The New Theatre League was a group of theatre professionals working in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. A successor to the League of Workers' Theatres (of the U.S.A.), the New Theatre League existed between 1935 and 1942. It published ''New Theatre'', which was renamed ''Theatre and Film'' and then ''New Theatre News''.
History
The New Theatre League had its genesis in the workers' theatre movement,
whose umbrella organisation was in the mid-1930s the League of Workers' Theatres (of U.S.A.).
The New Theatre League was a
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
federation of
little theatres and
amateur theatrical groups, whose productions were aimed at addressing political issues of the day. It ran the New Theatre School and Theatre Workshop, a training school that used the
Stanislavsky Method for educating actors,
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
s,
playwrights, and
stage managers.
[
New Theatre League productions included ]Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...
's '' Bury the Dead'', and Marc Blitzstein's ''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 ...
''.[
]
Artists
Theatre professionals who worked with the League included:[
* Leonard Bernstein
* Bertolt Brecht
*]Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...
*Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz (; October 28, 1908 – April 26, 1985) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their invo ...
*John Garfield
John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
*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 ...
Publications
'' Workers Theatre'' had been published irregularly since April 1931, originally by the International Workers Dramatic Union and the League of Workers Theatres of the U.S.A., until around 1933.
Its history is complicated,[ but ''New Theatre'' began in 1934, was then published by the New Theatre League. It was renamed ''Theatre and Film'' to reflect a broadened focus, effective with the start of volume 4 in March 1937. Sometime before November 1939 it became ''New Theatre News''.][
]
References
Further reading
*{{cite book , last=Cherne , first=Margaret Beth , title=Techniques for changing the world : the League of Workers Theatres / New Theatre League , website=MINDS@UW Home , date=2 June 2014 , url=https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/69044 }
PDF
External links
"Theatre Thursday: New Theatre Magazine and the Workers’ Theatre Movement"
by Zachary Grewe
Workers' Theatre Movement: USSR, Germany, Britain
(Encyclopedia.com)
1935 establishments in New York City
1942 disestablishments in New York (state)
Theatre in New York City
Political theatre