton remained friends.

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.(See list below.) He is considered "one of the most influential theater directors in America".

In addition, Clurman helped shape American theater by writing about it - he was drama critic for The New Republic (1948–52) and then for The Nation (1953–1980). He encouraged new styles of production, such as that of the Living Theater, as well as championing 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 (reprinted in 1983). His six other books about the theater include his autobiography, All People are Famous (printed in 1974), The Divine Pastime (1974), Ibsen (1977), Nine Plays of the Modern Theater (1981), and On Directing (reprinted 1997). Most of his essays and reviews can be found in The Collected Works of Harold Clurman.

On acting

In Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting, the celebrated actress and acting teacher credits Clurman with a turn-around in her perspective on acting. She summed up 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 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.

Legacy and honors

Clurman's legacy is his contribution to the creation of a uniquely American theater. The Harold Clurman Theatre on Broadway was named for him. Ronald Rand has brought Harold Clurman to life in his acclaimed solo play, LET IT BE ART! for over 15 years in 23 countries and 20 U.S. states. Harold Clurman was awarded the Legion d'Honneur from France.

The Stella Adler and Harold Clurman Collection came to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. The collection includes original and photocopy material gathered by Marjorie Loggia, who edited The Collected Works of Harold Clurman with Glenn Young. 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. Tearsheets and clippings of numerous reviews and essays by Clurman are also present. 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.