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The Cradle Will Rock
''The Cradle Will Rock'' is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. A Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed, it includes a panoply of social figures. Set in "Steeltown, USA", it follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers and combat wicked, greedy businessman Mr. Mister, who controls the town's factory, press, church, and social organization. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein included popular song styles of the time. The WPA temporarily shut down the project a few days before it was to open on Broadway. To avoid government and union restrictions, the show was performed on June 16, 1937 with Blitzstein playing piano onstage and the cast members singing their parts from the audience."Steel Strike Opera Is Put Off By WPA". ''The New York Times''. June 17, 1937, p. 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for ''The Cradle Will Rock'' and for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera '' Regina'', an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play ''The Little Foxes''; the Broadway musical ''Juno'', based on Seán O'Casey's play '' Juno and the Paycock''; and ''No for an Answer''. He completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' and of Brecht's play ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as ''Surf and Seaweed'' (1931) and '' The Spanish Earth'' (1937), and he contributed two songs to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints. History Early years In 1924, Richard Simon's aunt, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, asked whether there was a book of ''New York World'' crossword puzzles, which were very popular at the time. After discovering that none had been published, Simon and Max Schuster decided to launch a company to exploit the opportunity.Frederick Lewis Allen, ''Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s'', p. 165. . At the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. They pooled , equivalent to $ today, to start a company that published crossword puzzles. The new publishing house used "fad" publishing to publish bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
48th Street Theatre
The 48th Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 157 West 48th Street in Manhattan. It was built by longtime Broadway producer William A. Brady and designed by architect William Albert Swasey. The venue was also called the Equity 48th Street Theatre (1922–25) and the Windsor Theatre (1937–43). History The 48th Street Theatre opened on August 12, 1912, with the play '' Just Like John'' by George Broadhurst. Early successes at the theatre included '' Never Say Die'' (1912), ''Today'' (1913), ''The Midnight Girl'' (1914), '' Just a Woman'' (1916), '' The Man Who Stayed at Home'' (1918), '' The Storm'' (1919), and ''Opportunity'' (1920) starring Nita Naldi. The Theatre was briefly named the Equity 48th Street Theatre from the premiere of '' Malvaloca'' on October 2, 1922, until the premiere of '' Spooks'' on June 1, 1925. During this period they had a successful revival of Henrik Ibsen's ''The Wild Duck''. On April 18, 1926, the theatre featured the professional debut o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiram Sherman
Hiram Sherman (February 11, 1908 – April 11, 1989) was an American actor. Biography Hiram Sherman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Clifford Leon Sherman, worked in the art department of ''The Boston Globe''. He made his Broadway debut as a playwright with the short-lived comedy ''Too Much Party'' in 1934. The farce, directed by William Friedlander, opened at the Theatre Masque on March 5, 1934, and closed after only eight performances. It proved to be his sole attempt at writing. Two years later he made his Broadway debut as an actor in the Federal Theatre Project's ''Horse Eats Hat''. Additional theatre credits include the inaugural Mercury Theatre productions ''Caesar'' and ''The Shoemaker's Holiday'', ''Very Warm for May'', ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', ''Boyd's Daughter'' (which he also directed), '' Mary, Mary'', and '' 3 for Tonight''. He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for '' Two's Company'' and ''How Now, Dow Jones''. Sherman debut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesar (Mercury Theatre)
''Caesar'' is the title of Orson Welles's innovative 1937 adaptation of William Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'', a modern-dress bare-stage production that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Considered Welles's highest achievement in the theatre, it premiered November 11, 1937, as the first production of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Production Breaking with the Federal Theatre Project in 1937, Orson Welles and John Houseman founded their own repertory company, which they called the Mercury Theatre. The name was inspired by the title of the iconoclastic magazine, ''The American Mercury''. The original company included such actors as Joseph Cotten, George Coulouris, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ruth Ford, Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel, John Hoysradt, Whitford Kane, Norman Lloyd, Vincent Price, Erskine Sanford, Stefan Schnabel and Hiram Sherma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Theatre (New York City)
The Comedy Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan that opened in 1909. It presented the first Broadway appearances of Katharine Cornell and Ruth Draper, as well as Eugene O'Neill's first Broadway play. Shuttered in the wake of the Depression, it reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre — the venue for Orson Welles's groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'' and other productions for the Mercury Theatre repertory company. In 1939 it began presenting classic Yiddish theatre. The building was demolished in 1942. History Architect D. G. Malcolm designed the Comedy Theatre, a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan, for The Shubert Organization. Its first production, ''The Melting Pot'', opened September 6, 1909. The 687-seat theatre was a venue for more intimate productions, and was often leased to producers including William Collier, Cecil B. DeMille, and the Washington Square Players. Katharine Cornell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players. History Its original purpose was to produce non-commercial works by American and foreign playwrights. It differed from other theaters at the time in that its board of directors shared the responsibility of choosing plays, management, and production. The Theatre Guild contributed greatly to the success of Broadway from the 1920s throughout the 1970s. The Guild has produced a total of 228 plays on Broadway, including 18 by George Bernard Shaw and seven by Eugene O'Neill. Other major playwrights introduced to theatre-going Americans include Robert E. Sherwood, Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Howard, William Saroyan, and Philip Barry. In the field of musical theatre, the Guild has promoted works by Richard Rodgers, teame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Deutsch
Helen Deutsch (21 March 1906 – 15 March 1992) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and songwriter. Biography Deutsch was born in New York City and graduated from Barnard College. She began her career by managing the Provincetown Players. She then wrote theater reviews for ''The New York Herald-Tribune'' and ''The New York Times'', as well as working in the press department of the Theatre Guild. Her first screenplay was for ''The Seventh Cross'' (1944), based on Anna Seghers's 1942 novel of the same name. She adapted Enid Bagnold's novel, ''National Velvet'' into a screenplay that became a famous film (1944) starring Elizabeth Taylor. After writing a few films (''Golden Earrings'' (1947), '' The Loves of Carmen'' (1948) and '' Shockproof'' (1949) ) for Paramount and Columbia Pictures, she spent the greater part of her career working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. There, she wrote the screenplays for such films as ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1950), ''Kim'' (1950), ''It's a Big C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olive Stanton
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'Montra', dwarf olive, or little olive. The species is cultivated in all the countries of the Mediterranean, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and South Africa. ''Olea europaea'' is the type species for the genus ''Olea''. The olive's fruit, also called an "olive", is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil; it is one of the core ingredients in Mediterranean cuisine. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilac, jasmine, forsythia, and the true ash tree. Thousands of cultivars of the olive tree are known. Olive cultivars may be used primarily for oil, eating, or both. Olives cultivated for consumption are gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a book or through-storyline (vaudeville, cabarets, circuses) may be represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). The AEA works to negotiate and provide performers and stage managers quality living conditions, livable wages, and benefits. A theater or production that is not produced and performed by personnel who are members of the AEA may be known as "non-Equity". Background Leading up to the Actors' and Producers' strike of 1929, Hollywood and California in general, had a series of workers' equality battles that directly influenced the film industry. The films ''The Passaic Textile Strike'' (1926), ''The Miners' Strike'' (1928) and ''The Gastonia Textile Strike'' (1929), gave audience and producers insight into the effect and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
