Theatre Guild

Established in New York City in 1918, and initially administered by a board of managers, the Theatre Guild was for the greater part of its history co-directed by Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn, with Langner’s wife, Armina Marshall Langner, serving several administrative roles. Throughout the twentieth century the Theatre Guild was instrumental in improving the quality of American theatre, introducing audiences to new playwrights and forms of dramatic writing, stagecraft, and musical theatre, and broadcasting innovative drama through radio and television.

From the guide to the Theatre Guild archive, 1918-1996, 1930-1960, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Langner and Helburn were co-directors of the Theatre Guild, based in New York City; Munsell was the business manager. The Theatre Guild produced 3 plays by Werfel on Broadway: Juarez and Maximilian (1926); Embezzled Heaven (1944-1945); and Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944-1945).

Originally established in 1919, the Theatre Guild began as an independent theatrical production company dedicated to developing new American works, as well as to bringing the best of contemporary British and European drama to New York audiences.

From 1919 through 1939, a governing board principally composed of six key members (Theresa Helburn, Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Lee Simonson, Maurice Wertheim, and Helen Westley) guided the operations of the Guild. Among the many highlights of these years were productions of works by American playwrights, including Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Sidney Howard, Eugene O'Neill, and Robert E. Sherwood. During this period, the Guild also presented the world premieres of several plays by George Bernard Shaw and became his American agent. In its earliest days, however, the Guild relied mainly upon works by European writers, commissioning translations or adaptations of plays by such diverse authors as Karel Capek, Henrik Ibsen, and Ferenc Molnár. During the 1930s, internal division within the Guild led to the development of competing, splinter groups, such as the Group Theatre and The Playwrights' Company, and, ultimately, the reorganization of the Guild itself. By 1939, the Theatre Guild had become a leaner organization, with Langner and Helburn replacing the board and now functioning as co-directors. Buoyed by the financial success of the musical, Oklahoma! (1943), the Guild would begin several initiatives during the 1940s to reach a broader audience. Among these efforts were the implementation of a national subscription theater service and the regular broadcast of a radio program, The Theatre Guild on the Air (1945). In 1953, the radio program was transformed into a television show, The United States Steel Hour. This prize-winning anthology series was broadcast for twelve seasons. During the 1960s, the Guild grew increasingly involved with international touring and became a pioneer in arranging travel tours for its subscribers. By the 1970s, however, the Guild rarely produced any shows for the Broadway theater, although its corporate identity continued to exist in some form. In 1975, it launched the Theatre At Sea cruises, an annual offering, which continues to the present day.