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The 1940s
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“At the Cherry Lane we made our initial statements.”
-Julian Beck, The Living Theatre
1949
Yes Is For A Very Young Man
by Gertrude Stein
directed by Lamont Johnson
with Anthony Franciosa, Kim Stanley, Michael Vincent Gazzo, Beatrice Arthur, Jane Moutrie,
Leola Le Sand, A.L. Dreiblatt, and Gene Saks.
Sets designed by EDWIN WITTSTEIN
Costumes designed by MARLIN MACLINTOCK
Produced by OFF BROADWAY INC
Once Around the Block
by William Saroyan
directed by Ted Flicker
with Larry Hagman
Bourgeois Gentleman
by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Molière
1948
Golden Boy
by Clifford Odets
preformed by the Dramatic Workshop of the New School
with Tony Curtis in the lead role.
It was during this production that Tony Curtis was discovered by a scout from Universal Pictures who subsequently signed him with the famed movie studio, marking the beginning of his legendary Hollywood career.
Angel Street (revival)
by Patrick Hamilton
1947
Gas
by Georg Kaiser
directed by Irv Stiber
with Beatrice Arthur, Jerry Stiller, Ellen Green, Gene Saks, Norman Howard
Choreography by Bert Prensky
presented by The Interplayers
Ive and Nancy Stiber producers
The Dog Beneath the Skin
by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood
with Beatrice Arthur, Jerry Stiller, Kim Stanley Melvin Silbersher and Lynne Rogers
presented by The Interplayers,
Irv and Nancy Stiber, producers
Henry IV
by Luigi Pirandello
staged by Alexis Solomos
settings by Bob Ramsey
lighting by Hallie Wooldridge
stage manager Jackie Hitchcock
with Michael Mear, Walter Witcover, Louis Criss, George Joseph, Victor Jonston, Henry Prosch, Claire Ramsay, Linda Rhodes, Kochast Sayers, Glenn McCausland, Edward Hussey, Jean Saks
presented by Onstage
Al Hurwitz and Bob Ramsey producers
The Watched Pot
by Saki (a nom de plume for H.H. Munro)
staged by Walter Mullen
settings by Bob Ramsey
with Elsie Clauss, Kchast Sayers, Ellen Green, Genevieve Griffin, Barbara Long, Walter Mullen, Jan Kindler, Olivia, Jean Saks, Ian Campbell, David Perkins
presented by Onstage
Al Hurwitz and Bob Ramsey producers
Life Sentence
by Philip Van Dyke.
staged by Marjorie Hildreth
with Anne Farrell, John Fitzgerald, Tom Long, Barry Rawlins, Edith West, Earl Booth, Barbara Long, Margaret Gillespie, Peter shortell, Charles Mason, Walter Mullen, Jim Cronan, John Fisher, Joe Sullivan, Bill Kennevan, Kenneth Dobbs, Gordon Sterne, Susan Ward, David F. Perkins, Ian Campbell, Pat Basch, Lella Ruggeri, Milner DeVore and Olivia
scenic design by Bob Ramsey
Costume Design by Jackie Hitchcock
presented by Onstage
Al Hurwitz and Bob Ramsey producers
1946
The Spur
In 1946 two students at the Yale School of Drama, Carmen Capalbo and Leo Lieberman, created their own company, The Spur, and staged four productions at Cherry Lane before the finances ran out. Mr Capalbo went on to direct the Off-Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera (one of the highest grossing OB plays of all time), and the Broadway premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s Moon for the Misbegotten. Mr. Lieberman later became a screenwriter, one of his biggest hits being Bonzo Goes to College, and two films with the notorious Roger Corman.
Shadow And Substance
by Paul Vincent Carroll
directed by Carmen Capalbo
Dear Brutus
by Sir James Barrie
directed by Leo Lieberman
Awake And Sing!
by Clifford Odets
directed by Leo Lieberman
Juno And The Paycock
by Sean O'Casey
directed by Carmen Capalbo
(from the top: Sean O’Casey, Paul Vincent Carroll, Clifford Odets, Sean O’Casey, Carmen Capalbo)
1945
Hedgerow Theatre Co.
The HEDGEROW THEATRE was founded by Jasper Deeter. In 1945, with the Pennsylvania countryside roads closed by the heavy winter snows and with sufficient gasoline unavailable even when they were open, the worthy little band of players emigrated to New York to display their wares in more commodious surroundings and opened in the remote Greenwich Village section of the city on a night that for snow-choked roads and stalled cars was as defeating as any they had experienced in their native Rose Valley.
All the productions were largely of an amateur quality, yet the fundamental spirit and the enterprise of Mr. Dee- ter's organization can not but call upon one's respect. With negligible means at his disposal, he has steadfastly carried on in what he believes to be the better interests of an Amer- ican theatre for more than two decades and, if his achieve- ments have not always been able to compete with the professional stage, they at least have occasionally been worth-while and deserving of a hospitable suspension of too critical judgment.
The Emperor Jones
by Eugene O’Neill
Tomorrow’s Yesterday
by Jack Kinnard
Quintin Quintana
by Ramon Naya
Thunder On the Left
by Jean Black, based on the Christopher Morley novel
*excerpt above from “The Theatre Book of the Year 1944-1945” ~ by George Jean Nathan
photos: lft: Jasper Deeter, rt: playwright Ramon Naya
Art and Mrs. Bottle:
Or, The Return of the Puritan
by Benn W. Levy
1942
Savoy Opera Guild
consisting of… Lewis Denison, Vivian Denison, Donald Marsh Denison, Helen Denison, Alma G. Watson, Charles Kingsley, Ruth Giorloff, Sylvia Cyde, Seymour Penzer, Harry Franklin, Arthur Lief, Virginia Orr, Diana Grey, Lloyd Harris, Walt Witcover
H.M.S. Pinafore
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
The Mikado
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Pirates Of Penzanze
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
The Gondoliers
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Patience
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Yeomen of the Guard
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Ruddigore
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Iolanthe
by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
*illustrations of the Savoy Opera Guild at Cherry Lane Theatre by Al Hirschfeld, which first appeared in the August 23, 1942 issue of the The New York Times; page one of section eight