Real Life Drama, The Group Theatre and America, 1931-1940

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Near Fine condition in a Near Fine dust jacket. Not price clipped ($24.95). Clean, square, tight, unmarked. Not a book club edition. No owner's name or bookplate. Not a remainder. From the dust jacket: "Into the turbulent decade of the Depression was born a theatrical company that revolutionized American arts. With Wendy Smith's Real Life Drama, the Group Theatre comes to life once again in a vivid narrative that reveals how this incomparably influential troupe opened a new frontier of dramatic subjects and techniques as they struggled to survive pressures from within and without. For the Group Theatre's founders - Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, and Cheryl Crawford - "real life" was precisely what was lacking on the American stage. With their meticulously rehearsed and ardent performers and their politically-charged ambitions, they aimed to turn theatre - and audiences - away from frivolous amusement toward the most urgent social and moral issues of the day. In plays that for the first time dramatized the lives of immigrants and workers, and made theatre available to a public previously excluded by exorbitant Broadway ticket prices, the Group demonstrated that, in Smith's words, 'theatre could bring people together and make them whole.' Her account brilliantly shows how playwrights like Clifford Odets were nurtured and made famous by the Group, and why audiences were enthralled... [Using] methods adapted by Lee Strasberg from the teachings of Stanislavsky, as well as special training in movement, vocal control, and dance, the Group transformed acting technique, bringing to the American stage an unprecedented emotional realism and psychological depth. Smith offers a shrewd and affectionate assessment of unforgettable performances by Luther Adler, Morris Carnovsky, Franchot Tone, and others; and she casts new light on how Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, and other legendary teachers influenced succeeding generations of great American actors, including Brando, DeNiro, Newman, and Pacino... Smith dramatizes the company's everyday life in its unvarnished reality: tight finances, bad meals, grueling rehearsals. The love affairs, rivalries, and colliding egos of its great figures are presented with the same humanistic vigor that inspired the Group itself... Smith chronicles the painful crises that regularly afflicted the Group; examines the effect of the members' politics - communist or not - on the Group's destiny; and offers perceptive interpretations of their collaborative efforts. In the end, the Group Theatre came apart, but no one ever forgot the extraordinary seasons in which it had functioned against all odds." List of chapter notes. Bibliography. Index. Bound in the original blue-cloth backed blue boards. Complete with dust jacket.. First Printing of the First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine condition/Near Fine dust jacket. 8vo. xi, 482pp + 16 pages of photos. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.