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The Group Theatre , a groundbreaking ensemble collective, started the careers of many top American theatre artists of the twentieth century and founded what became known as Method Acting. This book is the definitive history, based on over thirty years of research and interviews by the foremost theatre scholar of the time period, Helen Chinoy.

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Introduction: A Cautionary Tale PART I: PEOPLE 1. The Chosen Ones 2. Summertime and the Living is Collective PART II: PERFORMANCE 3. Early Rehearsals 4. Early Classes 5. Lee Strasberg: Artist of the Theater 6. Strasberg versus Adler 7. Testing the Theatrical 8. Harold Clurman: Author of the Stage Production 9. Odets in Clurman´s Theater PART III: POLITICS 10. Art That Shoots Bullets 11. Pro Unit is Pro Group 12. Premature Feminists and the Boys 13. Organization, Angels, and Audiences 14. Who is the Group Theater? Epilogue: Survival of an Idea

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"Elicit[s] fresh insights and convey[s] the flavor of the company´s lofty goals, day-to-day realities, and sometimes fractious interpersonal relationships to an extent not hitherto available . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers." - CHOICE

"A comprehensive and informative look at The Group . . . I gladly recommend this new book to [people interested in The Group Theatre]." - Playbill.com

"Chinoy´s impressive theory coheres to illustrate how the company strived to live up to the ´Group Idea´. the admirable but vague notion that theatre should lyrically speak to the range of cultural and political experiences of American life - an obsession that Chinoy calls a ´cautionary tale ´. . . After all, it took a spectrum of experiences and values to build ´the most important experiment in American theatre´." - Theatre Survey

"The venerable Helen Krich Chinoy passed away prior to completing her work on the Group Theatre . . . But Don Wilmeth and Milly Barranger have done an admirable job with the monumental task of making certain that Chinoy´s groundbreaking research saw the light of publication. The published result is . . . richly textured in its analysis and one where the author´s voice is allowed to flow free." - Theatre Journal

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Helen Krich Chinoy became one of our most distinguished American theater scholars and devoted over three decades to her study of the Group Theatre. This was a natural extension of a number of earlier projects, including the seminal Actors on Acting (1949) and Directors on Directing (1953), both still in print and co-edited with Toby Cole, and Women in American Theatre (1981), edited with Linda Walsh Jenkins. A Columbia University PhD, Helen spent most of her career at Smith College, USA. After her retirement, she held the Hoffman Eminent Scholar Chair in Theatre at Florida State University and the Harold Clurman Professorship at Hunter College, USA. In 1989 the Association for Theatre in Higher Education awarded her its Career Achievement Award.

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