| HAROLD CLURMAN: A LIFE OF THEATRE |
1988 (released on video in 1993) | Directed by Alan Kaplan |
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Narrated by Meryl Streep, this documentary features moving recollections by Julie Harris, Karl Malden, Roy Scheider, Elia Kazan, and Arthur
Miller attest to the man's profound influence on modern American theater. Numerous archival
clips of Clurman himself capture the intensity of this evangelist of modern theater.
Clurman was one of the driving forces - along with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford - behind
the Group Theatre, which stunned audiences from the Depression to World War II with realistic,
socially relevant dramas that never had been seen on the American stage. The roster of those
who made up this company is a roll call of the great actors (Stella and Luther Adler, John
Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Morris Carnovsky), playwrights (Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley), and
directors (Elia Kazan, Bobby Lewis) of the era. The plays that emerged from this talent--"Awake
and Sing," "Waiting for Lefty," "Golden Boy," "Men in White"--still are regarded as classics.
After the demise of the Group Theatre in 1941, Clurman remained a force on and off Broadway,
directing wherever there was a stage and a play to mount on it. He insisted--usually at the
top of his lungs, arms flailing, and bursting with energy--that what the theater needed was
more bad plays, since they were the manure that made good plays grow. Kazan, playwright Arthur
Miller, and actors Roy Schieder and Karl Malden are among those who testify to Clurman's genius
in interviews interspersed through this video. However, Clurman dominates this documentary in
footage showing him directing, teaching, lecturing, and being honored by his peers. As this
video's title indicates, his truly was a life of theater.
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