The Group Theater In The 1920's

The Group Theatre was created, in 1931, by a group of people who had a unified desire to create a kind of theatre that would positively impact an America that was wrapped in depression. The founders, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg wanted to form a permanent ensemble that was dedicated to dramatizing society as they saw it and the group ended up being a response to what they saw as old-fashioned, light entertainment that dominated theatre of the 1920s. The Group Theatre started its journey as a vision in Harold Clurman’s mind. At the time, Clurman was a play reader for the Theatre Guild in New York City. He would talk about his revolutionary vision for theatre in front of a small group of friends and colleagues at the Hotel

Unlike Clurman, Strasberg’s family was not wealthy. His brother, who was also his best friend, died in 1918 and shortly after his death, Strasberg dropped out of high school and taking an interest in theatre, joined the Students of Arts and Drama Club at the Chrystie Street Settlement House. Philip Loeb, the casting director for the Theatre Guild, took notice of Strasberg while he was the Chrystie Street Settlement House and asked if he wanted to act professionally. He plainly declined. Similar to Clurman, Strasberg was inspired to fully delve into theatre after seeing the work of the Moscow Art Theatre. On January 9, 1923, the MAT performed The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters, The Lower Depths, or The Brothers Karamozov in New york which Strasberg witnessed. Strasberg was astounded by The “intense psychological realism of the acting, the sense of characters’ inner life resonating in every line and movement” (Smith 13) There were two things that captured him : every actor on stage, no matter the size of the role, was giving equally effective performances; and the realization that the quality of superb acting was no accident. “Obviously, this truth and reality was achieved by some singular process or procedure of which we in the American theatre had little knowledge” (Strasberg 38) After this experience, Strasberg enrolled in Clare Tree Major School of Theatre to make acting his career. He was striving to be the actor he saw at MAT and the things he was learning at this current school were not getting him to where he wanted to be. Knowing his desires, a classmate mentioned that two former members of the Moscow Art Theatre were going to teach acting at a place called the American Laboratory Theatre so Strasberg left the Clare Tree Major School to take advantage of this