Theresa Helburn, and
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
all of whom taught different acting approaches such as
Stanislavski
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Soviet Russian t ...
's “
method acting
Method acting, informally known as The Method, is a range of training and rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, u ...
” and Piscator's “objective acting”. Among other theatre schools and companies, the Dramatic Workshop played a vital role in paving the way for
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...
theatre.
Encouraged through a successful Piscator Symposium at the New School for Social Research in 1987, since that year, "the New School has regularly offered 'Dramatic Workshop Two,' often taught by Judith Malina, Piscator's student and co-founder of the Living Theatre".
[Barbara Elling: Theater as the Conscience of Society: Erwin Piscator’s “Interim Achievement”. In: ''Playing for Stakes: German-Language Drama in Social Context''. Edited by Anna K. Kuhn and Barbara D. Wright. Oxford/Providence, USA: Berg, 1994, p. 102] The workshop series was later discontinued.
Productions (selection)
*March 10, 1940 – ''
Saint Joan'' (author:
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
;
Belasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 a ...
,
Washington, D.C.)
*March 11, 1942 – ''
Nathan the Wise
''Nathan the Wise'' (original German title: ', ) is a play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing from 1779. It is a fervent plea for religious tolerance. It was never performed during Lessing's lifetime and was first performed in 1783 at the Döbbelinsch ...
'' (
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the develop ...
; Studio Theatre und
Belasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 a ...
, New York)
*May 20, 1942 – ''
War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'' (
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, adaptation by
Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator; Studio Theatre)
*November 28, 1942 – ''Winter Soldiers'' (Dan James; Studio Theatre)
*September 4, 1944 – ''The Last Stop'' (Irving Kaye Davis;
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theater at 241 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1928, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles ...
, New York)
*April 17, 1947 – ''
The Flies
''The Flies'' (french: Les Mouches) is a play by Jean-Paul Sartre, produced in 1943. It is an adaptation of the Electra myth, previously used by the Greek playwrights Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides.
The play recounts the story of Orestes an ...
'' (
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...
; President Theatre, New York)
*January 17, 1948 – ''
All the King's Men
''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U ...
'' (
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the lit ...
; President Theatre)
*March 1, 1949 – ''
Outside the Door'' (
Wolfgang Borchert
Wolfgang Borchert (; 20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947) was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the '' Wehrmacht'' during the Second World War. His work is among ...
; President Theatre)
*September 16, 1949 - The Burning Bush (Géza Herczeg, Heinz Herald; Rooftop Theatre, New York)
Literature
* Thomas George Evans (1968). ''Piscator in the American Theatre. New York, 1939–1951''. University of Wisconsin Press, Ann Arbor.
*
Maria Ley-Piscator
Maria Ley-Piscator (born Friederike Flora Czada, 1 August 1898 – 14 October 1999) is best known as the wife of Erwin Piscator (1893–1966), Germany's famous left-wing theater director. Born on 1 August 1898 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austri ...
(1967, ³1979). ''The Piscator Experiment. The Political Theatre.'' James H. Heineman, New York.
* Judith Malina (2012). ''The Piscator Notebook''. Routledge Chapman & Hall, London. .
* Gerhard F. Probst (1991). ''Erwin Piscator and the American Theatre''. Peter Lang, New York, San Francisco, Berne etc.
*
Peter M. Rutkoff (1986). Politics on Stage. Piscator and the Dramatic Workshop. In: Peter M. Rutkoff, William B. Scott. ''New School: a History of the New School for Social Research'', pp. 172–195. Macmillan, New York.
* Ilka Saal (2007). Broadway and the Depoliticization of Epic Theatre: The Case of Erwin Piscator. In: J. Chris Westgate (ed.). ''Brecht. Broadway and United States Theatre'', pp. 45–71. Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle.
* Klaus Wannemacher (2018). Moving Theatre Back to the Spotlight: Erwin Piscator’s Later Stage Work. In: David Barnett (ed.). ''The Great European Stage Directors. Vol. 2. Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht'', pp. 91–129. Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama), London etc. .
*
John Willett (1978). Erwin Piscator: New York and the Dramatic Workshop 1939–1951, pp. 3–16. ''
Performing Arts Journal
''PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art'', originally ''Performing Arts Journal'', is a triannual academic journal of the arts that was established in 1976 by Gautam Dasgupta and Bonnie Marranca, who still is the editor-in-chief. It has taken a p ...
'', Vol. 2, No. 3.
links
The School of Drama at The New SchoolCourse catalogs of the Dramatic Workshop of the New School
References
{{authority control
Performing arts education in the United States
Drama schools in the United States
Defunct drama schools
Defunct private universities and colleges in New York City
Educational institutions established in 1940
1940 establishments in New York City
Educational institutions disestablished in 1967
1967 disestablishments in New York (state)