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Playwrights' Company
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- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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{{Short description|Former American theatrical production company}}File:Playwrights-Company-1938.jpg|thumb|Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Robert E. Sherwood and Elmer RiceElmer RiceThe Playwrights Company (1938â1960) was an American theatrical production company.- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
History
Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Sidney Howard, Elmer Rice, Robert E. Sherwood and John F. Wharton established The Playwrights Company in 1938 (incorporated as The Playwrights Producing Company on July 1, 1938) to produce all works of the founding playwrights. Anderson had been frustrated with Broadway producers as well as drama critics, stating the goal of the company would be "to make a center for ourselves within the theatre and possibly rally the theatre as a whole to new levels by setting a high standard of writing and production". The founders had been unhappy with the policies of the Theatre Guild which had previously been their main producer. Initial backers included Governor Averell Harriman, publisher Dorothy Schiff, actor Raymond Massey and CBS President William Paley. Business Manager Victor Samrock, who served, in effect, as the companyâs co-producer, was an initial shareholder as was their press representative William Fields. Playwright Robert Anderson (no relation to Maxwell), producer Roger L. Stevens and Kurt Weill joined later. The company was dissolved in 1960 as only two founders were still alive, Behrman (who had already left) and Rice.The Playwrights' first effort was Sherwoodâs Abe Lincoln in Illinois, about the life of the 16th President. Starring Raymond Massey, it opened on Broadway on October 15, 1938 and was an immediate success, eventually winning Sherwood his second Pulitzer Prize and confirming the promise that The Playwrights Company would become a major force in the American theatre in the coming decades.Other early successes included Knickerbocker Holiday, a musical by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill directed by Joshua Logan and starring Walter Huston, who sang the classic ballad "September Song"; Behrmanâs No Time for Comedy, starring Katharine Cornell and Laurence Olivier; Andersonâs drama about honor and conscience, Key Largo, starring Paul Muni and Uta Hagen; There Shall Be No Night, Sherwoodâs third Pulitzer-prize winner about the Russian invasion of Finland, which starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and a young Montgomery Clift; Andersonâs The Eve of St. Mark; and The Patriots by Sidney Kingsley, the first play written by someone outside the company.In 1945, The Playwrights' Company brought Spencer Tracy, at the height of his movie career, to Broadway in Sherwoodâs The Rugged Path. Sherwood prevailed upon President Roosevelt, for whom he was serving as speechwriter and Director of the War Information Office, to grant a short leave to Army Captain Garson Kanin so he could direct. The play suffered in out-of-town tryouts, however, and disappointed critics at its November opening on Broadway. Despite early success because of Tracyâs name, it closed after 81 performances. In December, 1945, Elmer Riceâs comedy Dream Girl opened. It starred Riceâs wife Betty Field (later replaced by June Havoc) and became another Playwrights' success. A 1946 summer stock version with Lucille Ball, the film star and television's future Lucy, played to huge crowds.Additional notable Playwrights' productions in the 1940s included Joan of Lorraine, which introduced Broadway audiences to Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc; Street Scene, a musical by Elmer Rice, Kurt Weill and poet Langston Hughes based on Rice's 1930s play about America's poor; the historical drama Anne of the Thousand Days starring Rex Harrison as Henry VIII (directed by H. C. Potter); the Rouben Mamoulian-directed Lost in the Stars; Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weillâs adaptation of the distinguished South African novel âCry The Beloved Countryâ and the first major musical to deal with racism; Sherwood and Irving Berlinâs Miss Liberty (Moss Hart directed), which was a modest financial success, primarily because Berlin purchased the film rights himself in order to keep unblemished the record that his shows never lost money; and Maxwell Andersonâs drama Truckline Cafe, co-produced with Elia Kazan and its director Harold Clurman, which was a failure except for the career-establishing, standout performance by a new young actor, Marlon Brando.By 1950, The Playwrights Company was beginning to see the effects of company changes that had occurred throughout the â40s. While Kurt Weill had joined as a member several years earlier, Sidney Howard had died, S.N. Behrman had resigned and Sherwood, while the ostensible leader since Howardâs death, had no original play produced since 1945. Anderson and Rice would be unable to meet with any success in the early â50s despite several attempts. In 1951, attempting to breathe new financial life into the company, The Playwrightsâ accepted as a new member, Roger L. Stevens, a successful real estate financier from the Midwest who was interested in the theatre. Stevens forged affiliations with Robert Whitehead, an eminent producer and Robert Dowling, a real estate mogul. While the new arrangements would reduce the companyâs expenses it would also cut into their profits; but they forged ahead with more productions of non-member dramatists.