Group Theatre (New York)

Group Theatre (New York)

The Group Theatre was a New York City theater collective formed by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg in 1931. It was intended as a base for the kind of theater they and their colleagues believed in — a forceful, naturalistic and highly disciplined artistry. They were pioneers of what would become an "American acting technique" derived from the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski, but pushed beyond them as well. The company included actors, directors, playwrights, and producers. The name "Group" came from the idea of the actors as a pure ensemble; there were to be no "stars".

The New York-based Group Theatre had no connection with the identically-named London-based Group Theatre founded in 1932.

In the ten years of its existence, the Group Theatre produced works by many important American playwrights, most notably Clifford Odets and Irwin Shaw. Its most successful production was the 1937-38 Broadway hit Golden Boy, starring Luther Adler and Frances Farmer.

The Group included Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan (billed as Harry Bratsburg), Stella Adler, Robert Lewis, John Garfield (billed as Jules Garfield), Canada Lee, Franchot Tone, Phoebe Brand, Ruth Nelson, Will Geer, Howard Da Silva, John Randolph, Joseph Bromberg, Michael Gordon, Paul Green, Clifford Odets, Paul Strand, Morris Carnovsky, Sanford Meisner, Marc Blitzstein, Anna Sokolow and Lee J. Cobb, Roman Bohnen and many others.