Found 5 collections related to Actors Studio (New York, N.Y.)

Bessie Breuer (1893-1975) was a journalist, novelist, short story writer and playwright whose only produced play, SUNDOWN BEACH (1948), was one of the first efforts of the Actors Studio. After an early career in journalism as reporter and editor, Breuer began publishing short stories and, in 1935, her first novel, MEMORY OF LOVE. During World War II she wrote radio scripts for the Office of War Information. After the war a health crisis compelled Breuer to go south to recover, and in Florida she met the recuperating Air Force fliers who became the central figures of her play SUNDOWN BEACH. In later years Breuer continued to write novels. She died in New York City in September 1975 at the age of 81. The Bessie Breuer papers consist of documents concerning the Broadway run of Breuer's play SUNDOWN BEACH, which opened at the Belasco Theatre on Sep. 7, 1948, and closed on the 11th after seven performances. Directed by Elia Kazan, SUNDOWN BEACH marked the first Broadway venture of the newly-formed Actors' Studio. The cast featured several young actors who went on to notable careers, including Julie Harris, Cloris Leachman, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff, and Phyllis Thaxter. The play concerned the rehabilitation of World War II fliers suffering from combat trauma. Despite some public support, the play received mostly negative reviews and closed in less than a week. Much of the Bessie Breuer collection consists of letters offering emotional support in the wake of the production's failure. Among the correspondents are writers John Dos Passos and Stark Young, as well as Julie Harris. There are also several typed pages of notes from Breuer to director Elia Kazan, apparently written during the play's rehearsal process; Kazan's replies to Breuer are pencilled in the margins. less

David Garfield is a New York City-based actor, author, and professor who has been a member of the Actors Studio since 1970, and who wrote a history of the Studio called The Actors Studio: A Player's Place. The Actors Studio is a theater workshop for professional actors founded in New York City in 1947. This collection contains material that reflect Garfield's dual role as both researcher and participant and contains material generated by the Actors Studio, the Group Theater, and material collected by Garfield through his research. less

Walt Witcover (1924-2013) was a director and acting teacher who worked primarily in New York City. He founded the Masterworks Laboratory Theatre (MLT) company in 1969 after staging a modern revival of La Traviata (Act I) with the Actors Studio in 1968. The collection, dated from 1926 to 2011, illustrates Witcover's fifty-year theatre career via correspondence, scripts, director's notes, class outlines, published and unpublished writings, and photography. less