âThe Fourposter,â Jan de Hartogâs two-character comedy about love and marriage starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, was one such a production; with 632 performances and a subsequent 42 -week national tour, it was to become a big hit after its opening on Broadway in 1951. The show perhaps âsaved The Playwrights Company from extinction,â wrote Sherwood in a response to a thank-you letter Hume Cronyn had sent the company after the showâs first anniversary. âBut what I most like about your letter,â Sherwood went on, âis your recognition that the company is worth saving. The fact that Maxwell Anderson, Elmer Rice and I -- and we were the three actual founders -- have stuck together for 15 years is not so much a tribute to the three of us as to Victor, Bill and John Wharton.â Also presented by The Playwrightsâ in 1951 was âDarkness at Noon,â starring Kim Hunter and Claude Rains, which won playwright Sidney Kingsley a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.The hands-down most promising of the outside dramatists was Robert Anderson whose first major play âTea and Sympathyâ won him membership in the company as soon as the company read it. âTea and Sympathyâ opened in 1953 and became The Playwrights Companyâs longest running show (more than 2 1/2 years).Other â50s pivotal Playwrightsâ productions were Sam Taylorâs âSabrina Fairâ starring Joseph Cotten and Margaret Sullavan (and directed by H.C. Potter); Jean Giraudouxâs âOndine,â starring Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn directed by Alfred Lunt; Andersonâs âThe Bad Seedâ which starred Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack; Tennessee Williamsâ Tony and Drama Critics Circle Award-winning âCat on A Hot Tin Roof,â starring Barbara Bel Geddes, Ben Gazzara and Burl Ives, directed by Kazan; âTime Rememberedâ starring Richard Burton, Helen Hayes and Susan Strasberg; âThe Pleasure of His Companyâ by Sam Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner starring Cyril Ritchard, Miss Skinner and George Peppard; and Peter Shafferâs âFive Finger Exercise,â starring Jessica Tandy and Juliet Mills.The Companyâs last play was Gore Vidalâs contemporary political drama âThe Best Man,â starring Melvyn Douglas, Lee Tracy and Frank Lovejoy, which opened in March, 1960. Tracking a modern presidential election campaign not unlike the real-life one of that year, the play ran 520 performances. During its early run, candidate John F. Kennedy attended a performance and paid the cast a visit backstage.BOOK, Wharton, John F.,weblink Life among the playwrights : being mostly the story of the Playwrights' Producing Company, inc., 1974, Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co, 0-8129-0442-7, New York, 1175750, NEWS, Gelder, Lawrence Van, 1995-10-04, Victor Samrock, 88, Business Manager In New York Theater, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2021-04-05, 0362-4331,Award
After Howard's death, the four surviving members of the group created the Sidney Howard Memorial Award in his memory. The $1,500 award was created as a way to encourage new playwrights; to be eligible, one had to have at least one play produced on Broadway in a given season after having little previous success.NEWS, 16 Matinees Today; Dowling's New Play; New Prize for Plays,weblink Daily News, January 1, 1940, New York, New York City, 35, Newspapers.com, August 24, 2018, {{Open access}}Notable productions
- Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938)
- Knickerbocker Holiday (1938)
- American Landscape (1938)
- No Time for Comedy (1939)
- Key Largo (1939)
- Two On An Island (1940)
- There Shall Be No Night (1940)
- Journey to Jerusalem (1940)
- Flight to the West (1940)
- The Talley Method (1941)
- Candle in the Wind (1941)
- The Eve of St. Mark (1942)
- The Pirate (1942)
- The Patriots (1943)
- A New Life (1943)
- Storm Operation (1944)
- The Rugged Path (1945)
- Dream Girl (1945)
- Truckline Cafe (1946)
- Joan of Lorraine (1946)
- Street Scene (1947)
- Anne of the Thousand Days (1948)
- The Smile of the World (1949)
- Lost in the Stars (1949)
- Darkness at Noon (1951)
- Not for Children (1951)
- The Fourposter (1951)
- Barefoot in Athens (1951)
- The Grand Tour (1951)
- Mr. Pickwick (1952)
- The Emperor's Clothes (1953)
- Tea and Sympathy (1953)
- Sabrina Fair(1953)
- In the Summer House (1953)
- The Winner (1954)
- Ondine (1954)
- All Summer Long (1954)
- The Traveling Lady (1954)
- The Bad Seed (1954)
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
- Once Upon A Tailor (1955)
- The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (1955)
- Tiger at the Gates (1955)
- The Ponder Heart (1956)
- The Lovers (1956)
- Small War on Murray Hill (1957)
- Time Remembered (1957)
- Nude With Violin (1957)
- The Rope Dancers (1957)
- The Country Wife (1957)
- Summer of the 17th Doll (1958)
- Present Laughter (1958)
- Howie (1958)
- Handful of Fire (1958)
- The Pleasure of His Company (1958)
- Edwin Booth (1958)
- Cue for Passion (1958)
- The Gazebo (1958)
- Look After Lulu! (1959)
- Juno (1959)
- Cherie (1959)
- Flowering Cherry (1959)
- Five Finger Exercise (1959)
- Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959)
- The Best Man (1960)
References
{{Reflist}}External links
{{Commons category|Playwrights' Company}}- {{IBDB name|20726}}
- Playwrights' Company records, 1938-1960, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Playwrights' Company records, 1938-1961 at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
- Victor Samrock papers, 1929-1986, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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- "Playwrights' Company" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
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